British Arseways – continuing saga

Monday morning, I arrived at the airport early at 4.30am, as advised by BA Enquiries.

Swissport desk is open, along with the likes of Jet2 and various other airlines. But no BA rep at Swissport desk. “Oh, he does not come in until 5:30am”.

About 5.40am, the same girl who told us there’s no BA rep until 5.30am, dealt with us and revalidate our tickets. I was not going to make a fuss, grateful that I got a ticket.

Checked in, confirmed that my luggage is to remain airside while I make a connection flight from Heathrow.

Gate opens on time, all of us got on the plane on time, but we weren’t moving. I don’t know the reasons, I guess it was fog or something. It just gone past 8am, my connecting flight at Heathrow takes off just after 9am. I thought I’m not going to make it as it takes around an hour to get to Heathrow. Then one of the BA staff came up to me and said “Mr Sterry, I understand you got a connection at Heathrow for Tripoli. You’ll be happy to know that this very plane is bound for Tripoli after landing at Heathrow, so you will not miss your connection!”.

Got at Heathrow, and was told by the BA staff I have to go via Flight Connections and come back, rather than wait at the gate. As I completed the route, I was back to where I started without needing to show a ticket to anyone except the gate staff. What a pointless run-around the airport.

My ticket was rejected at the gate, and I thought, here we go again. I was put aside, and made to wait while the staff ran off to do something. He came back and put me on board.

Arrived at Tripoli, all went smoothly as it could be expected at Tripoli airport except my luggage never turned up. Bloomin’ great. BA rep at Tripoli was nowhere to be seen, so I went to the general lost and found office, and annoyed the Libyan staff who gestured I should speak to the BA rep adjacent to their office but I tried to say no one is there. Eventually they managed to bring over the BA rep and I dutily filled in a missing luggage form. Now lets see how long British Arseway can bring their arse together.

Thanks once again, British Arseways.

Addendum:

A day after this post, BBC News online published an article saying how BA is the worst of European airlines for lost luggage last year: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6524639.stm

Update:

I got my luggage two days after landing, intact with a “Rush” tag. It appears it got left behind at Heathrow during the connection. I suspect that because the Necastle plane was late, and it was due for Tripoli, they rushed to get all the luggage off and dump it in the baggage hall to satisfy late passengers.