British Airways Tells Cabin Crew Not to Check In Bags As Heathrow Luggage Faliure Stretches Into Second Day

British Airways has told pilots and cabin crew not to check in any luggage at its London Heathrow hub after a fault impacted the baggage handling system at Terminal 5 on Monday.

Check-in had to be stopped altogether for a brief period on Monday, and on Tuesday, the airport said that overnight works to fix the fault had failed to establish the root cause of the issue.

In response to a build-up of delayed baggage, Heathrow has been forced to open its so-called Baggage Recovery Facility – a temporary set up of tents on the outskirts of Terminal 5 where bags have to be manually resorted and then rerouted to their intended destination.

In a memo to staffers, British Airways warned aircrew that they should avoid checking in any luggage as the risk of them getting to their destination without their bags was too high.

If the crew did still decide to check in any bags, the airline warned them to pack essential uniform items and a spare set of clothing in their carry-on luggage.

In an internal update, Heathrow Airport said on Tuesday that it was still working on “what can be done” to fix the fault, saying that it had brought in additional workers to help manually sort through delayed luggage.

Thankfully, the latest fault to hit Terminal 5’s problem-prone baggage handling system isn’t as bad as a technical failure in June when some British Airways flights had to be delayed because the backlog of checked-in bags got to a critical level.

At the time, passengers complained of waiting for hours to collect their bags from the carousel, while British Airways eventually told frustrated customers to go home and wait for their bags to be delivered at a later date.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says that passengers are able to claim back the cost of “bare essentials” that they might need to buy if their luggage is delayed. These include “essential” toiletries, underwear, and even laundry costs, although passengers should be warned that an airline is unlikely to cover all the costs if you are returning home.

Airlines will also usually courier delayed baggage to an address of your choice for free.

British Airways is one of 15 major international airlines that is working with Apple to integrate its AirTag and ‘Find My’ products into its lost luggage tracking system.

Passengers who have hidden an AirTag in their luggage will soon be able to use a new ‘Share Item Location’ feature that will allow participating airlines to track the lost luggage on a live map, hopefully making the process of reuniting delayed bags with their owners a lot quicker.

Other airlines that plan to integrate the ‘Share Item Location’ feature into their mishandled baggage processes include Delta and United Airlines, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Virgin Atlantic.

AirTags work by transmitting a unique identifier via an inbuilt Bluetooth signal. The signal is sent to nearby Apple iPhones, which send the location information to Apple. The owner of the AirTag can then trace the gadget’s last known location via the ‘Find My’ app on their phone.