Travellers have described “complete chaos” that “ruined” their holidays after major issues blighted Heathrow airport overnight, leaving passengers to face hours of delays with many forced to go home without their luggage.
Britain’s busiest airport said late Tuesday night that passengers travelling from Terminal 5 “may be impacted” after an IT fault with British Airways‘ allocation systems.
But some passengers reported wider issues including being stuck on planes for more than an hour after landing, while others said they waited alongside “thousands” of other passengers to collect baggage from the terminal.
In a statement late Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, Heathrow airport said: “We are supporting British Airways with a technical issue with their allocation system.
“We advise passengers to check with BA before travelling to the airport. BA passengers in Terminal 5 may be impacted and are advised to contact BA for assistance. No other airline is impacted.”
Affected passengers were also sent a text from BA reading: “We’re sorry to inform you that, due to a technical issue with our baggage allocation system at Heathrow, we can’t guarantee that your bags will have travelled with you on your flight today.”
The airline added that it had sent out emails to passengers with more information.
James Creedy, a music agent who flew back from Dubai last night, told i that he waited for almost three hours to collect his luggage at Terminal 5 before he was told by staff to go home as his bags would not be arriving.
The 44-year-old from east London described a “feeling of dread” when he walked to baggage collection to see “thousands” of passengers waiting for their luggage.
“A lot of people were getting angry,” he added.
Mr Creedy said he initially waited for an hour for his luggage to be released onto the collection carousel before he “got word that the whole system which the baggage handlers use had crashed”.
He said was informed that “everything was being done manually” and that there were “apparently 37,000 to 40,000 bags waiting to be distributed”.
The music agent said: “At that point they said to us you could be waiting up to four hours for your bags.”
Mr Creedy explained that he noticed some passengers on flights before him were starting to get their bags. He said he had already waited over an hour and a half and “might as well wait a bit longer”.
“Some of the people on my flight started getting a few bags through, but then they kindly announced that if you hadn’t got your bag at that point you might as well go home because no more bags are coming out.
“So now I’m living off one pair of pants,” he joked.
He said there were people in a “way worse situation” than his as he had spoken to some passengers who were on connecting flights to the United States.
“They have lost their bags, not only for the day in London, but also the onward travel. They have no idea when their bags are going to come to them and where to get them delivered,” he said.
“At least I live here. I can just wait in my house and get it delivered.”
He said he had woken up this morning at his home in east London to find a notification from BA’s app telling him that his bags had been delivered to baggage claim.
“I don’t know where it is now. It was on carousel 9 at some point. But who knows? What a mess.”
Meanwhile, Adam Brewis, from Newcastle, said his plane from Las Vegas was forced to wait for almost an hour on the tarmac amid the chaos last night before passengers were allowed to disembark.
After making his way through connections to then fly home to Newcastle, Mr Brewis said he had heard about the massive delays in collecting luggage but had stuck an Apple AirTag in his bag and knew his bag was at least in the airport.
But as he started boarding his connecting flight, Mr Brewis said it was almost immediately cancelled along with four other planes.
“And that’s when all chaos got unleashed,” he said.
The 27-year-old said he had to wait alongside the other passengers while staff distributed hotel reservations and rebooked flights for tomorrow. But instead of being allocated a hotel nearby he was given a room near Gatwick airport – some 40 miles away. Adam said he worked out he was either going to have to pay almost £80 for a taxi or use a voucher he had been given for a National Express bus.
“They weren’t pointing people to where the bus was. We had no idea where it leaves from or where it [arrives] to in Gatwick. Never been to Gatwick before my life, either, so I don’t know the way around,” he said.
“Bear in mind I’ve been on the go for about 18 hours at this point since leaving Vegas. I said to them I physically cannot get to Gatwick – like my body is exhausted. I just will not make it to Gatwick.”
Instead of travelling to the other airport Tuesday night, Adam said he booked himself into a room at the Radisson Blue at Heathrow, at his own expense of £315, and would later try to claim the money back. Adam said he was also rebooked on a flight early Wednesday morning.
“I got the last room in the Radisson, but when I got to the hotel, I found out that some people that were on [another cancelled] flight actually got given that hotel. So it was kind of like a lottery draw – if it was around Heathrow, or if it was unfortunately the Gatwick ones.”
But making the situation worse, Adam said he was then informed that he wouldn’t be able to get his bag back that evening because it was “lost in the baggage system somewhere”.
Mr Brewis continued: “I woke up [Wednesday] morning, went back to Heathrow and I had no idea where my bag was because [the system] showed that actually I didn’t check a bag in at Las Vegas. When the baggage system went down it deleted any history that I had supposedly ever checked in a bag.”
He said he showed airline staff the AirTag tracker which located his bag as being outside where his cancelled flight to Newcastle should have taken off.
“But they couldn’t do anything with that information. They could only use the information that they have which showed they can’t see the bag,” he explained, adding that they asked him to put in a lost baggage claim.
“Then, eventually, when I got on the plane I could see the AirTag was below us so thankfully it made it on the plane and made it back to Newcastle. So that’s a good news story,” he said.
“It was absolutely the worst experience I’ve ever been through with travelling,” Mr Brewis said, “so I don’t want to repeat it again”.
“It ruined the end of a week’s holiday. I had a great holiday and everything went smoothly. And then I came back and that happens which puts a dampener on it.
Heathrow airport said in an update just after 7am that the IT issue had been resolved but delays are still expected Wednesday morning.
The airport said: “Earlier British Airways experienced a technical issue with their allocation system, this has now been resolved.
“We advise passengers to check with BA before travelling to the airport as BA passengers in Terminal 5 may still be impacted. No other airline is impacted.”
A spokesperson for BA added: “We’ve apologised to those customers who were unable to travel with their luggage due to a temporary technical fault that was outside of our control.
“This issue has been resolved and we’ve brought in additional colleagues to support our teams in getting bags back to our customers as quickly as possible.”
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