If you’ve been "surrounded by airport insanity" in Heathrow's Terminal 5 you’ll appreciate this.
They lost my bags, they lost my wife too… The Guardian reported last week that Terminal 5 is still losing 900 bags per day; travellers on connecting flights have a one in 12 chance of being separated from their luggage. Nice.
Can you beat Heathrow Terminal 5's baggage handlers at their own game?
Put your luggage loading skills to the test with Terminal Panic, an online game that's sweeping through cyberspace.
You control a character - who looks uncannily like Willie Walsh, BA's chief exec - and get challenged to pick up suitcases, take them through a metal detector and place them on a conveyor belt whilst avoiding a barrage of runaway trolleys.
It's not as easy as it sounds! Let us know how if you beat 3 bags in 1 minute (the current iloho PB).
BA admits to problems with seatback on-demand service
Posted by Emma Torry on March 09, 2008 at 10:14 PM
In the last 3 months I've flown Hong Kong - London - Hong Kong three times, each with BA. There's been a problem with my seatback entertainment system on every one of the flights.
Last week, flying from Hong Kong to London, not only did my on-demand system pack up, but the overhead seat light didn't work either so I could neither read nor watch a film.
I headed over to the BA stand at the Berlin ITB to try and get an answer to why this keeps happening.
The Marketing team admitted that BA is having problems on long-haul flights with their new on-demand system, apologised profusely, and left it at that. Great. I've got a 13 hour flight back to Hong Kong with them tomorrow.
Perhaps once Terminal 5 opens later this month they'll get round to fixing their fleet. Has anyone else had the same problems as me?
At long last journos have been granted a preview of the much-hyped Heathrow Terminal 5, British Airways' very own behemoth; it is the largest free standing building in Britain. Associated Press calls it "a gleaming, light and modern building with a five-storey-high wall of windows and a view of Windsor Castle." Bet the Queen is delighted about that.
The new terminal, which cost $8.4 billion, has 112 shops and restaurants and took seven years to build. Serving only BA's passengers, the first flight will leave from the spanking new terminal on 27 March. Hopefully by then they'll be some proper photographs of it.
BA passengers leaving from Heathrow can look forward to x-ray machines that don't require you to remove your shoes (I expect BAA security staff are cherishing that prospect too), high-tech check-in kiosks, flashy lounges (for first class and business passengers) and haute couture shopping.
Over 30 million passengers are expected to pass through the terminal every year, their bags dealt with at a rate of 12,000 per hour at 140 check-in desks. As The Daily Mirror points out, 68 million people travel through Heathrow every year at the moment. It was designed for 45 million passengers
The Guardian calls the terminal "an architectural and engineering tour de force that raises the standards of British airport design 100 percent." And The Daily Mirror says it's "an awe-inspiring temple to the twin gods of air travel and shopping."
With all this going for it I'm very tempted to fork any extra money required to fly BA from March onwards. Virgin, Cathay and ANZ (all competitors on the London – Hong Kong route I fly) leave from the disastrous Terminal 3. I'd pay double to avoid the horrors of the check-in and security areas there.
BA launches Open Skies
Posted by Emma Torry on January 10, 2008 at 06:22 PM
British Airways has launched its first direct services between the US and Europe, with daily flights from New York to Brussels or Paris. The airline aims to take on the likes of Air France and Lufthansa in their own backyards.
BA will set up a subsidiary airline, called (imaginatively) Open Skies, after the treaty between Europe and America that eased restrictions on non-US airlines carrying passengers from third countries to the US.
Open Skies will launch with one Boeing 757 flying between Brussels or Paris and New York this June. Unexpectedly, the 757 will provide 82 seats for business, premium economy and economy passengers; many thought the route would provide premium class seats only. By 2010 BA hopes to have six 757s in its Open Skies fleet.
The Open Skies agreement also allows Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United Airlines to operate flights between Heathrow and the US, loosening BA's iron grip on Heathrow.
BA's 3,000 existing pilots aren't too delighted about the news though. They are concerned that the new venture will employ flight crew on different terms and conditions (i.e. the Open Skies pilots might get paid more). BA face a meeting on Monday with Balpa - the pilots' union - to address their concerns.
BA has banned its passengers from checking in surfboards. Kayak, canoe, windsurf, pole vault, javelin, and hang glide enthusiasts should be equally dismayed as their kit is now vetoed from the hold too.
Surfers have been so incensed by this decision that they’ve flocked online from as far afield as the USA, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Russia and Abu Dhabi to leave messages of disgust and concern. Tough break.
It’s the surfers in Jersey and Thurso (where the O'Neill Highland Open is hosted) though that should be getting the most sympathy. BA is the only airline that flies abroad from their nearby airports, and they’ll be stranded in more senses than one if the airline doesn’t revoke its decision. Surfers will have to hope that Virgin, the airline that “has come to the aid of sports travellers”, will announce new domestic routes to the Channel Islands and Scotland and come to their rescue.
The British Surfing Association is supporting a petition to change the policy and disgruntled surfers, pole vaulters, kayakers etc can go online and follow their recommended action steps. The BSA is planning to deliver the petition to BA next week, alongside the supportive statements from other organisations.
Concerned surfers can visit this site for a full list of airlines that allow boards on board and their charges. Surfers with cash to splash can have boards air freighted by one of these services:
You have to be organised though, it can take up to two weeks to send things ahead to those exotic surf meccas.
