On the Heathrow Express

The rich and famous do love to cause a bit of bother when they travel by air, and Cherie Blair, wife of ex-PM Tony, created a bit of mayhem at Heathrow a few years ago when she forgot her passport and despatched an official to nip back to No.10 and fetch it. Not to be outdone in the forgetfulness stakes, her husband was recently found to be travelling on the Heathrow Express without a valid ticket. Obviously still rather institutionalised from his time as Prime Minister, he discovered that not only did he not have a ticket, he also lacked any cash or cards to buy one with.

It emerged that an aide had given him the money for the ticket the night before, but he'd sadly mislaid it. Eventually his bodyguard offered to pay for it, however (and this is a first to our knowledge) the inspector said there was no need. The operator noted that this was not official policy; "We welcome all former Prime Ministers on Heathrow Express, but we don't offer them special discounts." said a spokesman.

While on the subject of Heathrow, we commented recently on Naomi Campbell's latest outburst while at the nations favourite shopping mall and lost luggage office. It seems we were mistaken. We thought she was having an attack of the "VIP's" and coming over all hissy if her Gucci luggage wasn't being properly looked after. She's now cleared that one up; she was actually expressing outrage on behalf of all the unfortunate souls whose luggage was also lost at T5. "I was speaking for all those who were disrespected." Said the patron Saint of baggage handling victims.

Bags We Have the Cheapest Insurance

We just love Ryanair’s ability to make a news story out of just about everything and anything; it must irritate the proverbial out of British Airways. Their latest PR stunt is to write to the Association of British Insurers to urge them to introduce risk assessed consumer travel insurance policies based on airline performance. As their spokesman points out. “The statistics prove that airlines are far from equal, yet insurers do not differentiate. Not only does Ryanair offer the lowest fares. It also delivers the most punctual flights, the fewest delays and the lowest number of cancellations".

This week travel insurance companies confirmed that the number of claims made for bag losses in the first half of 2007 rose dramatically yet the number of bags lost by Ryanair declined from 0.5 per 1,000 last year to 0.4 this year. Meanwhile the situation at British Airways has gone from bad to badder, from 21 bags per 1,000 last year to 28 per 1,000 this year.

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse....

...it did. According to the US Department of Transportation the misery of air travel during the month of June was - miserable. Mishandled baggage reports shot up 36% - a staggering 451,260 bags either lost, late or misrouted. More passengers were involuntarily bumped from flights and the number of complaints filed by customers to the DOT increased by 54% in June compared with last year.

462 flights sat waiting to take off for more than three hours after departing their gate, and 12 were stuck for more than five hours. The record being Continental Airlines Flight 728 from Newark, N.J., to Denver on June 8 - 383 minutes -- more than six hours. It was the day an FAA computer failed and left planes grounded across the East Coast, there were also thunder storms in the Newark area that afternoon.

The World's Former Favourite Airline

A bad week for British Airways just got worse. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph they're the worst performing of all Europe's major airlines when it comes to lost bags - they're forecast to lose a record 1.3 million bags this year. Apparently one in every 35 passengers on BA flights lost luggage between April and June and it's not expected to get any better over the summer. In addition the Association of European Airlines report that BA passengers were the most likely to be delayed.

They're maybe going to drop from that on the list of the world's favourite airlines. How times can quickly change

Airline Accused of Harassment

A lecturer from Kolkata in India has lodged a police complaint after airline authorities failed to trace her missing baggage in over one and a half months. She lost her baggage on a Lufthansa flight from New York via Frankfurt to her home city at the start of June. She claims she has constantly been in touch with Lufthansa in Frankfurt and Kolkata but so far they've not shown up.

According to the lecturer "There is no trace of my baggage yet. Lufthansa officials in Kolkata are harassing me. But that's nothing compared to the worth of my baggage." Two things come to mind. What would happen to the legal system and the police's ability to work if everyone complained about lost bags? She, like everyone else should have read the small print - there's only so much compensation they are legally obliged to pay out. Many years ago I recall a passenger who had flown with an airline I worked for claiming there was £500,000 worth of diamonds in their checked baggage that had gone missing...

Bags I have the T-shirt

What's the chances of four people flying to one detination on two different airlines from two different airports arriving at their destination with only one bag between them and there all from the same family. That's what's happened yesterday when my sister and her husband and my neice and her partner flew to Chicago to see my other neice. My sister and her s/o flew with Continental from Bristol via NYC and my neice plus s/o from Heathrow on BA.

as my sister said in her email.....trouble being in the one suitcase all we have is 2 pairs of socks 2 pairs of pants 3 pairs of jeans and 2 t-shirts (all Ken's) - the smallest person in the group....We are now trying to work how we can get to Dennys for breaksfast, reasonable dressed! watch this space for further updates........

Desperately Seeking Baggage

It’s been reported that Deborah (that's Debbie to most of us) Harry is not happy! Apparently for the last five days she's been in London wearing dirty underwear and it's all British Airways fault. It seems they lost her bags; the singer is here to do something or another with the stage musical Desperately Seeking Susan, which features Blondie songs. "I’m going to have to go to M&S to buy some new ones. I’m not happy.” First Twiggy, now Debbie; can women of a certain age have a better endorsement for their knickers?

See, lost bags even happen to a celebrity.