BA’s Terminal 5 misery rolls on into day two.

Is it me or does anyone else wonder why they didn’t test the systems at Heathrow’s new terminal 5 before opening it?

A full dress rehearsal or two, with a dry run involving fake luggage might have helped. I wouldn’t mind betting they have a few unclaimed cases lying around they could have used, but empty cardboard boxes would have probably told them something useful.

I understand when Eurostar services were migrated to St Pancras they managed to come up with enough volunteer passengers to test it all out and snag any last minute glitches before they ever hit any paying passengers.

As I understand it most of the problems are due to the supposedly brilliant new baggage handling system having some sort of bottleneck or failure.

BA seem to be waffling a bit claiming the backlog was due to a number of things, including, but not limited to, delays at the staff car park and security hold-ups affecting baggage handlers. Again a dry run would surely have told them something.

They certainly seem to be making a real mess of dealing with the poor old customers.

No clear information is one thing and frustrating in it’s self for customers - I heard they threatened to have at least one guy arrested when he quite justifiably complained - but the press release was very bare bones.

Although the words were technically regretful the tone was anything but and their spokesperson just read it out - badly, no personal input at all. Do they get training in dealing with the media?

Excellent public relations work! I am really glad I flew the other week and not this one.