Baggage Reclaim at Gatwick. How long to wait

Martin85

Is there an agreed limit from the time your flight lands to the time the baggage reclaim starts. I have in the past year had several waits over 1 hour with the Baggage handler Swissport being the worst, but not only offender. Is there a scheme like flight delay commpensation where baggage hadling companys have to pay customers a penalty if delays are over a certain time. If not there should be. It not like a flight where you have a choice of which airline, the baggage handling company is thrust upon you. I heard that 45 minutes is the target time and baggage delays of over 55 minutes have to be reported to Gatwick Airport management. (It seems that baggage handling companies can do what they like). Are these facts correct. Any feedback on this issue please.

lgw29

I got stuck on the m25 the other day who can i get compensation from

Obviously_the_best

I don't know what timescale it is, but I certainly agree that swissport are the worst, and south terminal is worse than north.

HitAndMiss

I am aware the last posting here was over 2 months ago but recently I have experienced a very long wait at Gatwick when Swissport are the handling agents.The lack of information was deplorable. Surely Swissport must answer to somebody and is there nothing passengers can do about it.

bagand96

Surely Swissport must answer to somebody and is there nothing passengers can do about it.

Complain to your airline. The airline chooses the handling agent, it's not a monopoly at Gatwick.

When I say chooses, I of course mean the airline contracts the agent best suited to them. And by that I mean the airline contracts the cheapest. Like all things in aviation as the public demands cheap flights airlines are squeezed and they in turn are demanding cheaper costs from all their suppliers. Including ground handling where costs have been driven so low that they are often loss leading. You get what you pay for.

Prothet_of_Doom

Don't ever fly into ROME at Lunch time.

The staff have staggered 1 hour lunches, so, Landing at 12:30 it will be 1:00 before your plane sees the stairs, 2:00 before you've been through passport control, 3:00 before you see your suitcase, and 4:00 before you get your hire car.

marsman802

haha love the Rome anecdote - I'm married to an Italian - its been a wonderful insight! My wife has educated me in their ways.

We fly to Sicily next week via Rome but our flight lands in Rome at 10am and we leave an hour later - I'm not 100% hopeful of seeing my bag on the other end but we're trying to ensure they haven't started on their lunch

peachyprice

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

Don't ever fly into ROME at Lunch time.

The staff have staggered 1 hour lunches, so, Landing at 12:30 it will be 1:00 before your plane sees the stairs, 2:00 before you've been through passport control, 3:00 before you see your suitcase, and 4:00 before you get your hire car.

Oh how very Italian.

A bit like the trains from MXP that arrive at Sarrona 1 min after the connection north has left.

DavePollard

I experieced a delay of oven a hour for my baggage at Gatwick Nortjh where Swissport were the handling agants. I wrote to Thomson airlines, who if flew with, to complain on the subject but they were quite dismissive.I did not ask for any compensation only what the accepted timeframe for baggage deliver to the conveyor belt The travellers come last again. Maybe the handling agent should be fined every time they do meet the required timescale for baggage delivery.

bettiemme

You have to complain with the company you flew with. I guess that they must give you a refund if it exceeded a reasonable amount of time. I mean, companies are responsible if they fly 3/4 hours late, I think they have to behave at the same way if this happened to your lugguage as well. Hope it make sense

Alan_Bowen

There are no time limits vis a vis the consumer as regards delivery of bags to the conveyor belt which is why I fly hand luggage only as often as possible. I suspect the airlines have been demanding more for less from the handling agents and with less money they employ fewer staff. To avoid delaying the plane from its next flight, they unload the bags and load the next departure before bringing the bags back to the terminal. In the old days there would have been sufficient staff to do the two jobs at the same time. It is all in the name of low fares and profit.