From the article, "AUC Chairman Tina Tietjen said: "When passengers hand over their suitcases at check-in they should be able to expect to see them the other end.
"Complaints to the council show that instances of mishandled baggage can cause passengers considerable stress, inconvenience and expense. They also show that passengers often struggle to get reasonable redress from airlines after the event.
"We therefore look to airlines to do all they can to improve their baggage handling.""
As far as we're concerned, it is not so much the fact that bags go missing that is the problem. BA last year misplaced 25 bags in every 1,000 it handled compared to an industry average of 16 per thousand. It hardly seems fair to beat up on BA when the industry as a whole performs so poorly. Has anyone in the airline business (especially the baggage handling companies - this is hardly the fault solely of the airlines anyway!) actually heard of Six Sigma?
The real problem is, as anyone who has had a bag go missing knows, that nobody ever says sorry. The most frustrating thing for a passenger arriving without their luggage is the total abdication of responsibility you are faced with. Things go wrong from time to time, and as consumers we are happy to accept that things sometimes we are the unlucky ones, but a simple apology can go a long way to reducing the anguish and the stress caused. It might even be remearkable enough that you would tell your friends that you got great service IN SPITE of having your bag go missing.
That's why it was heartening to have the Director of BA Ground Operations go on the BBC Breakfast News programme this morning and actually say sorry for the poor performance. Let's hope we are seeing a trend becoming established.
