Christmas surprise for airport luggage delay passenger, months after nightmare Heathrow to Inverness flight
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Fed-up air passengers whose bags were massively delayed en route between Heathrow and Inverness received a belated but welcome Christmas surprise – after receiving compensation months after the ordeal.
Retired couple Martin Levy and his wife Lisa's start to their dream tour of the North Coast 500 was blighted last summer when logistical woes at Heathrow on July 19 left them and passengers of many other airlines waiting days for their luggage.
The pair, who live in California, ultimately wound up making two trips back to Inverness Airport in as many days before finally being able to retrieve all of their luggage.
At the time Martin was less than complimentary about British Airways' handling of the situation after he claimed several taxi drivers flagged up the issue as "happening often" without being prompted.
Related: Heathrow-Inverness baggage woes blight Californian couple's dream Highland holiday
And while he was at pains to stress how helpful the airport baggage staff at Dalcross had been during the situation, the remarks by the taxi drivers left him wondering if the issue was just the "luck of the draw" or symptomatic of a wider issue.
BA insisted at the time that the July 19 issue was outwith their control and was caused by wider problems with Heathrow Airport's baggage system on that date. Speaking at the time the operator said: "As a result of a Heathrow Airport baggage system failure, some customers experienced delays in their baggage reaching their final destination. We apologised to customers and our teams worked hard to get their bags to them as quickly as possible."
And while Martin and Lisa did not let the gremlins ruin what was an otherwise "wonderful" NC500 and Highland holiday, they were determined to ensure they secured compensation for the inconvenience and costs – such as making unexpected extra trips to and from Inverness Airport to reclaim their bags.
The final chapter of their push for compensation came to a close shortly before Christmas when BA got in touch to offer further apologies and confirmation that they would be receiving more than £260 to cover their expenses.
Getting in touch with Martin, a member of BA's customer services team told him: "We're sorry to hear your bag was delayed on your recent trip to Inverness. This isn't what you should expect of us, and we understand why you needed to let us know about it. We'd also like to thank you for you patience while we got back to you.
"Thank you for sending over your receipts. We're happy to pay £263.49 to cover these expenses."
Martin is pleased that the issue has finally been "put to rest" for him and his wife, but said he was left wondering whether the dozens of other passengers on their flight were also successful in claiming compensation.
He said: "Of course this doesn’t fix the issue; however, it puts our issue to rest. If you look at the cost of our one-way tickets from London to Inverness versus this compensation, I clearly know that BA lost money on that fiasco of a flight. But did the other sixty or eighty passengers succeed in their claims? Did they even claim?"
