There are plenty of offensive things one can wear on a plane--a too-short skirt, for example, or a political message for the President. Add Optimus Prime to that list: A British IT consultant was not allowed to board his British Airways flight because of his "Transformers" T-shirt.
Brad Jayakody has a cool enough job that on a business trip to Dusseldorf, he was allowed to dress down for the plane. But after one of his colleagues was searched, he was pulled aside and told his shirt was inappropriate.
So a silk-screened gun is the same as a real gun now? We've just got to be more careful with our T-shirt selection. But the real person in danger? Shia LaBeouf. After all, he's a known associate of Mr. Prime.
British Airways boss Willie Walsh must be smiling this week because he's going around telling anyone who'll listen that the disaster that was the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow is now "working well."
So well, in fact, that BA is now finally going to move the rest of their flights over there--yep, the flights they were going to move back in April. On June 5, eight destinations from Terminal 4 will move to T5, including flights to New York's JFK. The rest will be moved over in the next couple of months.
Willie probably wasn't smiling when the news came out over the weekend that "a small number" of incoming foreign passengers in the early days of T5 were dropped off at the wrong doors and let into Britain without showing their passports. They probably just turned around and flew home in disgust after their their luggage never showed up.
They made an online game about our suffering in Heathrow's problematic Terminal 5, so it was just a matter of time before the song came out too.
This video from Roguetune whines about Terminal 5 in a way that a whole lot of travelers can understand, except for special people like Kate Moss, that is. The chorus goes on with endless variations of a line like this:
I went down to get my bags, but I'm in Greece and my bags are still in Terminal 5.
As well as funny lyrics, you'll get a nice tour the trendy new Terminal 5 building, inside and out, and an entertaining cast of extra characters. Unfortunately, although this song might make you laugh, it won't change much for those still wondering which Italian warehouse their carefully packed bags have ended up in.
We held a minute's silence recently for anyone affected by London Heathrow's Terminal 5baggage hell and we'll spare another thought for the thousands of travelers whose luggage is still lying around somewhere. A warehouse in Italy seems to be the common (if illogical) answer to "Where's my bag?" Some might be so lost that they'll end up incinerated rather than reunited with with their owners.
Ouch. Some of the luckier (but still very unhappy) British Airways passengers got pre-paid credit cards credited with their compensation payment of, for example, £175 for three bags. But other travelers--let's take supermodel Kate Moss as an example--are getting £10,000 pounds in compensation for ten bags which were delayed, but have now reached her.
Moral of the story? Don't fly unless you're famous. If you find that a touch unrealistic, then we can ease that a bit: go carry-on only with British Airways.
Speaking of airport baggage drama, this Flash game has to be the funniest take on the T5 debacle we've seen. Think of it as Donkey Kong with an airline executive instead of an Italian plumber.
You control British Airways CEO Willie Walsh, and you have to get a pile of bags sorted onto a conveyor belt while maniacal luggage carts come at you. We're still working on our technique, but we hope to improve our score by this afternoon.
London's biggest airport is hogging the headlines this week, but why should Heathrow's T5 disasters overshadow little brother Gatwick's news: The smaller airport finally overturned the one carry-on bag rule which other UK airports gave up long, long ago.
In the first week of January this year, airports like Heathrow canceled the rule that passengers could only bring one bag on board, brought in awhile back as a security measure. Gatwick has been slow because it needed more x-ray and archway technology installed, but the place has finally caught up with the rest of the country.
But be careful if you're flying out of Gatwick, because there are a few airlines there who are sticking to the old rule. Better to pack small, though, and fly out of Gatwick, than wave goodbye to your checked baggage at Heathrow.
BA had already announced that they would offer free WiFi in their lounges in Terminal 5, but now they've decided to be even more generous. As of the start of April, any passengers using British Airways lounges across the United Kingdom will be able to log on for free.
This is good news for some, especially business travelers who can stay connected without having to pay any exorbitant fees. But it's probably not enough to console the thousands of travelers currently wondering where their bags are.
Back in February, British Airways was hyping its fancy baggage handling system at the new Terminal 5:
The 11 miles of conveyor belts and intelligent baggage carts running on almost 3 miles of rails mean your bag can reach your gate in 15 minutes.
Ha! Tell that to the 15,000 suitcases BA mishandled this weekend. Airline CEO Willie Walsh just sent out yet another apology specifically addressed to the people who are still waiting for their luggage:
A backlog of undelivered bags has built up. This backlog is not affecting the day-to-day operation of the baggage system, and we are making every effort to reunite delayed bags with their owners. We have more than 400 volunteers from across the airline supporting this effort.
That may be, but BA won't make any promises as to when the T5 shitshow will be sorted out. That includes the baggage problems--and the fact that 54 of today's 394 flights have already been cancelled.
