British Airways leaves pensioner in London but flies her baggage to Cape Town

Exclusive: Under a new security regime, an airline can decide to dispatch a flight with a bag but not its owner on board

Bag luck: we’ve all been there, but what exactly are our rights? (Getty/iStock)

A pensioner is more than £800 out of pocket after missing a British Airways flight from Heathrow airport to Cape Town.

Dawn Ackerman was booked on flight BA59 on 15 October 2019, but while she missed the flight, the airline didn't remove her hold luggage before departing.

She said: “I reached the correct gate in Terminal 3 in good time, and was waiting in the holding lounge with passengers waiting to board three flights, to Hong Kong, Manila and Cape Town.

“The PA system is appalling. After a while I went to enquire when we were going to board and was told the flight had left.

“I asked why I had not been called and was told he did not know. I asked where my luggage was and was told he also did not know.

“From then on the ground staff were not at all concerned and I was told no one could help me till 5am the following day.”

Ms Ackerman said she had no choice but to book a nearby hotel. She paid £191, because the typhoon in Japan had stranded other passengers at Heathrow and pushed up prices.

She also bought a new one-way ticket, on Emirates, for £612.

“To add salt to my wounds my purchases I had made in duty free were confiscated,” she said.

Meanwhile her luggage was flown to South Africa.

Ms Ackerman asked: “How was it possible for the baggage to be flown without the passenger who checked it in?”

The Lockerbie disaster in 1988 was caused by a terrorist bomb carried as checked luggage aboard a Heathrow-New York flight without the passenger present.

Since the tragedy, in which 270 people died, the blanket rule has been that if a traveller checks in a bag, the flight cannot depart unless the passenger boards the plane or the luggage is removed.

Under a new security regime, in some circumstances an airline can decide to dispatch a flight with a bag but not its owner on board, so long as officials are confident the luggage presents no risk.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Following an investment of over £450m, Heathrow now operates the most advanced hold baggage screening technology in the world.

“Whilst we will not comment on the specifics of the system, its enhanced capabilities will keep the skies secure and, in select circumstances, provide airlines with an additional level of operational flexibility to get passengers away on their journeys safely.”

A spokesperson for British Airways said: “We never discuss matters of security. We comply with all Department for Transport safety regulations.”