Baggage Mangling

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Capetonian

Baggage Mangling

#1 Post by Capetonian » Sat Mar 18, 2017 7:32 am

No surprise here, other than that such behaviour so rarely gets publicity.

A few years ago I filmed baggage manglers, also at LTN, hurling baggage onto trucks exactly as described. Later, as I stood at the reclaim belt, the man standing next to me noticed that his aluminium photographic case, marked : "FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE" was scratched and dented, and amongst the well packed and padded contents, a mirror lens damaged. I sent him the video clip and wrote to the handling company (I don't think it was Menzies then) with a complaint and some screenshots showing cases flying through the air. They didn't reply to the first letter, so I wrote a second one and got a reply in which they stated that they had passed the matter to their legal department to investigate a possible breach of airport security rules - by me! - for filming on the apron. I wrote back and said please do carry on investigating and be sure to let me know the outcome. In the meantime, the man whose photographic equipment was damaged was fully compensated.

Ever wondered why your suitcase goes missing? Outrage as baggage handlers are caught on video hurling luggage from an easyJet plane onto the runway at Luton airport like rubbish bags onto a waiting truck.

Passenger Jonas Ozolins recorded the reckless workers unloading the bags and cases from a flight on March 13. In the footage, the two men stand on the back of the truck, which will eventually transport the cases across the runway to the airport terminal.
Cases, many of which will have been carefully packed and filled with souvenirs, were hurled by baggage handlers after passengers landed at London Luton airport

The shocking clip was filmed and uploaded to Facebook by passenger Jonas Neville Ozolins, who captioned it 'idiot' The reckless handlers don't appear to show any respect or care for the passengers belongings, simply hurling them from the plane to the truck

They are seen hurling the cases, carrying precious souvenirs and gifts, onto the back of the truck. Some of them even crash, seemingly unnoticed, onto the runway below.

It is understood the baggage handlers work for a company called Menzies Aviation, who have contracts for this work at most UK airports.

Luton airport told the MailOnline the contract was awarded by easyJet.

He followed it up with the comment: 'This sums up well some of the worst. Hope these idiots get kicked in the face.... and then fired.'

It has been viewed thousands of times and attracted hundreds of comments from other outraged airline users.

One wrote: 'Idiots is putting it mildly.'
Following the footage, Menzies Aviation, who contracts the workers, said they are conducting an investigation into what happened

Another added: 'Hope they take care of our bags better than that when we come to London.'

A spokesman for Menzies Aviation said: 'Menzies Aviation considers the safe conveyance of passengers’ luggage to be a matter of the highest importance. The behaviour displayed in this video is unacceptable, and an investigation is already under way. We will take whatever action is necessary to ensure that such behaviour is stopped, and our professional standards are upheld properly in future.'

EasyJet and the airport have said they will work with the firm to ensure high standards are met across Luton airport. An easyJet spokesman said: 'We have been assured by our provider that this is being investigated. We work closely with all of our airport partners to ensure our passengers’ bags are handled securely.'

A spokesman from the airport said: 'London Luton Airport (LLA) requires all partner agencies working at the airport to meet our high standards.

'We are working with the ground handling company responsible who have confirmed that an investigation is underway and that they will take any necessary action to prevent such behaviour happening again.'

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#2 Post by ian16th » Sat Mar 18, 2017 8:35 am

The best investment that any frequent traveller can make is good solid luggage!

Samsonite, American Tourister and Delsey come to mind. I still have samples of each.

Just looking at the carnage done to the cheap, soft sided, zip up things that the once a year tourists use makes one weep.
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#3 Post by Capetonian » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:04 am

I use the softsided ones when travelling with only clothes and non-damageables, not the cheap ones, but a decent soft-sided case won't break.

Expensive suitcases only last marginally longer than cheaper ones, but cost 4 to 5 times the price. My philosophy now is to buy a reasonably good one (Tripp is one make I quite like) and I reckon it will survive maybe 100 sectors, which is a about a year for me, and then I replace it. My most recent purchase has lasted nearly 3 years, so I think I've shown a profit!

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#4 Post by unifoxos » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:13 am

Some of them even crash, seemingly unnoticed, onto the runway below.

Daily Mail, presumably (or is Luton so short of space that they have to unload on a runway?)

Ian, when I travelled a lot on business I too had a solid Delsey. I still have it now, 40 years on, and it's as solid as ever. As not-so-regular pax nowadays, skiing (spending kids inheritance) we now use the cheap cloth jobbies as they weigh a hell of a lot less and SWMBO, who doesn't travel light, can pack in more stuff to bring back clean after the trip. We accept that they won't last long, 3-4 years maybe, and the main reason for failure is broken accessories - wheels, handles, zips etc. When they are retired we use them for textile storage - summer quilts and clothing in winter and vice versa.

Cape, two of our our current ones are Tripp and seem to be holding up much better than any previous ones.
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#5 Post by ian16th » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:45 am

unifoxos wrote:
Ian, when I travelled a lot on business I too had a solid Delsey. I still have it now, 40 years on, and it's as solid as ever.


My Delsey is the best/newest case I have, it was paid for by Iberia, they were the airline that finally damaged a long serving Samsonite beyond repair.

This was after I retired, so I was paying for the tickets and we travelled cattle class. The Iberian compensation scale was based on the class of ticket and wasn't sufficient to pay for a replacement Samsonite of the same size. The luggage repairer offered the Delsey with a matching vanity case that appealed to SM.
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#6 Post by Capetonian » Sat Mar 18, 2017 10:26 am

When I lived in Madrid and unfortunately had to use Iberia for most of my international business travel, they damaged more suitcases than any other airline I remember. I regularly used to get a Samsonite off the carousel looking as if it had been dragged down the runway. I can remember almost having stand up fights with their vile staff at BUE, SCL, BOG, CCS and SJO, and of course inevitably at their centre of awfulness, Barajas.

The Spanish are generally pleasant and helpful people, and the further you go from Madrid the truer that becomes, but I am convinced that they have a special training school for Iberia ground staff where they learn to be argumentative, bolshy, arrogant, dirty, unhelpful, and downright fecking useless.

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#7 Post by Woody » Sat Mar 18, 2017 8:51 pm

We have machines that damage bags without our help :ymdevil:
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#8 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Sun Mar 19, 2017 1:13 am

I once purchased a metal trunk - but they managed to jam the lid down so that I needed a commercial can opener to open it !

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#9 Post by Ex-Ascot » Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:16 am

About the only bonus of flying Air Bots from MUB is that you say only hand luggage no matter what size it is (hidden around the corner). You take it to the aircraft where they put it in the hold after all the other bags and give it back to you on the apron at JNB. You know your bags went on board, you know it wasn't damaged and no baggage reclaim at destination.

Between here and Greece we travel hand baggage only. But that is between our two houses where we duplicates of most thing. I want to do it no baggage at all one time, just hands in pockets. But Mrs Ex-Ascot says that doing that I may get the rubber glove treatment :-o
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#10 Post by Boac » Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:20 am

But Mrs Ex-Ascot says that doing that I may get the rubber glove treatment :-o
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#11 Post by Sisemen » Sun Mar 19, 2017 11:59 am

Not handling damage as such but a suitcase soaked in hydraulic fluid on a Garuda Abu Dhabi - Singapore sector. #:-S

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#12 Post by ian16th » Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:25 pm

Not mangled but lost.

When BA were still using B-747 Classics on the Heathrow to Joburg run, they stopped at Nairobi. Some passengers were dropped off and picked up there.

The girl on the check in desk managed to put a Nairobi label on my case!

When I got to Joburg, I was still stood at the carousel when it was empty and I was the last passenger.

Went to the BA desk, where it was immediately noticed that I had the Nairobi stub in my hand!

They telexed Nairobi, and apparently my case was still going around the carousel there!!!

BA sent it on the next day and it was all complete with nothing missing. A different class of non-reflectives in Kenya.

With my accent, I do believe that the BA staff thought I was a visitor to SA and they authorised me to buy toiletries and a change of clothes to a rather generous limit. I cannot remember how much it was but I went into the local equivalent of M&S and bought underpants, vest and socks and spent the bulk of it a very nice badger hair shaving brush, which I still enjoy today
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#13 Post by Wodrick » Sun Mar 19, 2017 5:20 pm

But Mrs Ex-Ascot says that doing that I may get the rubber glove treatment :-o


Don't knock it 'till you've tried it :-bd
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#14 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:03 pm

I don't have may such stories to tell only a couple of stories when I challenged fate: I had put on my checked bag a document which was given to me as fairly confidential - I know I should have not done that . Predictably the bag was not delivered for the most stupid reason: the handling company's staff - I think SABENA- did not bother to put it on the conveyor belt. When I asked the airline doing the trip - if there were any news - I was told the bag was in the airport and they delivered the bag to my place.

Fast forward about 10 moths later, I used the best airline on the NCL-BRU route - British Airways seriously they were :YMAPPLAUSE: . The bag goes missing, I file the report and I accuse the Belgian staff for being oxygen thieves. However this time it was B.A's fault the bag remained in LHR.It was fun to arrive at my home in Brussels with only a backpack - my mother thought there was something wrong with me. I has hopping for:

the BA staff thought I was a visitor to SA and they authorised me to buy toiletries and a change of clothes to a rather generous limit. I cannot remember how much it was but I went into the local equivalent of M&S and bought underpants, vest and socks and spent the bulk of it a very nice badger hair shaving brush, which I still enjoy today
.

Unfortunately they asked for some receipts to be delivered to them at the airport so I show some restrained and I did not have a similar story to tell.

That was back in 1995 and ever since I have not lost a bag again. Obviously I travel prepared with a change of clothes with me and all the shaving gear so I am sure lost bags are a story of the past - for me.

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#15 Post by Capetonian » Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:44 pm

I read recently a story about a man who made an exaggerated claim against a carrier who had mislaid his baggage. According to his version, the luggage contained expensive designer label clothes, a camera, and other high value goods. When the bag turned up it was found to contain scruffy old clothes and nothing of value, so they called him in and asked him to identify his goods in the presence of a police officer.

When I worked for an airline we had a passenger whose luggage was mislaid in transit and as he'd not declared excess value, I said we could pay him out on the basis of the then IATA rate of $20/kg. He told me that his suitcases weighed 60kg and we owed him $1200. I asked him for proof that he'd paid for excess baggage, of course he didn't have any, and the check in record showed that he'd checked in one piece weighing 14 kg.

Another one bites the dust.

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#16 Post by John Hill » Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:50 am

I have a square(ish) leather 'pilots' bag' in to which I can manage enough clothes and stuff for a few days. I carry it as hand baggage and it has been around the world many times and never been mislaid. It was usually all I took but nowadays a few nights away staying in motels requires almost a full load in my ute.
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#17 Post by unifoxos » Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:38 am

SWMBO had some friends who were going on the holiday of a lifetime and she advised them to split the clothes up between their two suitcases. Meaning, of course, not to put all his in one and all hers in the other, in case of loss. When one suitcase disappeared en route and they unpacked the other he found that she had put all the left shoes in one case and all the right ones in the other.
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#18 Post by Capetonian » Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:53 am

Here's a good story :

A few months ago I checked in a suitcase to CPT with an 8 hour transit in ZRH. On arrival in ZRH I had a panic and couldn't find a large sum of money and thought I might have left it in the checked suitcase, as it has been in there with other stuff that was southbound while I was preparing for the trip and I'd intended to take it out before travelling and keep it on me.

As SWMBO couldn't find it at home I concluded it was in the case, thus I contacted LX baggage services at ZRH where a charming and efficient lady told me that my suitcase was 'out there' and it would take 'some time' to have it located and sent into the baggage claim area. When I asked for the definition of 'some time' she said : "Perhaps half an hour." In fact it was less than 20 minutes. I searched the case, couldn't find the money, and of course later it turned out I'd put it in a 'safe place' at the house .................

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Re: Baggage Mangling

#19 Post by Woody » Thu Apr 12, 2018 8:08 am

I’m back at Perry Oaks International this morning after my holiday ~X( at the House of Mouse.
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Re: Baggage Mangling

#20 Post by Cacophonix » Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:34 pm

I initially misread the title of this thread as bagpipe mangling and that would probably be very apt for the kind of thing that United Airlines, my least favourite airline in the world, might have done seeing that they have so much well publicised previous when it comes to damaging musical instruments.

Cellos

Violins

and guitars, this bloke was so outraged that he wrote a song about it...

Forgive my musical interlude on an aviation related thread but it tells the story so very well...



I also came close to inflicting immediate and severe violence upon one of their mincing male flight attendants on a flight to New York many moons ago but that's another story!

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