British Airways offers new bag drop services at Heathrow Terminal 5

British Airways has introduced new options for passengers to drop of their baggage:

  • Passengers can drop off the bags at new fast bag drop areas before the departures concourse
  • Passengers can pay to have their bags collected and checked in from their home or office up to 24 hours before their flight

Both new options are offered in conjunction with AirPortr.

New fast bag drop areas at Heathrow Terminal 5

British Airways passengers travelling from Heathrow Terminal 5 can drop off and check in their baggage as soon as they step off the Heathrow Express.

Passengers can quickly and securely drop-off their baggage at peak times (0500-1000). AirPortr’s team seal, secure, and check in the bags. The passengers then head straight to the joys of security.

The new fast bag drop service is free to passengers who have checked in at home.

Collect from home or office

Passengers can also pay to have their baggage collected from their home or office. This allows passengers to check in their bags from the comfort of their own doorstep, with a vetted delivery driver. AirPortr ensures that once collected, bags are sealed and monitored throughout the delivery process.

Bags can be collected from any address within AirPortr’s Service Area. Check the map to see if a postcode is included. Bookings can be made online and are in addition to any baggage charges made by British Airways.

Trial of home baggage collection

The service is quite limited. It is for 7 routes and only some flights. The price varies by route, date and flight.

The routes available were to JFK, SIN, JNB, CPT, DXB, NCE and GVA. I said I was going to NCE from Richmond (about 7 miles from LHR). Prices varied by flight and were between £36 and £42 for 1 bag. A second bag was £4 extra.

How it works

Today, 24 July, I checked the prices for flights on 30 July.

Select airline – British Airways (only choice)

Select departure airport – Heathrow (only choice)

Select date – 30 July 2021

Select route – Choices were JFK, SIN, JNB, CPT, DXB, NCE and GVA. I picked NCE.

How many bags – 1

Select flight – 4 a day with BA from LHR to NCE

Picked BA 346 departing at 0930 on 30 July

There is then a wait while a link goes to feefo.com.

It asks for the pickup adress.

Now the crucial point arrives – pick a time slot

There are 4 BA flights from LHR T5 to NCE on 30 July.

FlightDepartureCost for 1 bag
BA 3460930£36 – £42 Bag has to be collected the day before
BA 3541430£36 – £42Bag has to be collected the day before
BA 3321740£36
BA 3381920£36

For the flights at 0930 and 1430, baggage collection had to be the previous day.

For all flights tried, Airportr did not have access to the passenger booking. The Airportr system searched to see if the flight existed on feefo.com.

For both services, passengers can track their baggage online from when it leaves their doorstep, or at the T5 key access areas, right up to the bag being loaded onto the aircraft. Passengers using the services also receive digital bag tag receipts.

Twilight bag drop

British Airways also offers a twilight baggage drop service the night before travel from Heathrow Terminal 5. This allows passengers to deliver their bags to the airport terminal between 4 and 9pm the day before they travel.

Other British Airways trials to improve passenger experience

The airline is continuing to explore other technologies to further streamline the passenger experience. These include trialling digital travel apps to ensure passengers meet the entry requirements for their destination before arriving at the airport. Passengers can currently use VeriFLY on all flights to the US, Canada and France as well as on all inbound flights.

Like many airline worldwide, British Airways is trialling the IATA Travel Pass. The airline announced in June that it would trial the digital travel solution on flights from Heathrow to Geneva and Zurich.

British Airways’ passengers travelling to Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, can now also upload their negative Covid-19 test result and other documentation directly into ba.com for verification before travel.

Elsewhere the airline is trialling new intelligent queuing technology from Qmatic, that enables passengers to virtually queue at check-in by pre-booking their slot time in advance of arriving at the airport.


N.B. Image credit: British Airways

Internet links

British Airways (BA)

AirPortr

VeriFLY

IATA Travel Pass

Qmatic