unaccompanied baggage - captain's discretion

[BackOfTheBus]

First time poster, however I have 'lurked' for a little while now.

I have a quick question around delayed bags and the Captain's final approval to carry unaccompanied baggage on a following flight.

Relatives of mine flew out of BHX on a charter flight (airline name not really important) down to southern Spain over the weekend. Unfortunately, the bags didn't make the flight with them. Long story short, the bags were then scheduled to make a flight with a different carrier the next day. According to the handling agent, the bags did not make the flight as unaccompanied bags are carried at the captain's discretion.

I fully understand the safety of an aircraft is paramount and there may be policies in place etc. However, I just wish to clarify if this is indeed true or if the handling agents are telling fairy tales?.

Thanks in advance and safe flying one and all.

RM

PS - bags have been reunited with a relieved set of parents 4 days later.

[Departures Beckham]

The carriage of unaccompanied baggage in the UK is governed by the DfT's 'AAA' regulations. The Appointed Person (usually the Dispatcher) is responsible for authorising the unaccompaned baggage for travel, however the crew have the right to resfuse any baggage, but this right is completely unrelated to the 'AAA' regulations.

[wiggy]

Departures Beckham is right, The rules and procedures for carriage of unaccompanied bags are down to the Dft, each airline will have it's own internal rules with comply with these. I can only tell how my outfit handles it; If the unaccompanied bags had been processed correctly ( despatchers responsibility) they become part of the normal load for the flight and there is absolutely no need for the despatcher to inform the Captain that such baggage is on board, or ask his permission. All sounds slightly fishy to me, but glad the bags caught up.

[striparella]

It varies from airline to airline. At mine, the captain is informed if there are unaccompanied bags on the flight and he can decide if he doesn't want to take them, but i've never heard of this happening.

Maybe the bags in question hadn't gone through the extra screening process involved in unaccompanied bags. Or the ground staff mabye be covering a mistake at the other end with a few porky pies!!

[apaddyinuk]

Also keep in mind that if the aircraft had a weight restriction, the first bags that would be offloaded would be RUSH bags, followed by passenger luggage, followed by cargo!

[419]

Slight thread drift, but still related.

When bags get delayed or lost and then found, do they always get opened and inspected by customs before getting delivered to the owners?

[BackOfTheBus]

thanks for comments all.

[Standard Noise]

Imagine our surprise (all 280 of us) when we arrived 5 hours late at Sanford on the 21st Sept to be told by the **** wits at Thomson that every passengers bag had been left at Cardiff!
It's a good job Monarch didn't refuse to bring them over to us or the Thomson reps would have got lynched! Useless *******!

DON'T FLY WITH THOMSON, THEY'RE ******* USELESS!:ugh: :ugh:

[Evening Star]

Imagine our surprise (all 280 of us) when we arrived 5 hours late at Sanford on the 21st Sept to be told by the **** wits at Thomson that every passengers bag had been left at Cardiff!
It's a good job Monarch didn't refuse to bring them over to us or the Thomson reps would have got lynched! Useless *******!
DON'T FLY WITH THOMSON, THEY'RE ******* USELESS!:ugh: :ugh:

All the bags? Nowt new there then, no matter which airline (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=98756&)!:* :ugh:

[WHBM]

Well this can only have two causes

a) The captain was unaware the bags had been left off. This would mean a grossly inaccurate loadsheet and have serious implications for the trim among other things and should lead to severe recriminations for the dispatch staff.

b) The captain was aware and decided (doubtless supported by his ops) to go anyway without the passenger luggage. This is a disgrace. When will airlines realise that carriage of passengers' baggage is not somehow optional, that the absence of it wrecks the purpose of the trip for many and leads to huge loss of time. Furthermore any compensation is derisory. To go without a minority of connecting bags is one thing, to go without the lot is something quite different.

We have all heard the excuses, up against the weight limit for the day, would involve an additional fuel stop, crew would go out of hours, subsequent flights disrupted, yadda yadda yadda. None of this holds water, the job is to transport both pax and bags, as contracted.

I suggest you find which of these two situations pertained on the day and then write to the CAA and ask for the operators AOC to be revoked for gross incompetence.

[Standard Noise]

Twas scenario b), which they admitted when we arrived at Sanford. Oh and a little bit of everything from your next paragraph WHBM. I wonder if anyone from Thomson senior management would stand for that sort of nonsense when they go on holiday? I suspect not. Maybe they should think twice about annoying fellow aviation professionals when they go on their hols.:E