One-bag, carry-on, light travel tips, techniques, and gear

UPDATE - latest news here

British Airways vaunted Terminal 5 (recently opened by the Queen) was supposed to alleviate some of the chaos and congestion that is London’s Heathrow. Well, it didn’t work. The terminal crashed Thursday and today, or at least its incredibly complex subterranean luggage handling system did. Twenty percent of BA’s flights were canceled and guess what - no checked luggage, If you flew ouf of 5 it was carry-on only. Share this story with your friends who think you’re a ridiculous travel geek/luggage freak!

Some excerpts from RTTNews:

British Airways on Friday canceled about 20% of the flights scheduled from Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5, after a chaotic opening to the GBP 4.3 billion facility yesterday.

The airliner said it was canceling around 76 planned flights from domestic and short-distance European destinations to places like Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris and Frankfurt. British Airways said that all long distance flights from Terminal 5, or T5, would operate normally.

The operations at Terminal 1 and Terminal 4 will function normally, the airline company added.

In a release issued on early Friday, British Airways said that passengers will be able to check in with both hand and hold baggage. On Thursday, the airline had allowed passengers traveling in the afternoon and evening to carry only hand luggage, after its baggage system to carry luggage on and off flights failed.

Gee, 4 is still running. I have had some misery there. I’ll bet 5 has that priceless “new terminal” smell though.

From the BBC story: One baggage handler said it was “a shambles the moment the doors opened”.

One saving grace - only BA uses T5, but you’ve got to think it’s screwed up the whole wretched place.