TRAVELLERS are more likely to lose their baggage with British Airways than dozens of other major European airline, passenger watchdogs have reported.
The Air Transport Users Council (AUC) also said the problem was getting worse and called for more such "name and shame" league tables.
It said BA mislaid 23 bags for every 1,000 passengers last year, compared to just 4.
4 by Air Malta, whose network includes Glasgow. TAP Air Portugal was second-worst, at 21 bags per 1,000 passengers, followed by Lufthansa with 18.1 and Air France at 16.
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However, the figures, from the Association of European Airlines (AEA), do not include Bmi, EasyJet, Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic, or charter airlines. BA was the only British carrier included.
The AUC said it had handled 40 per cent more complaints about baggage last year compared to 2005. Delays accounted for nearly half the total. It also reported a small increase in lost baggage rates in the association's figures compared to last year, when they were published for the first time.
The council said the airlines' association had claimed that 85 per cent of mishandled bags were returned to passengers within 48 hours, but this meant that about one million bags were taking longer than two days to reach their owners and some "never get returned at all". Tina Tietjen, the AUC's chairman, said: "Complaints to the council show that instances of mishandled baggage can cause passengers considerable stress, inconvenience and expense. They also show that passengers often struggle to get reasonable redress from airlines after the event.
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However, she added: "Passengers should not have to take airlines' word for it. We would like to see 'name and shame' league tables on as wide a geographical basis as is possible to encourage airlines to avoid baggage problems in the first place. European Union-wide league tables published by the European Commission would be a good place to start.
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The council said more than half of mislaid bags involved connecting flights, with far lower rates among passengers on point-to-point journeys.
A spokesman said Ryanair's figures showed very low rates of baggage problems, and EasyJet's - which are not published - was likely to be similar, as they were both point-to-point airlines and many of their passengers travel with hand luggage only.
Geoff Want, BA's operations director, said:
"The volume of hold baggage going through Heathrow, the change in security procedures and some baggage system failures within terminal four have not helped our performance, but we accept that overall, the level of service we offered to our customers has not been up to an acceptable standard.
We fully apologise to customers who have been affected by delayed baggage in the past year.
"We have undertaken a significant amount of work to improve our performance in the current working environment, and we look forward to an improved operational performance this summer, and in the future."
REBECCA Bridgland, left, and Jennifer Selvaratnam were forced to borrow warm clothes from friends after their luggage was mislaid by British Airways en route to a New Year break in Norway.
The friends arrived in Oslo with no spare clothes when the bags were caught in problems at Heathrow, where they changed planes after flying from Edinburgh.
Ms Bridgland, 28, a personal assistant, said: "We arrived without our ski jackets. It was 10C when we left Scotland, but -4C over there.
We were given a care bag with a T-shirt in it - that's really going to help in sub-zero temperatures. Luckily, we were staying with friends who could lend us some clothes. But we've lost personal items that can't be replaced.
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On her return, Ms Bridgland was shocked to see what she described as a "luggage mountain" at Heathrow. Some suitcases had burst open, and others were blocking emergency exits and fire-fighting equipment.
She said: "Heathrow was a nightmare.
The bags were lying in heaps, abandoned by staff.
"We saw bags lying open, with wrapped Christmas presents inside. The British Airways staff were lovely, but no-one seemed to know what was going on.
They just told me it was an ongoing problem."
Ms Selvaratnam, 29, a GP, said: "They said our bag was last seen in Edinburgh at 8:15am when we checked in. It did spoil our holiday, especially when we were freezing cold.
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Actually I find BA much better than KLM. The two times BA has had problems with my luggage in the 14 years I have lived abroad were both caused by Heathrow Airport being a complete nightmare.Either the luggage handling machinery had broken down or the luggage handling staff were on strike, both events outwith BA's influence.
On the other hand KLM has lost my luggage each of the 5 times I have flown between Scotland and Switzerland in the past 6 years - each time, the suitcase has simply not been loaded on to the plane at Schiphol! And then KLM has the affrontery to claim it is lost, on its way, on the next plane, etc. The last time, it took 36 hours to arrive and was delivered in the middle of a wedding!
The problem lies with the baggage handlers rather than the airlines, therefore with the service companies such as servisair.
I have watched baggage handlers in action at a number of international airlines and I would never ever put anything breakable in my bags as these people treat your luggage like footballs, they throw bags about not caring where they land kick them drop them, its amazing the number of incidents reported is so low.
Both times I've flown with BA my luggage has been sent on a journey to somewhere else.
I flew into LA one time, one bag arrived the other 2 didn't. A week later 1 of the missing bags arrived and I had to collect it from the airport because they tried to deliver it but went to the wrong house and then said I had a bad address on my luggage. They went to the house next door, my neighbor told them I was next door but they wouldn't bring it to me.
THEN a week after that my 2nd missing piece arrived at LAX. BA phoned me to let me know it was there and should they deliver it. I told them I would come for it in about 3 hrs.
By the time I got there it had gone missing again. By the time I finally received it I was informed it was inadvertantly sent to AUCKLAND, then to San Francisco, then LAX, then to San Diego and back to LAX. It's not just Heathrow it's BA!
They just can't seem to get the job done right!!!
I lost my bag en route with BA from Pisa to Edinburgh last Saturday. It was a complete nightmare and I ended up back at the airport on Sunday night in desperation only to discover it had arrived but no one had bothered to log it! The original problem was that the BA label stuck on at check in in Pisa had come off; I always put my own label on with my address and so it was eventually traceable.
Otherwise I might well have lost it completely! BA are about to get a bill and a stoppy letter!
We have homes in Scotland and USA, kids at uni in both countries so we do a lot of travel.
No matter which airline we use about 60% of the time our bags don't arrive with us. We started taking an emergency overnight kit with us as hand luggage. But new hand luggage rules have been tightened up it is not as easy to do.
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