Birmingham Airport

This airport really is let down by it's baggage handlers. For the second time in as many months I've waited and waited for bag with no information and no reasoning given. Yesterday Monarch flight from Rome arrived at 13.20. Got through passport control to baggage hall at 13.40 and signs directed us to belt 7. Nothing happened for 10 minutes. then the belt started. No bags came out for several minutes then 10 appeared. These ten went round and around with no one claiming them for another 10 minutes before another 8 bags came out. Over 100 people standing staring at the same 18 bags going around and around for 45 mins before the rest appeared. There was no information no one at the information counter. All of the bags were on the same flight. They all get unloaded on a big trailer. There can be no good reason for a handful to be delivered to the belt at a time. Either they are all there or they aren't. While this was happening 6 other flights all of which landed after ours received their luggage. The system does not work.

Having used BHX as airport of choice for many business trips without hassle I was disappointed when landing on 1/9/14 that the airport was hugely understaffed from a baggage handling point of view (we were told just 3 staff for the whole terminal). To set the scene landed at 00.30 from Ibiza (Monarch flight 10 mins early) into baggage claim 00.45 (2 young children in tow) 2am still no baggage. We're told over PA that due to staff shortages we can wait an unknown period of time for our bag or it will be couriered to us within 7 days. Like I said earlier we have 2 young children it approx 2 am and our booked taxi is threatening to leave us for another booking. At this stage we left the airport thinking our luggage will be delivered in good faith as promised but no due to the baggage handling debacle BHX called the next day for us to return to the airport (45 mins each way) to collect our luggage. After many emails we begrudgingly collected our luggage along with an hours wait.

For a small airport Birmingham is excellent. It has great transport links good facilities and check in and security has always been hassle free. Everything is easy to find and nothing is too far to walk to. What lets it down is the baggage handlers and ground staff. I travel through this airport a couple of times a year and every time have sat waiting on the plane for steps to arrive so we can get off or for buses to take us to the terminal. Baggage delivery is the worst I've ever experienced. The most recent flight we were waiting almost an hour after 3 bags came through and then nothing for over 45 minutes!

Arrived at the Air France check in after surprising my wife with a trip to Paris for our Pearl wedding anniversary. The good mood we were in soon evaporated after being confronted by the woman on the check in desk. The crime we had committed was not to use the self check system. The facial expressions she used were akin to someone chewing a wasp! With us both not being frequent fliers we thought we could go to her for help to say her demeanour was hostile was understatement I explained that we hadn't used the system before to a surly reply of "there's always a first time". Well this is the first and last time I will be using Birmingham Airport.

As a brum resident I regularly use this airport for short flights to the continent. Most recently was back in April for a short flight to Hanover. The airport really needs to work with the train operators to get 24 hour train services put on as for the number of early morning flights the public transport provision to the airport is very poor. There were no real glaring issues with check-in although whenever I've used the self check-in machines they have frustrated the hell out of me! They simply don't work and I've had to use the desks as a result to get my boarding pass. The departures process is not too bad compared to other airports. My only gripe with this airport is that it's departure lounge is a bit of a joke. Its a bit claustrophobic and cluttered. I wouldn't really want to be stuck here for more than 2 hours.

After a 2 hour delay by Flybe on Sat 31st May with no explanation we were delayed getting off the plane for another 20 mins and then to round it all off nicely we had an 3/4 hour delay for baggage with no information about what was happening and not a soul in sight to ask. Returning on 16th June again with Flybe there was a delay in booking in baggage and I found the personnel very brusque by the time I got through security I had to rush to the gate with no time to stop and browse if I'd wanted to. Birmingham airport really need to get their act together in future I will travel to East Midlands.

Arriving at 1.18pm on Friday 23rd May - 10min or more wait for steps to be brought to the aircraft for us to get off the plane then over 1 hour wait for baggage to arrive in the baggage hall. No information and no one around to ask what was going on It seems Menzies do not know what they are doing. Will think twice about using BHX in future unless they get their act together.

Friday 23 May horrendous problems on baggage claim from Malaga. Carousel 6 was allegedly selected and when we got there the hall was heaving. Passengers on flights from Frankfurt Rome and Brussels were still waiting for their luggage to arrive and some ha already been there over an hour and a half. We then waited for an hour no officials could be found baggage reclaim desk had not been told of the problem and they had requested the attendance of managers from BHX and the handling agent but no one appeared. No announcements were made until eventually we were told by a member of staff that the. Malaga luggage was coming in on another carousel in a different part of the building. Some people had taxis waiting and had to pay huge extra costs but were being stonewalled when they asked for some form of compensation. The whole situation was unacceptable And badly handled. This is not the first time I have had problems with baggage handling issues at BHX and serious lack of communication.

If you are flying to Corfu on a Friday morning with Thomson Airways arrive in plenty of time to do the check in. The problem we found was that the handling agent were unable to control the situation. At the same time to check in there is an Eastern Airways flight to New York and countless passengers were overweight in their baggage the Agent allowed these pax to unpack their cases at the check in desk to get down to the allowed limit. We saw many people taking clothes out and then wearing extra shirts jumpers jackets etc this took so long by these people in front of us. A complete failing by the Agent where the Supervisors and or Station Manager must have been sleeping. It wasn't funny to arrive in plenty time then experienced the situation to be the last two people to board our flight. You have been warned.

Arrived back in Birmingham in the early hours of Sunday morning 11th April 2014 on a Thomson flight from Paphos. The walk from the aircraft to the airport custom control was horrendous such a long distance and as I have walking difficulties this added to the problem. I was not offered assistance or told of how long the walk was going to be which was very bad customer service. Surely when improvements to the airport are being made contingencies of walking stairways should have been considered.