Heathrow Baggage brouhaha

[openseat]

Bags lost at Heathrow Airport | What to do | Tips

I ask Sunhil if instead of waiting, I could go into London for the day and he could ring my mobile when my bag arrives and I could return and collect it.
"It's not possible," Sunhil says, explaining that once I've left the reclaim area I can't come back.
"I suggest you find a seat and wait."
I take his advice and sit on a wire seat.

My experience is that you CAN go back through to the reclaim area in T5 as I have had to do it three times concerning the same bag which was lost, like the woman in this story on a flight from AMS (the bag eventually caught up with me in FCO three days later thanks to the dedicated work by one BA staffer at T5.)
IF you have to go back through to reclaim it is just a matter of going through staff security near the southern end on the arrivals level. I think that you can even bluff it if you like - just tell them that baggage services asked you to go through.