World’s most efficient/inefficient baggage handlers?

[sweens]

Like a lot of FF’s I spend a lot of time hanging around baggage carousels waiting for my luggage to appear.
And it’s got me thinking, why does it generally take so long in Australia for luggage to make its way from a flight to the carousel…is it the fault of the QF Baggage Handlers or an inefficient system , I am imagining that all local airlines have the same issues am, I wrong here?
As an example I recently travelled back to Sydney from Perth with my family on QF, landing around 2pm on a Saturday…therefore the airport was not overly busy…our luggage started to appear 1 hour after we landed on carousel 4, we were then told that some luggage would be on carousel 2 “as the boys had made a mistake” we had five cases, two came on carousel 4 and then three on carousel 2.
I checked with the QF agent re the delay and she just said “it’s a bit slow today”
So my question is: Which of the world’s airports has the most efficient baggage handlers and which has the worst?
My vote…
Best-Changi Singapore.
Worst.. Most Australian airports.
Any thoughts out there?

 

[Keith009]

Best - SIN
Worst - LHR T3 or LAX T4 (especially when 3 or 4 flights share one belt)

 

[mannej]

I don't know if it is because MH124 arrives late at night, but I always find KUL to take forever to get the bags out.

Australian airports can be mixed, as I have been off the plane, collected DF and luggage and out within 15 minutes (CX171), but then mid afternoon it does take a while at PER.

 

[NM]

In my experience:

Good: HKG, SIN, KUL
Bad: MIA, DFW

At KUL, the screen at the baggage carousel shows the "time to first bags" and its always been correct in my experience. So no waiting around wondering when the bags may start to appear.

 

[Bang4Buck]

Best: NRT or anywhere in Japan for that matter.
Worst: SVO, though I only tried twice, but never again.

 

[joeymelb]

My vote…
Best-Changi Singapore.
Worst.. Most Australian airports.
Any thoughts out there?

+1 for Changi for being the best. Never once have I need to wait for my luggage in that airport, it seemed the baggage handlers were mocking pax for walking too slow.

MEL and SYD were (since my last experience was Dec 09) hopeless, the belt malfunctioned, baggage handlers dent and scartch my luggage. The priority tag is (IMHO) for reference only... I seriously doubt any handlers Australian airports passed their basic reading tests.

BKK is pretty bad too. It definitely down there competing with Australian ports.

 

[drewbles]

The most amazing experience I have ever had was at DUS. Air Berlin flight from ORY to DUS. We parked at a bay without air-bridge so were bussed to the terminal. From seatbelt signs out to the bus moving was no more than 5 minutes. The trip to the terminal was 2-3 minutes. By the time we had arrived at the terminal, the carousel had already started and several bags were coming through (and it was not left overs from previous flights, there was a steady stream of them filtering out).

German efficiency shining through! The a/c was a little old, but in brilliant condition cabin wise.

If only some other airports (and airlines) could take a leaf (Do you hear me MEL Int terminal baggage handlers? )

Have also in the past arrived in at T4 in LAX to have my bags going around on the F/J carousel by the time I cleared customs. In both March and October this year, SFO was a similar experience. Mind you, the amount of time it took to clear customs, i'd expect my bags to be going around (was at least 20 minutes in the queue whilst the "friendly" TSA interrogators..errm agents completed the life history of every arrival and took their hand prints and deeds to their firstborn

 

[fiscal]

SIN - best - Always prompt
PER Domestic - worst - The past few times, priority baggage came out well after ordinary baggage. Sometimes one piece early, one piece late.

 

[anat0l]

Do you want my honest opinion?

The number of airports/baggage handling operations that have got it right I can count on only one hand. I'm not as seasoned a globetrotter as some of the others on this forum, but still most places are glaringly appalling.

With the exception of the regional airports, I'd have to say almost every single domestic and international airport in major centres in Australia are appalling, and to be perfectly honest if I had to use real words to describe it, I'd probably be moderated and this post would be deleted. :evil: :evil: So I'm being very, very nice here. I have never, ever had an arrival in a major Australian airport where the belt has started within 5 minutes of my arriving there. By that time, between 25 - 75% of the plane has reached baggage claim, nullifying the benefits of sitting up front or having express lane immigration / Smart Gate.

Like most people, my main gripe is the time it takes for bags to hit the belt after disembarkation. Apart from that, the next biggest gripe I have is complete disregard for priority baggage tags (transfer baggage is a bit of an enigma here, since it is very easy for priority tagged bags to lose their "magic" when they are being transferred on a through-check itinerary, especially when across long itineraries, multiple airlines (even if in the same alliance) or multiple countries). And I hate it when the baggage belt comes to life and one of the following happens:

• The belt runs for about 5 minutes and no luggage appears
• The belt delivers about 5 pieces of baggage and then there is some sort of lull for at least 5 minutes - sometimes the belt stops and other times it just keeps rolling, but no new luggage for a while; sometimes the first 5 pieces are not priority bags!
• The belt delivers bags at a pathetic rate of around 1 piece per 1-2 minutes

Here's my critique or otherwise on airports and baggage handling:

• Australian Domestic
  • Average performance: ADL, BNE D, MEL T1, SYD T3 - mostly getting it right, about 65-90% of the time
  • Shameful performance: PER D (T2) - slow starter and disregards priority; CBR - disregards priority (I don't care if 85% of the plane is on magenta tags; the no-colour tags seem to come out first - explain!); CNS D - slow starter and slow delivery rate
• Australian International
  • The best experience for baggage delivery from an Australian international airport is.......SYD T1! Sure, they do sometimes need to really pull a finger out to start the belt and delivery, but of all my other international experiences they do it right the most (probably just over 50% of the time, which says a lot about the rest...)
  • Shame list: my own home town, BNE I - slow starter and delivery rate; MEL T2 - absolutely abysmal - very slow starter and appalling delivery rate (at least at the start of delivery; gradually speeds up as time goes on)
  • The thing that irks me the most about my experiences at Australian international airports is that the performance is woeful even when I arrive at non-peak times (e.g. not at the early hours of the morning with the Kangaroo flights). Again, SYD T1 surprises me at times by delivering the bags fairly quickly even during peak times; something which I have yet to see at MEL T2 or BNE I.
• Outside Australia
  • I haven't had too many bad experiences outside Australia, but otherwise the airports that have handling which are good or better than decent IME are: HKG (actually, excellent!), MUC T2, AKL I, AKL (NZ regional) D (OK, doesn't really count), KIX, MNL (surprised?)
  • Last time I went to SIN not only did it take more than 15 minutes for bags to start rolling out, they then were delivered initially at a rate of 1 piece per minute and priority meant squat. OK we arrived at T1 (non-SQ / non-*A terminal).
  • Only had two LHR experiences: one in T5 off a BA UK domestic; one in T1 off a LH intra-Europe short haul. Both satisfactory (but no snow or new T5 bugs in any case). It does "help" that you have to walk a mini-marathon to get from gate to arrivals procedures (exception: UK domestic arriving at T5), so by the time you process immigration and then walk another non-trivial sortie to get to baggage claim, you'd be damned waiting more than 5 minutes for the bags to start arriving.

In summary: Australian international airport baggage handling sucks.

 

[Hvr]

Best in no particular order:
NRT, SIN, HKG. When I went through BKK with first class tags in OCT 08 my bag was off very quickly, so no complaints there.

Worst: BKK domestic, all Australian domestics.

However, CBR is either amazingly brilliant or so slow you could go home and come back next day to avoid the queues.

 

[Bang4Buck]

Best in no particular order:
NRT, SIN, HKG. When I went through BKK with first class tags in OCT 08 my bag was off very quickly, so no complaints there...

Actually, travelling F in Asia I would put them in that oder; NRT, SIN, HKG.

YMMV.

 

[dajop]

SIN, ICN, HKG all good, can't comment on NRT. Last time at PEK also very good. BKK & KUL can be patchy. Was surprised last two times at MNL very efficient for an airport I don't rate. It's always amazing how often I am in a taxi in SIN within 15 mins of landing, with luggage (record is 10mins). That is seriously impressive, often considering most of that time is taken up taxi-ing and walking.

Domestic in Australia is just not consistent, that's my main complaint, sometimes greats sometimes oh so slow.

MEL intl ... well less said the better. Although Menzies does a better job than QF handling. But to be fair, a few steps and you're in immigration and through to luggage. At some airports, by the time you wait for and catch a train (eg HKG, PEK), or walk the equivalent of a half marathon (BKK) a considerable amount of time can be consumed actually getting to the luggage collection area, so the wait doesn't seem so bad.

And ... the best yet.... GLI ....

 

[Sprucegoose]

SIN - best - Always prompt
PER Domestic - worst - The past few times, priority baggage came out well after ordinary baggage. Sometimes one piece early, one piece late.

complain every time and send off an email, even perth people will get it eventually.

 

[Keith009]

Oh yes ICN is great too.

Always a fair wait at KUL...

 

[UncleDude]

Worst: Any Airport where Crew Bags Come off Before First/Priority

Best: Any Airport where mine comes off in First 10

PS LHR T5 Should get an award for most Improved now First is always less than 20 mins.

 

[Sunhill]

Worst: British Airways/London T5 ... I have a 40% chance of my baggage being "lost" - you guys seem to be worried about how many minutes it takes to show up!

Best: Qantas ... on two counts.
1. While flying for work I usually have a large, bulky bag that needs to go through special baggage due to its contents. Not valuable in any way, just fragile. In past experience, on Virgin and even Jetstar flights I've collected my bag to find it has gone through much more turbulence that I did! No such trouble when flying Q.
2. When dealing with lost baggage, it has been returned to me ASAP. This includes the aforementioned cough-up by BA, and I had to go through Qantas to clear up the mess.

 

[obrienja]

Like everyone else all Australian domestic and in my experience Aus International airports are poor.

The most efficient has to be Malta (MLA) where they can manage to steal stuff from the bags and still get them onto the belt before most passengers get off the plane / thru EU immigration.

 

[Keith009]

Worst: British Airways/London T5 ... I have a 40% chance of my baggage being "lost" - you guys seem to be worried about how many minutes it takes to show up!

I seem to be v lucky in that regard - never had any bags lost or delayed to/from/via LHR even with some complex itineraries. I've also found T5 to be relatively efficient baggage wise, whereas T3 is still cough.

*touchwood*

 

[straitman]

The short version of a longish story:!:

Worst as that is easiest to remember was Boston domestic. Late at night with no other flights and bags took over 90 min. Next worst was/is Perth as several others have explained although on one occasion my wires name was being called as we can down the escalator. The news was that her bag had actually missed the flight! (at least they knew about it)

Best is a little harder. I suppose that Sydney & Auckland International win that but they are not always consistant.

 

[Commuter]

In my experience,

Best: NRT
Worst: Most Australian airports + LHR (any terminal)