HEBRON, Ky. — A CVG passenger among the first to fly the airport's new nonstop route to London said she made it back from across the pond but her luggage didn't.
Lisa Smith, who lives in Lexington, was optimistic about her British Airways flight from London's Heathrow Airport to CVG on June 7, she said. The route launched on June 1.
"And things have been a disaster ever since," Smith said.
Smith said when Flight 121 touched down, she and the other passengers were notified of a "baggage incident" at Heathrow. Her checked bag, along with about 80 others, was never loaded on the plane.
"It was definitely frustrating," she said.
Passengers whose luggage was left in London were told to check for their name on a piece of paper once they exited the plane and then scan a QR code to file a claim, Smith said. She said the problems only took off from there.
"Ironically, I booked the flight because it was nonstop in the hopes that it would prevent any mishaps with my checked baggage," Smith said. "But that's not what happened."
Because British Airways currently only operates one flight to and from CVG every other day, the bags weren't flown over until last Friday evening, and because of the limited service, the airline doesn't staff any employees in the airport on days there aren't flights.
Smith said British Airways never notified her that her bag had arrived. She only found out because she checked the location of the AirTag she left inside it.
She went to the airport the next day to retrieve her bag, but there was no British Airways staff to help her, she said.
"It didn't really seem like they had their sea legs yet with this flight," Smith said. "It was very unusual that they didn't, under this extenuating circumstance, send some of their contract staff to the airport Saturday to try and sort this out. If you were trying to be proactive and trying to get to the bottom of this there was just dead end after dead end."
She said other airline employees and airport staff did direct her to a storage closet where the bags were likely locked away.
"I went up to the door with my air tag and it said that's exactly the room they were in," she said.
Smith pointed out another concern. She said British Airways is not a listed airline on CVG's "Baggage" page. Because of that, she said there was no quick access to a customer service number in the event of a baggage delay.
In a statement, a CVG spokesperson told WCPO they were aware the incident happened.
"We have been told that British Airways contacted the impacted customers to handle the situation and bags are being delivered to customers. Staff of the airport are not able to handle airline baggage as that is the responsibility of the airline," the statement said.
Because individual airlines are responsible for baggage, WCPO reached out to British Airways for additional comment. A spokesperson responded with a statement:
"We want all our customers to have an excellent experience when flying with us and have made every effort to unite travelers with their baggage as quickly as possible. This included bringing in extra resources to support our new team at CVG Airport. We apologize for the delay and any inconvenience caused."
British Airways eventually initiated the reunification process Sunday, Smith said. She received a text message alerting her that her bag would be delivered to her via a courier service.
Per policy, the airline sends delayed bags directly to customers, using the address that they've provided.
Smith received her bag early Monday afternoon but she said she feels British Airways effort to return it could have been greater.
"There did not seem to be any urgency," said Smith. "You expected British Airways to sort of remember that they were flying in and out of Cincinnati and that did not seem to be the case."
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