Passenger Experience - Blast from Barbados

Passenger Experience - Blast from Barbados

Given that this old cannon on the lawn of the excellent Bajan B&B, Bayfield House has not been fired since the late 1700's there is no danger of it responding to my lighted taper!!  It is however metaphorically pointed at BA for the way in which the 3+ hour delay to our flight from Gatwick to Barbados was dealt with. 

We arrived in the departure lounge the usual 2 hrs in advance of the scheduled 11.20 flight to find that a 1 hour 10 min  delay was posted. There had been no text or call about the delay to my mobile. Nor were there any subsequent updates on the screen (or on the BA.com site either).  Hence constant vigilance was needed to check the boarding time which was eventually posted at about 13.30.  Taking our seats in premium economy we then had to wait more than an hour in the cabin with no aircon or ventilation.  The reasons for our delay and lack of a/c were explained by an apologetic captain as soon as everyone had boarded. The delay was apparently caused by an unusual technical problem in that the waste valve for the 777's lavatory system was frozen and the waste tank could not be emptied.  Eventually about 15 mins before we pulled back from the stand a portable a/c unit was attached forward.  However it appeared that this only serviced the 777's front Club and First sections.  Certainly the premium economy and economy section did not appear to get any benefit at all nor did they get offered drinks.  What was therefore even more galling was that whilst we could see the club section passengers were continually being plied with the usual refreshments, no one else aft of the club section was even offered a glass of water, despite the rising temperature in the after cabins.  Naturally the loo's were out of bounds as well! Not good PR for an airline that we are told is there to serve. 

Arriving at Bridgetown, since there were no other scheduled landings when we eventually arrived, we actually cleared immigration very quickly.  Sadly the momentum rapidly tailed off at the baggage carousel.  There was a considerable delay before the first bags from the flight tipped onto the carousel.  However instead of a continuous stream of luggage it appeared as if they were using wheel barrows  to transfer from the 'plane!! a few bags would appear then a prolonged gap......more bags then another gap .... our smallest case came quite early but the next one came over twenty minutes later leaving one more to come.  Mercifully, eventually it did as we were beginning to panic considering we once had a case make the flight to Barbados via Miami arriving 36 hours later .... The bag was literally the last off the carousel, just under an hour after the first bag appeared.   How is it that three bags left at the bag-drop at the same time can take the best part of an hour to arrive separately on the carousel??

I suspect it may have been the orange "heavy" labels on the last two bags and the bagage handlers at Gatwick getting their own back. Has anyone got a theory why baggage get separated like that?