British Airways Offers a New Fast Bag-Drop Before Check-In

British Airways has teamed up with AirPortr to create new convenient fast bag drop areas before heading to the departure’s concourse at British Airways’ London flagship Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport.

With the first drop-off point planned at the Heathrow Express train platforms, customers will be able to quickly and securely drop off their luggage at peak times**, before travelling bag-free straight through to security. AirPortr’s team seals, secure, and check-in bags for customers’ flights, before being collected from the reclaim at their destination.

Customers can also choose to book luggage collections from their home address, from £19*. This service allows travellers to check in their bags from the comfort of their own doorstep, with a vetted delivery driver. AirPortr ensures that once collected, bags are sealed and monitored throughout the delivery process.

Passengers can track their luggage online from the moment it leaves their doorstep, or at the T5 key access areas, right up to the bag being loaded onto the aircraft. Customers using the services also receive digital bag tag receipts.

Tom Stevens, British Airways’ Director of Customer Experience said: “Ahead of July 19, we have been busy investigating and trialling ways to ensure that we can offer our customers the smoothest journey through the airport possible.

We believe this contactless initiative with AirPortr allows our customers to avoid baggage check-in queues and move through the airport without the hassle of carrying luggage, as well as offering the reassurance that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safe delivery of their bags from doorstep to destination.”

Randel Darby, CEO and Founder of AirPortr Technologies said: “We’re proud to be able to play our part in helping British Airways and its customers with the restart of international travel this summer. Seamless, contact-free journeys through the airport are in everyone’s best interests and removing bags from the equation makes this possible for many more people. As the specialist in this space, we are excited to be working with British Airways once again to lead the development of innovative new baggage solutions, for the benefit of customers travelling in a post-pandemic world.”

As well as the AirPortr’s luggage service, British Airways also offers a special twilight baggage drop service the night before travel from Heathrow Terminal 5, when customers are able to deliver their bags to the airport terminal between 4 and 9 pm the day before they travel.

The airline is continuing to explore how it integrates other technologies to further streamline the customer experience, including trialling digital travel apps to ensure customers meet the entry requirements for their destination before arriving at the airport. Customers can currently use VeriFLY on all flights to the US, Canada, and France as well as on all inbound flights. The airline has also recently announced its involvement in IATA’s Travel Pass. The digital travel solution will begin on British Airways flights from Heathrow to Geneva and Zurich.

British Airways customers travelling to Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, can now also upload their negative Covid-19 test result and other documentation directly into ba.com for verification before travel.

Elsewhere the airline is trialling new intelligent queuing technology from Qmatic, that enables customers to virtually queue at check-in by pre-booking their slot time in advance of arriving at the airport.

By Joe Cusmano