British Airways will let you check in luggage on the Heathrow Express airport platforms

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• Will in SFO says:

  17 Jul17 July 05:25

  Things going almost full circle….who remembers when Paddington had proper check in desks- weren’t they located in what is now The Lawn area which is home to Boots, M&S and Sainsburys now. We must be going back to about 1998.

  Didn’t take Network Rail/BAA (as it was) long to realize the space was much better served by being home to retail outlets. IIRC the plan at the time was that similar check in desks would be installed at Liverpool Street for Stansted and St Pancras.

  • Harpo says:

    17 Jul17 July 08:38

    And there was one at Victoria just in front of the Gatwick express – went after 9/11 IIRC.

  • Will says:

    17 Jul17 July 09:19

    Hong Kong still has this. You can check in in the city centre and drop bags, get your boarding pass, spend half a day mooching around HK, then make your way to the airport later already checked in with just hand luggage.

    Just a shame you can now be in prisoners by the CCP there for simply questioning why it is no longer independent from the CCP rule.

  • flyforfun says:

    17 Jul17 July 18:16

    Me! I remember this!! I used to work down the road and it was fantastic to drop my case off before work and then just go straight onto the HEX after work. HEX was only about £7 to £10 iirc, and there used to be lots of discounts with the Heathrow Shopping card too.

• John says:

  17 Jul17 July 05:39

  You could travel to T2/3 and take the Heathrow express to T5

• Lou says:

  17 Jul17 July 06:05

  This would have been super useful when I used to live that neck of the woods. Get rid of the bag, and then run errands before heading to the airport. I would see it as handy if you’re staying in a hotel near Paddington, and want to get rid of your case after checkout for an evening flight

  • Lou says:

    17 Jul17 July 06:07

    Whoops, I thought I read 10pm, not am!!

  • Lou says:

    17 Jul17 July 06:08

    I’d still use it though, ditch the suitcase as soon as possible

    • Genghis says:

      17 Jul17 July 06:15

      The bag drop is at the airport. Took me a while to get it.

      • Lou says:

        17 Jul17 July 06:20

        Oh?! In that case, complete pointless!!

  • John says:

    17 Jul17 July 06:09

    Wouldn’t you just leave your luggage at the hotel rather than spending £50 to go to the airport and back (or £11 if you planned it in advance…)

    • Lou says:

      17 Jul17 July 06:15

      I thought you could just drop your bag off at the station?

      • KP says:

        17 Jul17 July 07:58

        That’s the whole point!!

• Andrew says:

  17 Jul17 July 06:37

  What a ridiculous idea!! All it saves you is taking a lift upstairs with your luggage. If the service was at Paddington and available any time on the day of your flight as was the case years ago and in places like Hong Kong it’s useful. But this is pointless. It’s odd that all the travel blogs have picked up BA’s press release on this and giving them free publicity for something so useless.

  • Genghis says:

    17 Jul17 July 06:41

    Yes, the one in Hong Kong is useful. Drop bags to explore the city for the rest of the day and if travelling BA means you don’t have to wait until t-3h for check in desks to open so can have more time in the lounges.

    • Steve says:

      17 Jul17 July 07:17

      Yeah, it’s the same in Seoul. You can drop your bags at two big stations in the city center in the morning and you have still some time to wander around for a few hours.

      I never understood why London doesn’t have this. It would solve so many problems (cramped tube to the Heathrow etc).

      • Jonathan says:

        17 Jul17 July 09:07

        “I never understood why London doesn’t have this.“

        It would be very expensive in manpower & transport costs. Bags would need shifting very regularly to accommodate different flight times or you restrict it to eg. minimum 4 hours pre departure & hugely restrict uptake. Then there’s security issues.

        It would be a great service but airlines won’t pay in era of race to bottom (even pre-Covid) & nor will enough passengers.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          17 Jul17 July 09:34

          I disagree. If it’s at a train station which already serves Heathrow it’s a storage carriage at the end with every service and someone to load/unload.

          Security shouldn’t be an issue as many other countries manage it.

          My best guess is one they decided on these service cuts years ago they have lost the infrastructure at both ends to make it feasible. (Unless cargo already arrives by train at Heathrow)

    • Sam G says:

      17 Jul17 July 07:22

      I’m a bit confused, isn’t this what this is ? Drop off your bag at Paddington in the morning after you check out of your hotel say and then go to T5 security directly later that day. I find this v useful in HK

      There wouldn’t be any point really in doing this and then getting directly onto the train

      • AJA says:

        17 Jul17 July 07:30

        But the drop of is at LHR T5, NOT Paddington so you still travel with your luggage.

        This is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Or more accurately the wrong solution to a problem that could exist. And in my best Dragons Den voice, for that reason I’m out.

      • Andrew says:

        17 Jul17 July 07:44

        Nope. It’s just saving you that HUGE journey up the elevator shaft to departures and that HUGE walk across the concourse to the bag drop desk.

      • Sam G says:

        17 Jul17 July 08:00

        Ohhhh LOL that’s ridiculous! How is this newsworthy

        Makes a bit of sense that they’re adding another peak time option but nothing to shout about

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    17 Jul17 July 08:55

    Me thinks there are two drivers here – firstly airportr quite obviously has all the capacity in the world right now given air travel collapsed after they had just got going (bag of crap though their service is anyway but that’s another story.)

    Secondly, while there’s little demand now it will grow so this is an organically soft launch of sorts, allowing them to test the market and adapt operations without, as is often the case, having to throw themselves into the lions den of a full service from day 0

    If it fails it’ll be inexpensive but at least it’s something for now…

    • Jonathan says:

      17 Jul17 July 09:11

      I think it’s basically about driving awareness of Airportr. I found them very useful & pricing very reasonable when I lived in central London. None of my friends/colleagues had ever heard of them though.

      Not had opportunity to try them since I left London but I believe the pick up options are significantly less than within M25.

  • ABS says:

    17 Jul17 July 22:25

    Have any of you seen the queues at T5 lately? You’re talking over 1 hour on some occasions.

• Chaz says:

  17 Jul17 July 07:18

  That has absolutely nailed a problem that didn’t / doesn’t exist.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    17 Jul17 July 08:58

    Agreed – ‘take your bag all the way to the airport, and we’ll take it upstairs in the lift for you’ 😂

    • Dubious says:

      17 Jul17 July 10:40

      Ah but surely this is just following the lead of hotel porters. You drag your bag all over the world and then they want to take it the last 50metres from the hotel lobby to your room, usually via a lift… and usually requiring you to wait around in the room for a while until they show up.

      • Lady London says:

        17 Jul17 July 14:11

        plus tip …don’t forget

• Simon B says:

  17 Jul17 July 08:13

  Bring back the days of BA Baggage Check-in at Paddington Station! I found that genuinely useful until it was axed

• Tom says:

  17 Jul17 July 08:23

  Not to pile on, but I also don’t see the point of this, speaking as someone that has actually used the Airportr service in the past. I imagine most people that will even know about this service will be frequent flyers who have access to a priority desk which reduces any benefit even further. A very odd service which BA must be subsiding to take the pressure off check in desks at peak times or something.

• Jmac says:

  17 Jul17 July 08:32

  Aside from it being useless, is it also chargeable?

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