T5 opening fiasco - luggage now being auctioned off

T5 opening fiasco - luggage now being auctioned off

The People (UK)

6 July 2008

T5OLD.. TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER

How Heathrow's lost luggage ends up under hammer.. in Tooting!
By Daniel Jones

Thousands of bags lost during the shambolic opening of Heathrow
Airport's Terminal 5 are being flogged off - for as little as A
FIVER.

The unclaimed luggage - still stuffed with holiday clothes - is going
under the hammer at an auction house in Tooting, south London.

More than 28,000 cases went missing on the day the £4billion T5
complex opened in March.

The chaos continued for weeks and victims included supermodel Naomi
Campbell, 38, who landed in court when she blew her top over the
fiasco.

Designer bags and their contents which haven't been claimed after 21
days are now being sold to the highest bidder at Tooting auctioneer
Greasbys.

Last week a case made by fashion giant Louis Vuitton - which charges
£1,000 for some luggage - fetched just £45.

Cameras and toiletries packed in bags are sold separately while
personal items such as family photos are destroyed.

One buyer said: "You can pick things up for £5 - but the better bags
go for more because there's more chance of nicer clothes in the good
ones."

http :// www .people.co.uk/news/tm headline=t5old-to-the-highest-bidder&method=full&objectid=20633464&siteid=93463-name page.html

http :// tinyurl,com /56k8qy

Re: T5 opening fiasco - luggage now being auctioned off

On 7/6/2008 7:32 PM CJB plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger and said:
> The People (UK)
>
> 6 July 2008
>
> T5OLD.. TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
>
> How Heathrow's lost luggage ends up under hammer.. in Tooting!
> By Daniel Jones
>
> Thousands of bags lost during the shambolic opening of Heathrow
> Airport's Terminal 5 are being flogged off - for as little as A
> FIVER.
>
> The unclaimed luggage - still stuffed with holiday clothes - is going
> under the hammer at an auction house in Tooting, south London.
>
> More than 28,000 cases went missing on the day the £4billion T5
> complex opened in March.
>
> The chaos continued for weeks and victims included supermodel Naomi
> Campbell, 38, who landed in court when she blew her top over the
> fiasco.
>
> Designer bags and their contents which haven't been claimed after 21
> days are now being sold to the highest bidder at Tooting auctioneer
> Greasbys.
>
> Last week a case made by fashion giant Louis Vuitton - which charges
> £1,000 for some luggage - fetched just £45.
>
> Cameras and toiletries packed in bags are sold separately while
> personal items such as family photos are destroyed.
>
> One buyer said: "You can pick things up for £5 - but the better bags
> go for more because there's more chance of nicer clothes in the good
> ones."
>
> http :// www .people.co.uk/news/tm headline=t5old-to-the-highest-bidder&method=full&objectid 633464&siteid“463-name page.html
>
> http :// tinyurl,com /56k8qy
>

Why so excited? All major USA based airlines store unclaimed lost
luggage in a town in Texas,US. Once a year when their storage space has
no more room, the contents of the Central Lost Luggage location is
auctioned off. Items seven years old or later are auctioned.

This procedure has been in place since the early 1960's. It is a way of
recovering some of the overhead cost to store vast volumes of unclaimed
luggage. You'd be surprised at some of the items. Pets are even lost and
unclaimed. Pets are not stored at the warehouse. They are housed at
ASPCA approved kennels. The wait period is much shorter, then the pets
are offered up for adoption.


--

To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http :// home.earthlink,net /~brian1951

Re: T5 opening fiasco - luggage now being auctioned off

Brian wrote on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:00:55 -0400:

> On 7/6/2008 7:32 PM CJB plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger
> and said:
>> The People (UK)
>>
>> 6 July 2008
>>
>> T5OLD.. TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
>>
>>
> Why so excited? All major USA based airlines store unclaimed
> lost luggage in a town in Texas,US. Once a year when their
> storage space has no more room, the contents of the Central
> Lost Luggage location is auctioned off. Items seven years old
> or later are auctioned.

>
I cannot see why it is impossible to contact the owner of a properly
labelled but misdirected piece of luggage. There are things like
telephones and, come to think of it, I might also put my email address
on the label. I may have been lucky but, tho' I know the sickening
feeling of "Lord, there are no more bags on the carousel and they've
lost it!", the stuff has been delivered to me within a day.


--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

Re: T5 opening fiasco - luggage now being auctioned off


"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@verizon.not> wrote in message
news:hgvck.639$HY.238@trnddc01...
> Brian wrote on Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:00:55 -0400:
>
>> On 7/6/2008 7:32 PM CJB plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger
>> and said:
>>> The People (UK)
>>>
>>> 6 July 2008
>>>
>>> T5OLD.. TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
>>>
>>>
>> Why so excited? All major USA based airlines store unclaimed
>> lost luggage in a town in Texas,US. Once a year when their
>> storage space has no more room, the contents of the Central
>> Lost Luggage location is auctioned off. Items seven years old
>> or later are auctioned.
>
>>
> I cannot see why it is impossible to contact the owner of a properly
> labelled but misdirected piece of luggage. There are things like
> telephones and, come to think of it, I might also put my email address on
> the label. I may have been lucky but, tho' I know the sickening feeling of
> "Lord, there are no more bags on the carousel and they've lost it!", the
> stuff has been delivered to me within a day.
>
>
> --
>
> James Silverton
> Potomac, Maryland
>

My experience is similar to yours-- I'd be actively looking for my stuff.
But a few ideas:

People forget to mark their luggage
People didn't change their marked info when they moved, etc.
The bags have been "lost" for so long that the person has moved on, or died,
etc.
People have been reimbursed and really don't care if they don't get the old
stuff back
People never get the message from the airline (new office phone, lazy kid)
Lazy airline employee's leave message on wrong answering machine

There must be many more!

Re: T5 opening fiasco - luggage now being auctioned off



>>
>
> Why so excited? All major USA based airlines store unclaimed lost luggage
> in a town in Texas,US. Once a year when their storage space has no more
> room, the contents of the Central Lost Luggage location is auctioned off.
> Items seven years old or later are auctioned.
>
>

There's an "outlet" in Boaz, Alabama, as well.

Re: T5 opening fiasco - luggage now being auctioned off

On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:19:31 -0400, Sarah Banick wrote:
>>
>> Why so excited? All major USA based airlines store unclaimed lost luggage
>> in a town in Texas,US. Once a year when their storage space has no more
>> room, the contents of the Central Lost Luggage location is auctioned off.
>> Items seven years old or later are auctioned.
>
> There's an "outlet" in Boaz, Alabama, as well.

Yep.
http :// shop.unclaimedbaggage,com /