Just thought I'd share my experience with you. I happened to be on the VS017 on Saturday 12th August 2006. As you can imagine, Heathrow was a complete shambles. People were queueing up to be allowed to queue (which is incredibly British, I think!). The flight was delayed six hours in the end and it was a close run thing whether the crew would completely run out of discretion to extend their duty hours. For various reasons, there was a significant number of bags which weren't loaded into the hold when the flight needed to go. The Captain took the decision to go without the luggage, but didn't tell the passengers until the arrival in Newark (there wasn't any time to do anything about it and there wasn't time for a mass disembarkation either). I think the right decisions were made. However, I think your interpretation of that might depend on whether you were American going home to all your possessions or British going on holiday with nothing to your name. It was made worse, of course, by the fact that no-one could take any hand luggage, so everything including phones was packed in those missing cases.
Still, everyone did a fantastic job in the circumstances.
EC
Still, everyone did a fantastic job in the circumstances.
EC
). Actually, the only reason why I bothered to attempt the trip was the difficulty of re-arranging his care.