Unlike most of the other 450 passengers booked aboard British Airways flight BA11 from London Heathrow to Singapore on 30 January, I was carrying only cabin baggage. The Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo” was due to fly around 450 of us to the tropics. When, 80 minutes before the scheduled departure, a text message arrived saying the flight was cancelled for technical reasons, I had a head start.
No need to join the throng waiting forlornly to collect their checked luggage from Baggage Reclaim 10. Instead, I could open discussions with ticketing staff at Terminal 5 about how BA planned to respond in accordance with air passengers’ rights rules.
