Steview

Helen, I'm guessing by the fact that you mentioned the Dominican Republic and that there was a Florida flight also having arrived at the same time that you arrived fairly early in the morning (6-7am?).

Correct - we arrived almost an hour earlier than stated. Now some things have been explained I can see a little more clearly. Traveller - I like your theory - it could be one explanation anyway!

Thanks for that Andy. A good idea also to have a meal at the South terminal when we do the twilight check in.

Now some things have been explained I can see a little more clearly.

The one thing that nobody has mentioned though is the possibility of Customs having a role in these sort of delays too. If they have a tip-off - or just think it's time to do a spot check - they'll X-ray everything coming off an inbound flight in order to check for contraband. The Caribbean is a major source for drugs being smuggled into the UK and flights are regularly screened in this way - this is another possiblity with your flight, Helen. As are flights from Tenerife into Manchester in my experience! We've regularly encountered long delays in the baggage reclaim, closely followed by a heavy presence at Customs as they pull people over for 'spot checks' which are usually followed by them confiscating large amounts of cigarettes! They clearly know exactly which cases they are looking for. I don't know how they know - they must tag the suspect bags or keep a note in some way - but they have too high a hit rate for it to be totally random

SM

baggage from free ports [canaries/baliarics etc] and non eu countries are usualy all screen for excess fags/booz been going on for a couple of years now

brian

SMa _ We've been in this position coming back from Mexico twice & Majorca once - it really didn't look like that sort of thing.

Helen, SMa was pointing out that customs will check a lot of baggage before it makes its way to the carousel, when you were coming back from Mexico and Majorca there would also be OTHER flights that were being unloaded and checked by customs, thats why you're waiting for your luggage , because it takes time to unload the constant arrival of flights , check the luggage and get it to the the reclaim hall and on the carousels.
Myself, Steview and SMa have given you reasonable and logical replies to why baggage reclaim takes a certain amount of time, we have touched on the reasons of Gatwick being an extremely busy airport especially at certain times, also the fact that customs are really busy in dealing with so many international flights from places where smuggling is rife, but you still seem to think that there's no real reason why you should wait so long and that the service is too slow and now that it really didn't really look like customs were checking your bags when coming back from Mexico (twice) and Majorca ! to support your point that Gatwick is slowest airport you've used (but probably the biggest and busiest) that they also definitely need a better system and could learn some lessons from an airport that probably has a flight an hour to deal with.

The general consensus seems to be that you're on your way around an hour after landing which most seem to find acceptable , in smaller airports i've been to its generally about 30-45 mins , but then they have less to deal with in total.
Every time i go to Gatwick i find the airport is being updated, modernised and expanded and providing better service and experience , i think in this country we are extremely lucky to be within short distances of reaching major leading airports in the world that can take us to so many places at reasonable costs , many other countries must be envious of our position.
i'm sorry if you think i'm being a bit too forthright or rude , but in the great scheme of things i think some of your remarks about Gatwick are unfounded just because you had to wait half an hour for your bag to arrive.

andy - don't know whether you missed this part of my post or not

Now some things have been explained I can see a little more clearly.

and yes I do understand that some bags are searched, as I said

We've been in this position coming back from Mexico twice & Majorca once

, once before we had our bags & twice searched in front of us. Also the 1st bags started to arrive after half an hour. The rest arrived in dribs & drabs 5 or 6 at a time. I merely pointed out what loads of people hanging round the carousel were saying.

just because you had to wait half an hour for your bag to arrive.

If Helen made this remark, it was somewhat mis-understood. I've been in many ariports where we haven't got outside until about an hour after landing - in fact this is the average timescale in my experience and is quite acceptable. However, in the instance Helen's quoting, we landed at 6.45am and didn't get our baggage until 8.20am.

I take in all the points made about Gatwick being extremely busy and costs being kept low by not employing enough staff but at the end of the day are our holidays cheap? I think not. If we pay a decent amount of money for our well earned hol we expect better service. If our experience was a one-off due to luggage searches etc, no probs but at the end of the day waiting an hour and a half for your luggage can take it's toll especially after being on a long haul flight.

When we can back into Gatwick from the Dom Rep earlier this year we came through the airport at around 6.30am, and we noticed a massive increase in the amount of customs staff opposed to previous years.

Shirley , i understand your opinion, because 1hour,30mins is a long time to wait , but then the flight did arrive 1 hour early which might have meant that baggage handlers were dealing with the schedule they already had before getting onto your flights baggage.
Basically you had to wait half an hour more than expected. We all expect good service for the money we pay and i think it is fair to say that Gatwick works extremely hard to do their part which may come as no surprise that they have won Best Airport for 12 of the last 16 years from the Travel Weekly Globe Awards. So it must be getting something right most of the time.

Helen said that she has used Gatwick just 3 times and that every time baggage reclaim was horrendous etc etc, i personally think that the remarks in her first post on this issue are just throwaway remarks , but i understand that they are her personal opinion , but i don't think that they are completely justified. Reasons for the frustrating baggage wait have been given by a few posters and hopefully people who view this thread are more informed when travelling through Gatwick.
The thread is to discuss the good, bad and the ugly, but surely fair and balanced comments are more helpful to others who are looking for info on Gatwick.

Helen said that she has used Gatwick just 3 times and that every time baggage reclaim was horrendous etc etc, i personally think that the remarks in her first post on this issue are just throwaway remarks ,

Sorry I don't think they were. I think that an hour and a half is way too much time to be waiting for baggage. Yes the flight was nearly an hour early, but I don't think that was the first ever flight into Gatwick that has landed early. As I said, I've flown from many airports over the years and have not had the same problems as at Gatwick. I also have a cousin (believe it or not) that works for aviance (baggage handlers) who often gets moved around British airports, and he tends to agree with me. I'm not saying that I would never fly from Gatwick again, I'm just saying that I'd have to weigh up the pros and cons.

andy66 wrote:

Shirley , Gatwick works extremely hard to do their part which may come as no surprise that they have won Best Airport for 12 of the last 16 years from the Travel Weekly Globe Awards. So it must be getting something right most of the time.

.

Best Airport !! not really, I believe the award was for best regional UK Airport. Gatwick isn't in the same league as Singapore, Hong Kong, Munich or many other large international airports throughout the world . I read airport reviews on many travel sites and apart from the trade newspaper Travel Weekly few reviewers rate Gatwick very highly.. Hopefully though things will improve with the new ownership.
I certainly would be upset if I had to wait 90mins for my luggage. My last longhaul flight into Heathrow( an airport notorious for long waits for luggage) arrived an hour early and I only waited 40mins for luggage so the baggage system there could cope with a flight not arriving when scheduled so why not Gatwick.

Just booked the Sofitel Gatwick for the 27th November 2009 at an amazing price of £69.00 for the room.

I booked through http://www.gatwickreservations.com who I have used previously and found to be the cheapest supplier around.

Well recommended and worthwhile looking at
Mark

Good price Mark, We may be staying at Gatwick later on this year, Thanks for the recommendation.

Judith

Of course Judith !! i didn't say it was the best airport in the world, but we are discussing flying from the UK and back for holidays, and within the UK Gatwick has won these awards against its "local" competitors, and a win is win whatever others might say.
of course things might improve under new ownership, but the leading bidder? (if they still are) has experience of owning four UK airports that with a combined total fail to exceed Gatwicks passenger numbers. If they can't currently beat Gatwick in winning these awards over a long period how is their ownership going to change things?

You're certainly right in saying that Gatwick isn't in the same league as Singapore, Hong Kong or even Kuala Lumpar KLIA (my personal favourite, just ahead of Lanzarote!) but then all these airports were thought out, designed and built within the last 30 years with governments having the foresight and bankrolling their construction , they have the capacity to double their passenger numbers from their current level , which is something UK airports are struggling with.

Gatwick is only behind a bit on passenger numbers for Singapore and processes more than KLIA , it has more aircraft movements than both , so within its constraints of what it has in terms of buildings and runways it punches well above its weight. If it had the facilities that the big boys have the bags would probably arrive on a flying carpet to your feet.

Helen , if i had recieved such poor service at horrendous levels twice , i don't think i would give anyone a third chance, but then you have to weigh up the pros and cons.

Could anyone tell me if I can buy Absolut Vodka in the Duty Free at Gatwick North Terminal? I'm not that fussy personally but the Manager of my hotel in Tunisia loves the stuff and I've promised him a bottle. I can always buy it over here and carry it in my hold luggage if necessary as I've got 23kg with BA, but would rather get it in the DF if possible. I don't want to risk leaving it until I get on the flight.

Hi Aslemma, i would imagine that they would stock it, but will get my wife to double check tomorrow and let you know , she works in the North Terminal. ...not the baggage dept.

Thank you so much Andy. In the past I've always just taken out a couple of bottles of whisky to use as tips, but a friend who knows the manager says he loves this vodka, and I've rashly promised that if he gives me a really nice room he can have a bottle.

Looks like your upgraded room will be good value , as Absolut Blue is £12.20 a bottle and that for a 1ltr size , should be worth a suite!!