British Airways continues to cancel flights from the airport's new terminal. Traveler Rebecca Murray and Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick offer their take on the chaos.
ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is Day to Day.  I'm Alex Chadwick.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: And I'm Madeleine Brand.  When British Airways bragged about its new eight and a half billion dollar terminal at Heathrow Airport in London, the airline said it would be, quote, "a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to redefine air travel."  Well, that's happened, but not in the way BA intended.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Problems began as soon as the terminal opened last Thursday.  First, workers had parking problems, then when they could get to their jobs at the airport they couldn't log on to the fancy new baggage system.  But the bags kept coming, flights were delayed for hours, 50 of them had to be cancelled.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: And now thousands of pieces of luggage are missing.  Members of the British parliament are calling it a disaster.  Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick addressed the House of Commons.</s>Minister JIM FITZPATRICK (British Aviation Ministry): By the end of the weekend, Mr. Speaker, some 28,000 bags had been placed in temporary storage.  BA drafted in 400 volunteers over the weekend to help sort these bags and estimates that it will take up to a week to get them back to their owners.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: No more volunteers.  British Airways has now hired FedEx to help reunite passengers and their misplaced bags.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Joining us now is one of those passengers who travelled through Heathrow's terminal five.  Rebecca Murray flew from London to Aberdeen, Scotland, with her newborn baby to visit her parents.  That was last Thursday; opening day of terminal five, and Rebecca Murray joins me now.  Do you have your luggage?</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): I'm afraid I don't, no, and I don't know when I'm going to be receiving it, either.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: You don't have your luggage and it's almost a week later?</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): Yeah.  Yeah.  And no word on when I can expect it.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: What was in your luggage?</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): I had two cases, one for myself and one for my baby.  In the baby's case was pretty much her entire wardrobe at the moment.  She's eight weeks old.  My sling for her, I have a BabyBjorn, which is obviously very handy for moving around with her.  A lot of stuff missing, really.  Apart from my clothes, my minimalist sort of post-natal wardrobe is there and pretty much everything because I'm here for a month, so I packed a lot.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: So you packed your baby's entire wardrobe.  She may outgrow that wardrobe by the time you get your luggage!</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): Exactly, exactly, and it's really sad because, you know, people were very kind, and we got some really sweet outfits for her.  I had this really beautiful little dress and hat and cardigan set that I wanted to take her to church in and that's in the suitcase, and you know, hopefully it will come back at some point.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Can you describe what it was like at Heathrow that day?</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): Yeah, it was kind of eerie.  When you go in it's this really large space.  It's very lovely, and light, and airy, but it had a bit of a stressed atmosphere, like people knew things weren't quite right.  Once I got through security, which in itself was a nightmare because I was on my own with the baby and the staff of security after telling me that I was insane for travelling alone then kind of did a shout-out to the passengers for someone to help me.  None of them helped me, and then when I got through you could see a lot of people who were very upset because they had been stuck for a long time without their luggage.  But, apart from that, it is a really nice building, really great shops, lovely restaurants.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Has the airline, has British Airways said anything to you?</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): Directly and personally, no.  I didn't do anything initially.  I mean, I filled out a form when I arrived in Aberdeen, and then I left it for the weekend because I could on the news what was going on, and I knew it wasn't going to be quick.  But by Monday when I hadn't heard anything I started chasing them, and I found out that my reference number wasn't valid according to their - sorry, the baby is...</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): Having a little cough.  Yeah, they lost my number, they didn't have a note of my claim, and I had to spend hours and hours on the phone on Monday trying to get through to them.  All I was told was not to hold my breath - that it would probably take a long time, and if I needed to buy anything to hold onto receipts so I can claim it back.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: So, I guess you've had to go out and buy some outfits for the baby.</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): Yeah, of course.  We've had to buy a fair amount of stuff for Lottie (ph), and I've tried to hold out for myself hoping that things would show up, but when they didn't I had to go out yesterday and buy some clothes for myself as well.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Wow, so what is your takeaway from this?</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): I just have low expectations now about what to expect from them.  It used to be because where we lived Heathrow would be better for travelling than Gatwick, but I guess now it's probably worth travelling all the way just to know that you're going to get there all right.  My sister pointed out that all the time I was waiting in Heathrow to get out to Aberdeen I could have taken a train.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Rebecca Murray, good luck, and I hope you get your luggage sometime soon.</s>Ms. REBECCA MURRAY (British Airways Passenger): Thank you very much.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: That's Rebecca Murray speaking to us from Aberdeen, Scotland.