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British Airways has, for many years, offered an overnight bag drop facility at London Gatwick and Heathrow Terminal 5.
This allows passengers to check in and drop off their bags the night before their flight. The service was reinstated post COVID-19.
There have been a few recent changes to the timings of the overnight bag drop facility and rules for checking in bags for passengers not present.
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Heathrow Terminals 3 & 5
At Heathrow, overnight bag drop is now available at both Terminals 3 & 5.
It is now only available for flights departing before 10:00 the next day, rather than 13:00.
You can drop off your bags between 16:00 and 22:00 the day before at Terminal 5 and between 16:00 and 22:00 the day before at Terminal 3.
Gatwick South Terminal
At Gatwick, overnight bag drop remains available between 18:00 and 21:00 for flights departing before 13:00 the next day.
Dropping Off Bags For Others
BA no longer requires all passengers in the booking to be present when bags are dropped off the night before travel.
You can drop off bags for other passengers on your booking without them being present.
This is provided you bring all of their required documentation such as passports.
Full details of the facility are available on ba.com.
BA may amend or withdraw this facility at any time. It may also not be available during disruption, where it’s best not to use it in any event!
Also remember once you’ve checked in your bags they can’t be retrieved, so you won’t seem them again until you arrive at your destination.
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So it”s only convenient to BA. If it’s only available for flights departing before 10am, then all BA is trying to do here is ease their own problem of not enough desks open early for those early flights.
Passengers are not being helped here, there is still going to be a high level of congestion and much waiting in line for mid-morning flights up to the old 13.00 flight departure limit to check baggage the night before. But BA will have more desks open for flights 10.00-13.00 so they know people won’t miss their flights even if passengers have to stand in checkin queues then security queues for hours.
Call this a service? BA is only interested in serving themselves and not in providing small services that might actually be convenient to passengers.
This really is not a helpful service especially since the stress levels associated today with international travelling are considerable. Simply for peace of mind being able to check luggage in the day before would provide an enormous relief for passengers such as myself. It strikes me as odd that the facility for dropping off baggage the day before travel is restricted to flights up until 10am only. Only BA understand the reasoning behind this disappointing decision. My flight is at 11am and so I am barred from this service. It would have taken a lot off my mind. Why not extend to midday at least? However, I look forward to my flight and to reviewing the flight at a lAter date.
Before Covid we could proceed to the check in until 10 pm at Gatwick . More convenient than 9 pm for passengers with connection from Europe
Ridiculous to limit the overnight bag drop to flights departing up to 10am, we travel to London by rail & Heathrow express to terminal 5 the previous day & have an 11.30am flight the next day, so have to drag our cases to an overnight hotel & back again the next morning, so this doesn’t do us any favours, but obviously suits BA. Will travel on an airline next time that helps their customers, not suits what is best for themselves.