Time to go home (again)
Budapest day five
28.04.2026 - 28.04.2026
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Budapest 2026
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Manhole cover near our apartment
We had time for a last leisurely breakfast in Kaj, then it was time to pack, leave the apartment and take the bus to the airport. We had lunch in a bar there, queued for the new passport checks and got to the gate just as our group was boarding. The plane took off ahead of schedule and despite a strong headwind landed on time.
BA had insisted we check our standard cabin bags into the hold, so we had to go to baggage claim for them. That would have been only mildly irritating had there not been an issue with the belt. After 45 minutes of watching it start, stop and start again, with no bags appearing, I and several other passengers went to complain at the BA desk. They said there was an issue on the loading side of the belt and an engineer was coming. With other belts standing idle we could see no reason why our luggage couldn’t be moved but that didn’t seem to be an option.
Fifteen minutes later we were still standing there so I went to complain again. While it seemed to be an operational issue for the airport, it was frustrating not to be kept informed by BA. Soon after that another passenger spotted that the Budapest bags were being delivered to another belt – commonsense had prevailed! But it shouldn’t have been left to passengers to spot the change. If BA did make an announcement, it was after we had finally retrieved our bags and left the baggage claims hall.
In fairness to BA, when I filed a complaint the next day I received a very prompt apology and a voucher for £60 for a future journey. Hopefully the staff who failed to keep us informed will have been told to do better should this happen again!
After that, things went smoothly again. We had expected another Tube strike to impact on our journey home, as it had done on the day of our departure, but it had apparently been called off so we were able to use the Piccadilly line to get home.
Posted by ToonSarah 09:05 Archived in Hungary Tagged budapest flight
