Chaos erupted on Friday when a handling fault at Terminal 5 left saw bags being undelivered, with dozens of flights departing without checked luggage.
Several days after pictures that showed bags piling up at the airport, passengers say they have yet to be reunited with their bags.
Among those affected is Geoff Moore, who travelled from London Heathrow to Inverness on Friday, checking in nearly seven hours before his scheduled flight with British Airways.
At 7:30PM, he and fellow passengers were told no luggage would be loaded on board the flight – just 25 minutes before takeoff.
A technical fault at Terminal 5 had left staff unable to process baggage, with thousands of passengers thought to be affected.
Upon arriving in Inverness, Geoff filled out an “extensive” form from British Airways, describing his luggage and including when and where he would be staying for the next week.
But Geoff, a travel reporter from Portland, says that three days later, he has still not had any clear communication about the location of his luggage – stating he has yet to be able to speak to a “real person” over the phone.
“We were about to board the aircraft at Heathrow, and we were told that no baggage would be loaded,” he said.
“We started to try and make a few phone calls to alleviate the situation, but it was pretty impossible.
“The initial advice at Heathrow was to leave your bags here and they will follow – but that was on Friday evening.
“Now I’m finding out that my bags are actually still in London.”
Geoff has been staying at Alladale Estate, around an hour and a half from Inverness Airport, while he covers a rewilding project – but says the job has been made “really difficult” without his luggage.
He has been left with only the clothes he wore to the airport, and his camera bag.
“It’s been a really difficult few days,” he said.
“I’m supposed to be staying here until Saturday, but it’s not great when you’ve got to spend a whole week without clothes and battery chargers.
“We had to do a little bit of shopping for extra underwear and walking socks.
“The people where I’m staying have been brilliant – they’ve provided us with some waterproof clothes and thermal coats, but this is all just a bit silly.”
Geoff has made several attempts to get more information from British Airways, returning to Inverness Airport the following day to no avail.
He was told on Sunday that his bag was given to eCourierAir, with the aim of delivering it to their address in the Highlands, but has not received an update.
After 60 hours without his bags, and after calling multiple helplines where he was unable to speak to a “real person,” Geoff is concerned that his luggage will not arrive at all.
“As a customer, it appears that it is you that has to do the phoning and checking online,” he said.
“We have no more idea as to where our bag actually is now. There has been little contact with real people, whether that’s with BA or with the couriers.
“Will the bag be here by the time we have to fly back?
“We’re fairly lucky in some respects – we’re still in our home country, but we bumped into people who were travelling to the States and having all sorts of problems.
“I’m a travel writer, and I’m used to all aspects of travel, but this has not been a very happy experience at all with British Airways, Heathrow, and the courier company.”
A representative from British Airways said: “While Heathrow Airport’s baggage system is back up and running, there is an ongoing impact on our customers as we work hard to get their luggage to them as quickly as possible.
“While this issue is entirely out of our control, we’re sorry to our customers for any inconvenience caused.”
A representative from Heathrow Airport said: “There was a technical issue on Friday which meant some baggage did not depart Terminal 5 as planned.
“The issue was resolved on Friday and we do apologise for any disruption this may have caused.”
