Palma airport and baggage reclaim

[Smile you are in Spain]

We arrived Saturday for our annual trip to the island travelling into Palma with Monarch. As per last year, it took 1.5 hours for our bags to come off the plane. Given our flight was full and people were travelling with young children, a lot of very grumpy people could be found around the carousel. On speaking with regular travellers on the same flight, this appears to be the norm now.

My question is this - is this the norm now? Although we travelled independently, a lot of people were on package holidays which mean the reps and drivers were kept waiting for hours. Alternatively, is there more than one company running baggage reclaim at the airport and are Monarch paying the wrong people. Like to hear other people's experiences particularly using other airlines. We travel regularly to Spain and Palma is by far the worst airport.

Looking forward to some responses

 

[JMD40]

As someone who has spent many a Saturday in Palma airport waiting for clients to come through baggage reclaim I can say that this is certainly not unheard of during peak times. We normally allowed anything from about 45mins from after the plane had landed to when the client came through into the arrivals hall but very often on Saturdays it was well over an hour. Very frustrating but it has been like this for years!! There are two or three main handlers in Palma airport and they all provide a similar service. If you are hiring a car, this is why it is important that someone immediatley joins the car hire queue whilst another member waits for the luggage or you could wait one hour for luggage and another hour for your car.... enough said!! I guess this is one of the reasons that our friends in Ryan Air prefer us to travel with hand luggage!

 

[Harters]

Travelled with Jet2 - bags about 30 minutes.

Then 2 hours standing in the car park waiting in the Avis queue.

 

[stoofer1]

hi

Fly (easyjet or ryanair) from edinburgh usually May & September and have never had to wait fro more than 10-15 mins for luggage to come through.

Currently sitting outside Hotel Daina listening to live music - bliss!

Have to say though that I'm very sad that bar cultural has moved from the square - just not quite the same.

 

[kate1]

With Easyjet we have never had to wait more than half an hour for baggage in Palma - have been going at least twice a year since the mid 1990s and have travelled with Easyjet for most of that time. Maybe we have just been lucky. We always get very early morning flights - ie the first flight out from Gatwick - so possibly the baggage reclaim isn't yet overwhelmed at that hour.

 

[Sparky]

I think it really does depend on how many flights they are dealing with at one time, i was told many years ago that the German airlines pay extra so they have priority . Don't know if it's true though .

 

[Rich]

Even travelling with the bikes as oversized luggage it has very rarely been more than 45 minutes.

 

[joey36]

We have used Monarch or BMI baby for the past few years and our bags have taken about 30 to 45 minutes to appear at most.I dont think that the airline,the handling agent or the time of flight is the problem.Its travelling on a Saturday.I would advise anybody using Palma Airport to avoid Saturday flights if at all possible.It will also save you a great deal of money.

 

[supamac]

No - Easyjet no more than 15 minutes and we go back and forth about 6 times a year including high season - last trip 13th to 29th August. Never been a problem, happy to say! While I'm on the subject, and with everything crossed, we have been delayed only twice in the last 5 years - not a bad record for a budget airline!

 

[car77]

Have to agree about easyjet. We travel 3 or 4 times a year - always peak school holiday times (half terms, Easter, August etc) and never wait very long. Usually only 10mins or so from when we arrive at luggage belt.

Car77