British Airways Lost Luggage -- Quick Tips:

1. Don't fly BA
2. If you have to fly BA, avoid fly into London, Heathrow (LHR) is owned by BA and it's 40% over capacity where recently they have 20,000 lost luggage backlog.
3. Don't check in any luggage, but like this is possible for non-business travelers. And London has one carry-on policy, meaning laptop bag and lady's purses need to fit into the carry-on.
4. Take photo of your check-in luggage. This will help later.
5. expect that you may lose your luggage, so don't put things that are irreplaceable (we are learning this the hard way).

After you lost your check-in bags (and this happens very often with BA. BA's rated one of the worst European airline when it comes to handling luggages, esp. at London).

1. make sure BA staff enters your info 100% correctly. This is the time to be very very annoyingly careful. Tag numbers, bag description (provide the photo you took earlier), your address (temporary and permanent), phone numbers (but they don't really call you ever), etc.

2. call everyday, in fact, call multiple times (more of this in a different post about calling)

3. keep all the receipts related to the delayed/lost luggages: clothes, toiletries, etc. You can claim them (or some of them) back.

4. be patient (this really tests your patience).