Frustrated passengers at Heathrow Airport claim they had to leave without their Christmas presents after long waits for baggage reclaim - only for their luggage not to arrive.
The delays have been branded an "absolute shambles", with many of the impacted customers appearing to have been travelling with British Airways.
The airport has pointed the finger of blame at the airline.
One frustrated passenger tweeted: "@HeathrowAirport is in absolute shambles. No ground staff available to dock the plane so passengers (including us) are sitting for hours on the plane after landing. No baggage handlers either. Hundreds of people waiting for their suitcases for hours. What on earth is going on?"
Another said: "@British_Airways @HeathrowAirport after 3 hours of waiting for our suitcases at baggage reclaim we have now been told to go home and submit a lost luggage report while our bags are still sat on the plane. Absolute shambles."
A third wrote: "@britishairways @HeathrowAirport absolutely ridiculous customer service from British airways today! No luggage and no answers given to all British airways passengers as to when luggage will be given! I had my toddler sleeping on a trolley!"
One disgrutled passenger said: "Chaos at @HeathrowAirport tonight, 0 ground staff to get us off the plane & no baggage handlers so all sent home without our cases. Off to see my friends and family with 1 outfit & 0 Xmas presents. MERRYYY CHRISTMAS."
A statement from Heathrow Airport said that it is the duty of the airline to ensure luggage is returned to its owners.
A spokesperson said: "Luggage and turning around aircraft is the responsibility of airlines and this is dealt with by their ground handling crews who, among other duties, are responsible for preparing inbound aircraft and unloading bags and delivering them to the reclaim halls.
"If passengers experienced an issue with this part of their journey you would need to speak to an airline or their ground handler about this, as it’s not operated by Heathrow."
A spokesperson from BA said: "We're doing everything we can to reunite our customers with their delayed baggage as soon as possible. We apologise for the delay and inconvenience caused."
It is believed that high winds made it more difficult to offload bags yesterday evening.
Delayed luggage is sent directly to customers using the address they have provide, the airline said.
