With T5 still a mess, British Airways is getting creative when it comes to trying to clear a backlog of 19,000 bags. The company is outsourcing some of its sorting work by having thousands of bags shipped to a Milan courier to be dispensed across mainland Europe. May as well let some professionals handle this.

Some of the bags are traveling by lorry to Milan, and they'll also be going overground to their recipients. So if you lost your bags, it looks like you'll be waiting a good while longer to get them.

This also makes us wonder, what happens if your bags arrive at your holiday destination after you've already left?

Customers should be able to track their bags by calling BA or using a code on its website, so hopefully that'll be able to give some peace of mind to the folks who had to replace their clothes, toothbrushes and everything they weren't allowed to carry on.

Luggage not getting the Milan treatment will be flown to various European destinations, and bags going to people in the UK are being sorted at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Scotland.

BA isn't quite sure yet how much this suitcase snafu is going to cost them, but may we suggest the penny-pinching advantages of piggy-backing planes?

Image courtesy of w_yvr's Flickrstream