Barefaced cheek or a stupid oversight by BA? In the midst of tales of passengers waiting nine hours at Heathrow’s luggage carousel and a furore that has seen trucks deployed to Italy and freight-only jets cross the Atlantic to reunite lost bags with their owners, the airline last week put out a colourful advert. Did it say: “Sorry, we’ve messed up, we’ll do better in the future?” Far from it.

Amid an array of clothes by an open suitcase are the words: “If only packing your suitcase was as simple as checking in from home.” Hmmm. Perhaps that should have been: “If only you could pack your suitcase as quickly as BA can lose it.” But BA says that its baggage handling at Heathrow isn’t in meltdown: the newspapers are all wrong, and operations have been “going reasonably” for the past few weeks. A spokesman said that figures of 25,000 lost bags last month were incorrect, but when asked for the correct number said: “I won’t put a figure on it.”

So, there isn’t a baggage problem at all. But if you try to replicate all the items in the advertisement, including seven pairs of women’s shoes, and cram them into your case, there might be: go overweight and you’ll be charged up to £240 excess baggage.

Luggage and security woes make jetting off for that last-minute week of family fun in the sun pretty unappealing.

But the alternative at home isn’t much better: even if you forget the floods, lack of sun and foot-and-mouth outbreak, you’re still in rip-off Britain. A colleague is ashen faced when he tells of his week in a not-too-luxurious hotel in the West Country last month, which set his family of four back £4,000. He is not alone: a survey this week by Mothercare shows that almost three quarters of parents feel that a traditional seaside break is poor value, with hotels distinctly family unfriendly.

Is it any wonder that in the first two weeks of ticket sales for the high-speed London to the Continent link, which starts in November, Eurostar reported more than double its usual advance ticket sales? The train company doesn’t lose your luggage and if you are delayed by more than an hour, it generously offers a half-price return journey next time you book. Who needs an advert with service like that?

Our floods are nothing compared with what’s happening in South East Asia, where the worst monsoon rains in living memory have killed 1,200 people. The waters are receding and the Indian tourist board says that no major tourist areas have been affected, but our India issue this week, to celebrate 60 years of independence, comes tinged with sadness at the disaster.

Times recommends

• A career break to Timbuktu - by motorbike
• Canoe man and Bond boost Panama tourism
• Flybe extras that broke the bank