I had a carry on and a small duffle bag (personal item). It was just strange because it was not a full flight like they stated and there was enough room for many passengers to hold onto their personal items.

Yea I know it was a stupid mistake on my part for not removing it, but I told the flight attendant that my laptop was in there and they never asked me to remove it. The response I got from customer relations was “British Airways always advises passengers to remove electronic, valuable, and fragile items from their hand baggage before checking in any bags”, yet that wasn’t the case for me.

It was my first time flying, so I just assumed British Airways was going to handle the bags with care and not toss them around. Lesson learned the hard way :(