I was at LHR yesterday dropping daughter off for a trip, hadn't been there for a while.
Yes T5 has helped remove the crush but the appalling service remains. Only one lift working for a whole massive car park to get to departures!!. Horrid crowded dark terminal check in area. Is T3 left to look like that in order to make the very very ordinary T5 look good? Rude airport staff many of whom look fotofits for al Qaeda suspects compare badly with cheerful East European girls selling you food and drink. The place no doubt run by grumpy sullen Spanish management who have frankly been completely cheated on their investment by BAA and UK Government. (UK owner BAA hideous monopoly fine, same monopoly owned by Spanish compulsory divestiture of major assets). Would any other major country allow foreign ownership of its capital city airport??
Very apt comments from mikk above which some up much about UK2009 and being in Australia he will know a lot about mindless bureaucracy as it is pretty much world class down there.
Has anyone ever tried the flight information phone line BAA run where before you can get any information you are forced to listen to about 90 seconds of legal disclaimers. What are these people on, could the person who insisted they include that on the tape really be a sane responsible human being. Would he or she like to go into his local shopping mall and ask somewhere excuse me where is Dixons only for them to produce a card disclaiming liability for anything that happens during the rest of his or her day !!!! Astonishing.
I was only there two hours and look what it did to my sanity, only good thing was got to see an A 380 land.