'Heathrow voted least favourite airport'.
Paxing All Over The World
Regrettably, BAA + customer experience is limited to retail for the simple reason that it is not subject to govt restriction.
When BAA was privatised and, in concert with other privatised entities, they were given a price cap of 'Inflation - n%' or similar across a number of years. However, this related only to landing fees (I sit to be corrected) and so retail expansion could be at any price they could get away with. Before long, BAA made more money out of retail than aircraft, hence the focus was lost in the law of unintended consequences.
I would argue that the public floggings are owed to the politicians of the 1980s who decided to privatise this vital utility and set up such a pricing structure.
Once the politicians have been dealt with (Oi!!, get to the back of the queue Rainboe and wait your turn
) then we can move on to the CAA who have allowed BAA to get away with so much with zero responsibility falling on to either BAA or CAA or the govt.
When BAA was privatised and, in concert with other privatised entities, they were given a price cap of 'Inflation - n%' or similar across a number of years. However, this related only to landing fees (I sit to be corrected) and so retail expansion could be at any price they could get away with. Before long, BAA made more money out of retail than aircraft, hence the focus was lost in the law of unintended consequences.
I would argue that the public floggings are owed to the politicians of the 1980s who decided to privatise this vital utility and set up such a pricing structure.
Once the politicians have been dealt with (Oi!!, get to the back of the queue Rainboe and wait your turn
) then we can move on to the CAA who have allowed BAA to get away with so much with zero responsibility falling on to either BAA or CAA or the govt.
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Bordeaux, France
Posts: 581
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A couple of posters have briefly mentioned this, but the thing I cannot understand is why the Airlines let BAA get away with doing such a bad job with their customers. I guess it gives them someone to blame, but the thing is, that works once for transit pax, then they choose a different carrier so the airline loses the business....
I alluded to it in the BA Baggage thread, but the tHeafrow "experience" must be losing BA and Virgin business to the AirFrance, KLM and Lufthansa options.
Is BA having everything out of the new T5 (if it works), in the same way that Lufthansa has everything out of T2 at Munich?
Regards SD..
I alluded to it in the BA Baggage thread, but the tHeafrow "experience" must be losing BA and Virgin business to the AirFrance, KLM and Lufthansa options.
Is BA having everything out of the new T5 (if it works), in the same way that Lufthansa has everything out of T2 at Munich?
Regards SD..
Join Date: May 2002
Location: LGW - Hub of the Universe!
Posts: 978
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
skydriller - the problem is not an easy one!
The airlines have no choice but to let BAA get away with it! It's not as if British Airways can threaten to pack up and go to Shoreham-by-Sea airfield or base its operation at Prestwick - even if we did, the BAA would not take the threat seriously as indeed they wouldn't from other airlines either!
Indeed, when Ryanair threatened to drastically cut their winter timetable and shed jobs at Stansted if BAA didn't cut its charges, the BAA called Ryanair's bluff and now 60 Ground jobs and about 40 flying jobs are being axed. BAA plc really takes the biscuit for hard-nosed effrontery! (Much as I dislike Ryanair, Michael O'Leary did have a very good point and I hate to see jobs in this industry being cut unnecessarily!)
Like it or not, the BAA are our landlords and all we can do is put up with the sorry situation - indeed, to go one step further at ground level, we have to work with the men and women in green so a mutual spirit of co-operation is essential if we're going to achieve anything! Unfortunately, many of the problems with which Heathrow finds itself ensnared are HM Government's own making (through the shiny-bums' interference at the DFT!)
Whilst Terminal 5 will be occupied 100% by British Airways, (at this stage anyway - as we all know what government interference did with Gatwick's North Terminal and Heathrow's Terminal 4 don't we!), it will still be owned and managed by the BAA so watch this space!
The airlines have no choice but to let BAA get away with it! It's not as if British Airways can threaten to pack up and go to Shoreham-by-Sea airfield or base its operation at Prestwick - even if we did, the BAA would not take the threat seriously as indeed they wouldn't from other airlines either!
Indeed, when Ryanair threatened to drastically cut their winter timetable and shed jobs at Stansted if BAA didn't cut its charges, the BAA called Ryanair's bluff and now 60 Ground jobs and about 40 flying jobs are being axed. BAA plc really takes the biscuit for hard-nosed effrontery! (Much as I dislike Ryanair, Michael O'Leary did have a very good point and I hate to see jobs in this industry being cut unnecessarily!)
Like it or not, the BAA are our landlords and all we can do is put up with the sorry situation - indeed, to go one step further at ground level, we have to work with the men and women in green so a mutual spirit of co-operation is essential if we're going to achieve anything! Unfortunately, many of the problems with which Heathrow finds itself ensnared are HM Government's own making (through the shiny-bums' interference at the DFT!)
Whilst Terminal 5 will be occupied 100% by British Airways, (at this stage anyway - as we all know what government interference did with Gatwick's North Terminal and Heathrow's Terminal 4 don't we!), it will still be owned and managed by the BAA so watch this space!
Paxing All Over The World
As I understand it, BA originally wanted everything out of T4 and wanted it to be theirs alone but this was not allowed. Further, there were too many flights for the facility.
Now they want everything out of T5 but there will be a few operating from T3, to facilitate One World code shares. The 'too many flights to fit into one terminal' problem was fixed by reducing the number of routes.
Largely, however, they will be masters of their own domain and are clearly expecting great benefits. As to why other carriers have not complained and done more to get BAA to change? My guess is:
1) Corporate complacency.
2) There was no public outcry. Pax used EGLL because they had no choice.
This was changed by:
1) 9/11 and the 'security' regs that pushed the place well beyond the limit and the multitude of smaller problems that had existed for years, got pulled into the lime light along with the new problems.
2) The LCCs made domestic and continental flights cheaper and obviated the need to use LHR. At first, the carriers saw a reduction in short haul capacity and cheerfully used it for new services or long haul. Rather too late, they found that the problem was bigger than they thought.
In corporate (and domestic) life, big problems usually start about 20 years before they are big. The roots of the problems are clearly visible but will take many years to clear. Mostly, they will be cleared by people not using the place.
Now they want everything out of T5 but there will be a few operating from T3, to facilitate One World code shares. The 'too many flights to fit into one terminal' problem was fixed by reducing the number of routes.
Largely, however, they will be masters of their own domain and are clearly expecting great benefits. As to why other carriers have not complained and done more to get BAA to change? My guess is:
1) Corporate complacency.
2) There was no public outcry. Pax used EGLL because they had no choice.
This was changed by:
1) 9/11 and the 'security' regs that pushed the place well beyond the limit and the multitude of smaller problems that had existed for years, got pulled into the lime light along with the new problems.
2) The LCCs made domestic and continental flights cheaper and obviated the need to use LHR. At first, the carriers saw a reduction in short haul capacity and cheerfully used it for new services or long haul. Rather too late, they found that the problem was bigger than they thought.
In corporate (and domestic) life, big problems usually start about 20 years before they are big. The roots of the problems are clearly visible but will take many years to clear. Mostly, they will be cleared by people not using the place.
Join Date: May 2002
Location: LGW - Hub of the Universe!
Posts: 978
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As I understand it, BA originally wanted everything out of T4 and wanted it to be theirs alone but this was not allowed
The same thing happened with Gatwick's North Terminal - ever wondered why it was finished in the same shade of blue that BA was at the time using for the "Landor" livery?
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: London
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Riding the Euro Gravy Plane
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Strasbourg
Posts: 455
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Many business travellers, like myself, based in continental Europe now avoid using LHR for transit. I wasn't using LHR that much, maybe one transatlantic trip and four or five to central Asia. Those were all C class flights and that equates to at least €15,000. BA must be aware they are losing huge amounts of revenue because their home airport is managed by circus performers.
Most of that business has now gone to AF. Now CDG has never been the most efficient airport in the world but compared to the trapeze artists in LHR it's a bastion of organisation and efficiency.
Most of that business has now gone to AF. Now CDG has never been the most efficient airport in the world but compared to the trapeze artists in LHR it's a bastion of organisation and efficiency.
LHR management (?) is a problem. Regardless of politicians. For example, and this is typical: Arrive Friday night, moving walkway not working. Depart Sunday evening, still not working.
Either:
maintenance not working at weekends to save money. The rest of the airport is so it's a ploy to save money. Answer: public flogging and execution of manager responsible
No spare parts available: maintenance should know what spares they need: if they can't have them because it ties up money, the answer is public flogging and execution of manager responsible
Then there's T4 security. fast track, X ray operator gets up and walks away. Nobody replacing her for 10 minutes while the queue waits.
Answer: public flogging and execution of supervisor responsible
I'm a liberal!!!
Either:
maintenance not working at weekends to save money. The rest of the airport is so it's a ploy to save money. Answer: public flogging and execution of manager responsible
No spare parts available: maintenance should know what spares they need: if they can't have them because it ties up money, the answer is public flogging and execution of manager responsible
Then there's T4 security. fast track, X ray operator gets up and walks away. Nobody replacing her for 10 minutes while the queue waits.
Answer: public flogging and execution of supervisor responsible
I'm a liberal!!!
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: It wasn't me, I wasn't there, wrong country ;-)
Age: 79
Posts: 1,757
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
EGLL = Hounslow Bus Garage
LGW has been my UK home base since 1964, only had to spend 6 months at LHR
on rotation from JED. Boy was I happy to get back to JED (bet no one else has ever said that?)
. We gave LHR the name 'Hounslow Bus Garage' back in 1970, we were just starting the Air Corporations 1st charter subsidiary @ LGW, which went on to become so successful that big brother in BA got sooo pissed off, they took away all long haul ops so BA LH could take on and loose the business. Thiethrow, Heathslow, Hounslow Bus Garage, be honest, LHR just one of the worlds ****tiest airports
.
Nuf said, back to good old important BIZAV work where the PAX is the Guvna
!!!!!!!!!!!
on rotation from JED. Boy was I happy to get back to JED (bet no one else has ever said that?). We gave LHR the name 'Hounslow Bus Garage' back in 1970, we were just starting the Air Corporations 1st charter subsidiary @ LGW, which went on to become so successful that big brother in BA got sooo pissed off, they took away all long haul ops so BA LH could take on and loose the business. Thiethrow, Heathslow, Hounslow Bus Garage, be honest, LHR just one of the worlds ****tiest airports.Nuf said, back to good old important BIZAV work where the PAX is the Guvna
!!!!!!!!!!!
Join Date: May 2002
Location: LGW - Hub of the Universe!
Posts: 978
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yes, merlinxx, I sympathise with the points you have made!
I've gone from LGW to LHR kicking and screaming because I don't think BA at Gatwick has much of a future and I'm too old to start a pension with someone else!
I do try and influence Heathrow into the "Gatwick Way" - and I have to say Terminal One does have a similar atmosphere to Gatters - but somehow I'm farting against thunder!
Big Airways thinks the world begins and ends at Hounslow Bus Garage and a little cog like me isn't going to change their minds!
I've gone from LGW to LHR kicking and screaming because I don't think BA at Gatwick has much of a future and I'm too old to start a pension with someone else!
I do try and influence Heathrow into the "Gatwick Way" - and I have to say Terminal One does have a similar atmosphere to Gatters - but somehow I'm farting against thunder!
Big Airways thinks the world begins and ends at Hounslow Bus Garage and a little cog like me isn't going to change their minds!
Prophecy, Prophecy, Prophecy.......
Well, I'm sorry to say that as I predicted, Heathrow lived down to my worst expectations on Friday past. After the best part of 24 hours spent travelling Economy Class on Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, then Business Class to Abu Dhabi and then on to Heathrow, both on Etihad. The previous arrivals into SIN, KUL & AUH were pleasant and welcoming to say the least, transit from aircraft to immigration to baggage claim was rapid, efficient, clean and pleasant.
Arriving into T3 at Heathrow around mid-day, armed with a "priority pass" for immigration, it took a twenty minute hike to get to immigration and a huge queue in the cattle grids leading to all of the immigration desks and the priority queue nearly as long. Just then, the first welcome to the UK, half of the immigration staff go to Lunch. Ten minutes later, most of the rest left for lunch leaving about five desks covering the whole immigration hall for about fifteen flights that had arrived about the same time. The priority queue was reduced to a single desk processing all the business and first class passengers on these flights. needless to say, this line ran consequently slower than the others. After a wasted fifteen minutes in the immigration queue, on to the baggage hall and a ten minute wait for the first of the hold baggage to appear. But no trolleys.
No signs for trolleys either.
Our bags appeared on belt 6, so a wander up to the far end at belt 1 eventually unearthed about twenty trolleys hidden in the corner by a closed service desk, with a notice about four foot up the back wall stating that "For your convenience all trolleys are now kept at belt 1 and belt 11" as there are no other signs visible telling you where the trolleys are, just how convenient do they think it is to hide the trolleys?
Then to Customs. pretty much a painless and courteous experience here, except the circuitous route through their domain and a trolley that had the steering precision of a pregnant whale.
A complete lack of transport between the terminals meant a tript with a well loaded trolley with luggage for two on board through the tunnels between T3 & T1. It's a great pity that the moving walkways aren't wide enough for two trolleys to pass each other, likewise that they don't end at the start of a trolley route and you have to back track round tight corners & fairly steep inclines to get up to T1 ground level again.
Once into the havoc of T1 it was time to try to check in to BMI to get back home to EDI. BMI can't afford to have people on check in desks, but they are quite prepared to have three or four hang about a set of scales to physically weigh every item of hold baggage and charge you through the nose for any discrepancy. Despite no charges outbound or on the return leg on any of the other Star Alliance members used, BMI were happy to hit us for over $200. Once you get past this happy band you have to check youself in then take your bags to a set of check in desks for hold baggage manned by as many folks as used to man the tradiational check in desks, so I can't figure how this would be cheaper for BMI. Once the hold bags were in, on to security.
At security, yellow/green waistcoated gestapo are demanding to know the exact contents of your carry on bags and advising all and sundry that any liquids in your carry on must either be less than 100ml or will be confiscated. They are also proclaiming that you are allowed one bag only, yet let people through with carry-ons which were clearly three separate bags stacked together and larger than the usual skeleton "Try you bag here" frame. I was stopped as I had my computer roll-on bag & a small rucsac which came as a freebie with my duty free bought in KUL, sealed in a clear plastic bag with a tamper evident seal and the receipt duly exhibited inside it, in full compliance with DFT requirements. However the "securitate" cannot be wrong and I was told that only duty free bought within the EU can be carried on UK domestic flights all other duty free has to be put in the hold. Great thinking guys, don't tell the poor b****rds that have been awake for over 24 hours that they have to repack their bags again until after they have checked them all in.
A55H0L3S!!!
Once past this nonsense, the screening queues were about thirty yards long. At EDI, theres usually about five or six screening points running at quiet periods. At LHR, peak time on a Friday, there were three, one of which was constantly being disrupted for "key BAA personnel" to butt in to the head of the queue then spend five or ten minutes chatting to those scanning the bags and on the body searches.
The ultimate irony has to be that we were told "get your bloody shoes off and get them through the scanner or you won't be flying anywhere". Having spent the best part of the previous day in the air wearing training shoes with paper thin soles, what did they expect to see?
Welcome home to the UK, home of the rip-off, arrogant & unhelpful staff and customer disservice. No wonder everyone hates Heathrow.
Donkey497
Arriving into T3 at Heathrow around mid-day, armed with a "priority pass" for immigration, it took a twenty minute hike to get to immigration and a huge queue in the cattle grids leading to all of the immigration desks and the priority queue nearly as long. Just then, the first welcome to the UK, half of the immigration staff go to Lunch. Ten minutes later, most of the rest left for lunch leaving about five desks covering the whole immigration hall for about fifteen flights that had arrived about the same time. The priority queue was reduced to a single desk processing all the business and first class passengers on these flights. needless to say, this line ran consequently slower than the others. After a wasted fifteen minutes in the immigration queue, on to the baggage hall and a ten minute wait for the first of the hold baggage to appear. But no trolleys.
No signs for trolleys either.
Our bags appeared on belt 6, so a wander up to the far end at belt 1 eventually unearthed about twenty trolleys hidden in the corner by a closed service desk, with a notice about four foot up the back wall stating that "For your convenience all trolleys are now kept at belt 1 and belt 11" as there are no other signs visible telling you where the trolleys are, just how convenient do they think it is to hide the trolleys?
Then to Customs. pretty much a painless and courteous experience here, except the circuitous route through their domain and a trolley that had the steering precision of a pregnant whale.
A complete lack of transport between the terminals meant a tript with a well loaded trolley with luggage for two on board through the tunnels between T3 & T1. It's a great pity that the moving walkways aren't wide enough for two trolleys to pass each other, likewise that they don't end at the start of a trolley route and you have to back track round tight corners & fairly steep inclines to get up to T1 ground level again.
Once into the havoc of T1 it was time to try to check in to BMI to get back home to EDI. BMI can't afford to have people on check in desks, but they are quite prepared to have three or four hang about a set of scales to physically weigh every item of hold baggage and charge you through the nose for any discrepancy. Despite no charges outbound or on the return leg on any of the other Star Alliance members used, BMI were happy to hit us for over $200. Once you get past this happy band you have to check youself in then take your bags to a set of check in desks for hold baggage manned by as many folks as used to man the tradiational check in desks, so I can't figure how this would be cheaper for BMI. Once the hold bags were in, on to security.
At security, yellow/green waistcoated gestapo are demanding to know the exact contents of your carry on bags and advising all and sundry that any liquids in your carry on must either be less than 100ml or will be confiscated. They are also proclaiming that you are allowed one bag only, yet let people through with carry-ons which were clearly three separate bags stacked together and larger than the usual skeleton "Try you bag here" frame. I was stopped as I had my computer roll-on bag & a small rucsac which came as a freebie with my duty free bought in KUL, sealed in a clear plastic bag with a tamper evident seal and the receipt duly exhibited inside it, in full compliance with DFT requirements. However the "securitate" cannot be wrong and I was told that only duty free bought within the EU can be carried on UK domestic flights all other duty free has to be put in the hold. Great thinking guys, don't tell the poor b****rds that have been awake for over 24 hours that they have to repack their bags again until after they have checked them all in.
A55H0L3S!!!
Once past this nonsense, the screening queues were about thirty yards long. At EDI, theres usually about five or six screening points running at quiet periods. At LHR, peak time on a Friday, there were three, one of which was constantly being disrupted for "key BAA personnel" to butt in to the head of the queue then spend five or ten minutes chatting to those scanning the bags and on the body searches.
The ultimate irony has to be that we were told "get your bloody shoes off and get them through the scanner or you won't be flying anywhere". Having spent the best part of the previous day in the air wearing training shoes with paper thin soles, what did they expect to see?
Welcome home to the UK, home of the rip-off, arrogant & unhelpful staff and customer disservice. No wonder everyone hates Heathrow.
Donkey497
120 C/D class flights over the last 12 months.
Number via Heathrow? One in, one out. I had no option as I was at a meeting until late afternoon and couldn't get to my usual airport in time.
Everything written on this thread is true. One more thing is the dreadfully expensive and very cramped long term car park. Having queued to get off the M4, then down the spur road and spotted the sign, you drive for miles to a small entrance somewhere down near where people probably used to board Lancastrians. The parking spaces are very narrow and you're lucky not to get a dented door...they were probably designed for the cars driven by the people who used to board Lancastrians.
Then find the bus stop and work out which bus is which. But all are driven by a smiling and enthusiastic 'turbo-turban' who manages to corner the unwieldy brute with Formula 1 standards of skill (and G force), before treating you to a tour of various dingy concrete caverns under the bowels of T1.
The joy is even greater on the return trip - having made it through the horrors of immigration and customs, you then stand around in the rain (if it's Terminal 2) waiting for the bus, then off for another tour of traffic jams and odd corners of the airport - before the ludicrous junction at the Concorde-not-really-a-roundabout and down to the car park to part with a king's ransom in fees.
Even then it's not over - there's the game called Finding The M4! I've never quite found out how to get from Heathrow to the M40 except via Maidenhead - is it really so bloody difficult to provide clear signposting which leads you up the spur and onto the M4/M25/M40, instead of 20 sets of traffic lights past the ba waterworks and finally onto the M4 at the Honda roundabout halfway to Slough? I suspect Livingstone's hand in that somewhere.....
Heathrow really sucks! Whereas today I had a pleasant drive (exactly the same distance as it would have been to Heathrow) though the Heart of England to the spacious car park at Birmingham airport, then a 3 minute trip to the Terminal!
Another 'joy' of Heathrow is the 'Heathrow Express'. After dumping my luggage in T2 and paying someone 6 quid to look at it for 5 hours, I then walked along miles of empty echoing tunnels to the train. Cheapest fare from Heathrow to Chancery Lane? 34 quid return!!!
Only travel through Heathrow if there's really no other alternative!
Number via Heathrow? One in, one out. I had no option as I was at a meeting until late afternoon and couldn't get to my usual airport in time.
Everything written on this thread is true. One more thing is the dreadfully expensive and very cramped long term car park. Having queued to get off the M4, then down the spur road and spotted the sign, you drive for miles to a small entrance somewhere down near where people probably used to board Lancastrians. The parking spaces are very narrow and you're lucky not to get a dented door...they were probably designed for the cars driven by the people who used to board Lancastrians.
Then find the bus stop and work out which bus is which. But all are driven by a smiling and enthusiastic 'turbo-turban' who manages to corner the unwieldy brute with Formula 1 standards of skill (and G force), before treating you to a tour of various dingy concrete caverns under the bowels of T1.
The joy is even greater on the return trip - having made it through the horrors of immigration and customs, you then stand around in the rain (if it's Terminal 2) waiting for the bus, then off for another tour of traffic jams and odd corners of the airport - before the ludicrous junction at the Concorde-not-really-a-roundabout and down to the car park to part with a king's ransom in fees.
Even then it's not over - there's the game called Finding The M4! I've never quite found out how to get from Heathrow to the M40 except via Maidenhead - is it really so bloody difficult to provide clear signposting which leads you up the spur and onto the M4/M25/M40, instead of 20 sets of traffic lights past the ba waterworks and finally onto the M4 at the Honda roundabout halfway to Slough? I suspect Livingstone's hand in that somewhere.....
Heathrow really sucks! Whereas today I had a pleasant drive (exactly the same distance as it would have been to Heathrow) though the Heart of England to the spacious car park at Birmingham airport, then a 3 minute trip to the Terminal!
Another 'joy' of Heathrow is the 'Heathrow Express'. After dumping my luggage in T2 and paying someone 6 quid to look at it for 5 hours, I then walked along miles of empty echoing tunnels to the train. Cheapest fare from Heathrow to Chancery Lane? 34 quid return!!!
Only travel through Heathrow if there's really no other alternative!
Join Date: May 2002
Location: LGW - Hub of the Universe!
Posts: 978
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
After a wasted fifteen minutes in the immigration queue, on to the baggage hall and a ten minute wait for the first of the hold baggage to appear. But no trolleys.
25 minutes for immigration and the baggage to appear is good when you compare it to US standards for non-USA passport holders - especially if the immigration staff were processing fifteen flights!
NEWARK AIRPORT THREE WEEKS AGO - Immigration queue 90 minutes (only one flight being processed).
NEWARK AIRPORT LAST WEEK - Immigration were only processing TWO international flights (767 and 777 - not the 747's Terminal 3 handles) and just to get to the immigration booth took over TWO HOURS!!! (One of our Gatwick wheelchair supervisors was detained in a room for FOUR HOURS, wrists nylon-strapped, humiliated and made to piddle in a bottle just because the airline had not completed his APIS details properly (and the details didn't match his passport!)
Nah! Heathrow may be bad, but the USA for non-US passport holders sucks harder!!! ..........and our Police, Security, Customs and Immigration staff are pussy-cats compared to the hard-ba5tards the USA produces!
God Help Us when the USA receives the Airbus A380's!!!
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: LHR/EGLL
Age: 45
Posts: 4,392
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
BEagle, you must be joking about finding the M4 from Heathrow, surely?
Singage is clear as mud.
Where are you starting from?
Also, the 'joy' of the HEX is that it is quiet, swift and reliable.
Donkey497:
Err, not quite. I think maybe that's fifteen flights into T3 in one hour, maybe, but not all at the same time. And that's stretching it a bit!
Only fifteen minutes in immigration? That sounds like a good run to me. That's a darn sight quicker than all my experiences this year: Including Newark three times (one of which was over an hour and a half), JFK, Columbus Ohio and LAX.
Last time I was through T3 baggage, there were signs for trolleys.
I've been through Edi three times this year, and on all three I've only ever seen one security point active, and this was between 1700-1900, what some would call a peak period.
I'm no fan of Heathrow, and I avoid it when I can, but people do like to bash it out of hand sometimes.
Singage is clear as mud.
Where are you starting from?
Also, the 'joy' of the HEX is that it is quiet, swift and reliable.
Donkey497:
Ten minutes later, most of the rest left for lunch leaving about five desks covering the whole immigration hall for about fifteen flights that had arrived about the same time.
Only fifteen minutes in immigration? That sounds like a good run to me. That's a darn sight quicker than all my experiences this year: Including Newark three times (one of which was over an hour and a half), JFK, Columbus Ohio and LAX.
Last time I was through T3 baggage, there were signs for trolleys.
I've been through Edi three times this year, and on all three I've only ever seen one security point active, and this was between 1700-1900, what some would call a peak period.
I'm no fan of Heathrow, and I avoid it when I can, but people do like to bash it out of hand sometimes.
It's probably my fault, but following the signs onto the A4 Bath Road it simply never occurs to me to have to re-enter the airport area to loop back round onto the Concorde-not-really-a-roundabout junction to get onto the M4 spur/M4/M25/M40!
Or the long way round via the A30/A312 to join at junction 3...
Hence I usually end up on the Colnbrook by-pass gazing up at the M25 as I pass underneath on my merry way to Slough to join the M4 at junction 5, then finally reach the M40 at Booker......
The one and only time I used the HEX, it was anything but reliable. Train failure and no idea from the Paddington folk as to when the next one would be running..... Then that 'long march' to T2.... Joy!!
Heathrow and its lousy infrastructure deserves all the kicking it gets, in my view.
By the way, will ba's new pride and joy have a long term car park of its own?
Or the long way round via the A30/A312 to join at junction 3...
Hence I usually end up on the Colnbrook by-pass gazing up at the M25 as I pass underneath on my merry way to Slough to join the M4 at junction 5, then finally reach the M40 at Booker......
The one and only time I used the HEX, it was anything but reliable. Train failure and no idea from the Paddington folk as to when the next one would be running..... Then that 'long march' to T2.... Joy!!
Heathrow and its lousy infrastructure deserves all the kicking it gets, in my view.
By the way, will ba's new pride and joy have a long term car park of its own?
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: LHR/EGLL
Age: 45
Posts: 4,392
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It's probably my fault, but following the signs onto the A4 Bath Road it simply never occurs to me to have to re-enter the airport area to loop back round onto the Concorde-not-really-a-roundabout junction to get onto the M4 spur/M4/M25/M40!
I guess so - but heading East on a sign for the M4 makes me think I'm heading for Laarndin! If it said M4/M40, I might trust it!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: uk
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Always avoid LHR now
I travel regularly from Hong Kong and either use LGW and Oasis (LoCo but use ex BA crew ostracised by the 'useless at 55' rule) so flight is great, HK departure is a dream, especially for us HKID holders, we just use a card swip and thumb print to get in and out so no obergroebenfuhrers to get by, LGW is the only bad part, but early arrivals are usual trouble free.
Alternate is AF to CDG and transfer to EGHI, I live on the IOW, travel time is the same as a direct from LHR, despite changing as you have to leave sooo much time to get to and then through LHR. Price is the same and the food is better.
For any other parts of the world, go from exeter/bristol to amsterdam or shannon and then on, cost is minimal and the stress levels are v low.
BA are loosing vast amounts of revenue from LHR, but its not just BAA that are the problem, the whole area infrastructure (air and land) are creaking, close to collapse and a glossy new terminal and tower will not allow anyone to get in and out of LHR any faster.
KEEP CLEAR
Alternate is AF to CDG and transfer to EGHI, I live on the IOW, travel time is the same as a direct from LHR, despite changing as you have to leave sooo much time to get to and then through LHR. Price is the same and the food is better.
For any other parts of the world, go from exeter/bristol to amsterdam or shannon and then on, cost is minimal and the stress levels are v low.
BA are loosing vast amounts of revenue from LHR, but its not just BAA that are the problem, the whole area infrastructure (air and land) are creaking, close to collapse and a glossy new terminal and tower will not allow anyone to get in and out of LHR any faster.
KEEP CLEAR