Heathrow Terminal 5 Review Part 2 - British Airways
Not sure whether BA have employed a company to monitor their T5 online reputation recently, but I’ve had a load of referrals, probably 500% more in the last month or so from folks searching for insight into the new terminal and landing on this page.
I’d never had a comment in six months before now and then suddenly, like London buses, 2 come along within days of each other.
Maybe it’s people wondering if all the fuss has died down and seeing if it’s safe to go back there – it sure is fishy though!
Anyway!
I’ve been in and out of T5 twice in the last couple of weeks and have seen a marked improvement in standards and service.
Firstly I learned from a commenter to ask the taxi driver dropping me off to drive to middle of the terminal set-down so walking to security doesn’t take forever.
That worked!
The first flight was a late one – 10.30pm – to Tel Aviv and check-in went smoothly - other than the bunching up and chatting BA employees seem to do when they’re over-staffed.
There were three around my check-in guy all discussing when they were back in the next day – bit annoying when I’m trying to sweet-talk an upgrade! 
Security was very quick!
Having worked at Harrods for six years in a former life, I know that “cashing up” at the end of the day so you can leave “on time” is crucial to ones sanity, but a glance up now and again from folks in the stores wouldn’t have gone amiss as I did a bit of pre-Christmas idea shopping.
The lounges are great too. Nice decor, moody lighting and decent enough food and wine on tap to ease any flying nerves or assist with the desire to sleep through the journey.
My only complaint would be that I was unlucky enough, on both trips, to be held up at the pasta bar by servers probing the meat sauce with a two-foot metal temperature gauge – a little off-putting to say the least.
The second flight was at 2pm on a Sunday to Seattle and the airport was much more awake.
Buying some Prada (dontchaknow!) aftershave from the duty-free shop I was staggered when the assistant pointed out I could get a gift-box for the same price with the same amount off smelly thrown in for free!
Great customer service! Many wouldn’t have bothered…
I timed both return trips from landing, getting through immigration and baggage claim to exiting via customs and neither took more than 22 minutes!
At Terminal 4 I’d have to tell the taxi driver to turn up 45 minutes after the scheduled landing and more often than not it’d take me an hour to get out into fresh air.
All in all it’s been a much improved experience.
BA have pulled out all the stops and passing through Terminal 5 is now more than a pleasant one.
I’m just curious to know how Virgin manage to get such huge advertising spots throughout the terminal.
I shudder to think how much they’re paying for the privilege!
Nov23
4 Comments
[...] Update Nov 2008: Click here for Part 2 of my Heathrow Terminal 5 Review [...]
Mel
I have had the misfortune of flying through T5 last visit and I was totally disappointed! Here is my miserable experience for what it is worth.
Arrival from Seattle (Oct 22nd) into T5. Long(ish) flight but not too bad. Landed, no probs. Bus to terminal. Odd but I though “OK, probably a busy morning”. Luggage waiting for me at claim even though I was No.2 in the passport lane. Very impressed. T5 was doing well.
Leaving from London to Seattle from T5. HORRIBLE. Dropped off by AVIS bus. No signs as to how to get to terminal. Guessed correctly. Up very tardy lift into large check in area with no signage. I am BA Silver (and was travelling Club) so looked for ages to find right area but found the quick check in area by mistake. Checked in OK. Then sent to what was supposed to be fast track, but nobody monitoring so I was with everyone else. Sneakily checked other peoples boarding cards for validation. Security was a mess with automatic buckets that didn’t stop so I had to physically grab my box to stop it running away with my property! Totally screwed up system as I was carrying an A3 sized print that I’d been given but it wouldn’t fit into a box so at one point they said, sorry you’ll have to check this. After a bit of grumpyness on my part, they rammed it through.
Even though it was only 1hour until my flight, no gate info so I wasn’t sure which lounge to go to. Went to South lounge and after walking for what seemed like about a mile, then up about three escalators I reached the lounge agent who was mean and up her own arse. Told me I had to get a bus to my plane and I should turn around. She did agree I had time for a quick visit to the loo.
Got to gate. Huge queue, no fast track and then rammed onto a bus to go to the plane. Told by gate agent that T5 doesn’t have enough gates in the terminal and now they are building more. So, let me get this straight, BA and BAA builds this monster terminal with every possible shop and service yet they forget to build enough gates to “cope with the number of BA flights”. Does anyone else think this is retarded.
Anyway… all I can say is “BRING BACK T4″
J.
Mmmmm - maybe I got ‘em a good week. Maybe they’re better on the whole on getting customers out and not so hot on getting them in and on.
Now that you mention it I had a bit of trouble with the runaway security recepticles.
And I wish there was a global policy on shoes and taking laptops out of bags - that lack consistency!
Ok, I’ve been through T5 quite a few times now this year, and I have to say I loath the place. Arrivals works fast if you don’t end up on a bus like I did on my New York flight this weekend. You need to know to use the lifts to get to and from the B terminal shuttle, but other than that, arrivals does seem pretty well figured out.
Departures though is an unmitigated nightmare. Where is premium check-in? I don’t want to have to queue for ages with the coach travellers when I’m travelling in business. The security is just a disaster. Can someone explain to me what was wrong with handing the trays back over the machine? The auto-tray return just makes it impossible to get your stuff. You have just got something out of the tray, then all the trays move and you have to chase it down the conveyor.
Probably the single biggest annoyance though is the walk to the lounge. You come through security and the lounges are on the right, yet BAA insist you have to walk past pretty much every shop to get there, and BA just meekly bend over and take it. This time I got to the lounge, and asked where the VAT refunds desk is - you guessed it, back by security - so I had to do the trip 3 times. I would have gone directly out to the B-gates lounge (which at least reduces the walking), but they hadn’t announced the gate of my NY flight when I arrived, and I was advised not to head out there.
The other thing that really bugs me is the lack of announcements in the loungs. This means you have to sit somewhere near a TV to see when your flight is boarding. A big retrograde step. I asked in the B-gate lounge (after my flight had been announced to be going from the B-gates and I moved over there to check the lounge out), they told me that they didn’t want to announce because there would be too many announcements. Wait a second, there were 20 flights on the screen in the B-gate lounge, far less than you used to get in T4.
Overall T5 is just too big for it’s own good. Bring back T4 is a message I will definitely echo.