London Heathrow Airport

Terminal 2 at LHR - flying business class on 1 Jan and couldn't check in at the business class desk because they were too busy. I was directed to self check in and set about printing my own luggage labels and boarding passes - I needed x2 but only got one and then had to wait 20 minutes for the other one. Having got rid of my luggage I then went to vat refund desk - queue a mile long. I abandoned the VAT refund experience and then went through security - all ok but then - no mini trolleys for hand luggage. I was forced to carry x2 7 kg hand luggage bags. Suffice to say I couldn't be bothered with any shopping. I then had the bright idea of going to a business class lounge before proceeding to my gate - another bad idea. I took a very long escalator followed by 3 travelators then another 2 escalators then a lift to the Air Canada lounge. I arrived sweating with an aching shoulder. Avoid terminal 2.

I have now used the new Terminal 2 on two occasions October and December 2014 and have been disappointed as I find there are not sufficient cafes (EAT had long queues) and I have struggled to find anything vegetarian in the restaurants. Even the vegetarian sandwiches were sold out. All in all lots of bling but that's it.

At Heathrow Terminal 5 waiting for bag drop. Absolutely unbelievable! Massive queues! Waited over 45minutes for bag drop! What's the point of having so many check-in counters but only a quarter of them is staffed! Hoping to become a world class airport? However there's not many choices when flying out or into London. Other 'London' airports are so far out of London and they are even worse then Heathrow!

Terminal 5. We arrived on an early morning flight from Cape Town and took more than an hour to get through transfer. Totally under provisioned for volume of traffic. This was not the first such experience but it was the worst to date. How can most other major airports manage to do the necessary in reasonable time?

Terminal 2 a nightmare. Uncomfortable to use departures on level 5 accessible only by lifts if you have baggage. Then a walk in icy blast across an exposed area open to the elements. Self check-in a shambles. Walked forever to get to gate. I will fly from a regional airport next time and transit somewhere comfortable like Schipol or Zurich or Dubai.

Terminal 5. We arrived from South Africa to transfer to Edinburgh on Saturday 13th Dec and the late arriving A380 eventually parked at the far satellite - we then had to queue to board the very full transit train with everyone carrying luggage join the queue to follow "Flight Connections" queue to pass through passport control more escalators and walking brought us to yet another queue for security and on to the gate to queue yet again on those yellow footprints. Time to travel a few hundred yards = 70 minutes - and we caught our connection but our luggage did not. Terminal 5 seems to have been designed by the junior staff - it is not at well thought out why the complication of three separate buildings and the consequential underground railway? Terminal is such an unpleasant experience with absolutely no independent lounges and is so congested - pull it down and go back to the drawing board surely there are some competent architects who could make a much better job of it. Other large airports seem to manage it!

T5 in December from and to SFO. Arguably the worst terminal ever designed. Arrival you have to go down three sets of escalators catch a train then go up three sets of escalators. Immigration lines for non-UK passport holders was some 200 people with only 3 immigration officers. Clearing immigration took me 45 minutes. Departure about 50 minutes to clear security and again with the escalators adventure. Nothing modern about this terminal. Will avoid by not flying BA.

Terminal 2. I have used this "new" terminal several times now and each time has been an appalling experience. When you see the kind of staff operating the terminal it becomes clear why. My most recent experience this week: I had checked in online electronic boarding pass in hand so I went straight to join the lengthy queue for baggage drop. Oh no you need to queue up at one of the self check-in machines to obtain luggage labels faff about sticking them on and then rejoin the ever lengthening baggage drop queue after being curtly questioned by a miserable looking "jobsworth" about your destination. Baggage drop itself was OK the lady even smiled slightly - things were looking up! Next stop security I decided to join one of the shorter queues but this was clearly not allowed as I was immediately blocked by jobsworth number two who had clearly decided on my behalf that I needed to join a much longer queue. I declined his kind offer and got some indecipherable response from him so I just carried on and was through security in no time at all. Caught flight all good. Return flight into T2 last night. Plane landed on time sat on apron near T2 for 10 minutes before pilot announced that the guiding something or other to the bridge had failed and we had to wait for an operator to arrive and guide the aircraft to the stand manually. Whatever it was then took another 20 minutes or so and it was then a case of down the steps onto the wet and windy tarmac up a flight of stairs into the terminal followed by something like a half mile trek involving a mix of operating and non-operating travelators and escalators and lengthy walkways to passport control. At least passport control was fairly quiet and the luggage soon arrived on the belt which unlike my previous T2 experience was actually working. Exit to car park got in lift lift not working. Into next lift not working. Finally made it to car on level 3 in third lift. Got to exit barrier and then had to queue for over 15 minutes due to chaotic mixture of 3 exit lanes going into one and some unfortunate punter having broken down on the exit road. I hate T2 it is almost beyond belief that a new terminal like this has so many faulty operations and so many rude and disenfranchised staff.

Flew from T1 to Lyon. What a shame this terminal is closing as currently it's an oasis of calm. Everything was a breeze from the security to the calm and effective BA lounge. What a joy!

Terminal 4 don't understand why this airport receives such bad press. Terminal was busy with several flights to India plus other Asian destinations however there were lots of security channels open and the staff were handling the volume of passengers well and even with a smile. Terminal was clean lots of seats tablets for use if you want WiFi worked well and there was a nice viewing area. All staff I came across were nice and helpful. Lots of retail options available and I found the prices of duty free cheaper than the other airports I've visited in the last couple of weeks (Doha Zurich Paris Bangkok). Plus for those on a budget there's places like Pret Boots WHSmiths etc where the food was the same price as the high street. On return thanks to e-gates was through immigration in 2 minutes bags were out in 5 and was on the tube within 20 minutes of landing. Pretty impressive for an airport the size of Heathrow. I've been to some of the world's best airport (ICN SIN etc) and honestly on this occasions LHR T4 did just as good and needs to be given credit where due.