London Heathrow Airport

Yet another disappointing experience at T5. Arrived at c gates. My connecting flight's gate not yet known. So had to get shuttle to section a. Very busy and like rush hour on the underground. Then waited at section a until gates shown - plenty of seats but seems so full and busy - nowhere pleasant to wait. Why no lounge for paying passengers as at the other terminals? Only BA preferred customers have that facility. Then another shuttle trip to b gates. Limited facilities there and seating around gate areas mediocre. Could learn from other airports which I used on the current trip - Johannesburg and LAX. BA and BAA and T5 not a good advert for wanting to travel via the UK.

Heathrow one of the largest airports world-wide and a disgrace short staffed no wheelchairs available for my travelling companion who has trouble walking whilst waiting for the wheelchair we missed our flight to Manchester - leading to a delay of over 4 hours till the next flight We had no problems with Airports in Chicago New York and Las Vegas who where top class. Get your act together Heathrow. And to top my first experience of ever using Heathrow arriving in Manchester my suitcase did not arrive with me. Next time I go direct from Manchester.

Took our son to term 2 last night. Chaos reigned at A counters. One was encouraged to print own bag check etc and then you had to join another queue. The machine would only print one of his boarding passes so he was not allowed to drop bag drop queue he had to join the special assistance queue. 50 minutes later he got to see a person and they checked his bags and printed the second boarding pass. He had checked in online the previous day with Singapore Airlines. Term 2 had grouped all the airlines together and so no individual queues for the airline you were travelling on. It has never been as bad as this in the last 40 years we have travelled through Heathrow. Who's so called bright idea was to lump groups of airlines together. The staff had to keep taking people out of the queues as they were going to miss their flights as the gates close an hour before take off. Shame this lovely new building cannot have proper facilities for the travelling passengers. Everyone says Heathrow is the worst airport in the world so why can they not do something about it. Better management is called for and more staff at busy times is needed.

When flying Virgin Atlantic from Terminal 3 be aware that the gates are a 20 minute walk from the security check point and there are NO food or beverage services at the gates. Layout appears designed to extract the last few pounds before leaving London.

Sept 22 early am arrival from the US. I do not think I have cleared any airport I have travelled to faster than this. Zipped through Immigration and Fast Track - was in lounge about 15 minutes after leaving the plane. It can work apparently. The recommendation would have to be for this experience as many were not so good.

September 22 2014. I had a one hour international connection at T5. Everything went smoothly I was put in the priority line for both immigration and security. I made my connecting flight London-San Francisco with no problems.

Terminal 5. The security checks carried out by Border Security is just ridiculous disorganised not enough desks open or staff available it was abysmal. We travelled back into the UK from San Francisco at the US end the security checks are more organised quicker and more efficient. They are set up to handle volume not Heathrow T5 it is a joke will not be going there again. Take my advice stay clear use other airlines even go to Amsterdam to go to the US not Heathrow T5.

Taxis. Anyone wanting a black cab especially late at night not wanting to go into central London beware of the shambles that is the queue for cabs. It is managed but you may find that when it comes to your turn the cabbie won't be interested or will want a fare out of proportion to the journey distance (it's to do with the stupid licensing arrangement they have from TFl's taxis dept) leaving you having wasted your time. The queue operative may approach cabs further down the line - but no guarantee that other drivers will take you either. Seems that a lot don't have card readers in their cabs either. There are private hire taxis in the terminal - my advice is to use one of those instead and it may well be much cheaper.

Transited through LHR to JFK from KUL and the airport has good connections for flights to various parts of the world. However they need to improve on the security screening and its staff. I noticed that the staff were "selective" in the passengers who had to undergo additional screening based on stereotypes according to my observation. The transfer desk and security at Terminal 4 could do with some improvements on their tone of voice (when dealing with certain passengers) as well as the building interior itself. Terminal 5 is a nice terminal and is more systematic. Bus transfers were efficient. Free internet limited to 45 minutes only at LHR.

Flew from T2 Heathrow to Newark New Jersey and the staff and atmosphere could not have been more different. The T2 staff were polite and helpful (unlike the Newark staff on arrival who were rude and arrogant). There appeared to be an abundance of staff within the duty free area and restaurants who were extremely pleasant and helpful which made for a great start to our city break. Would definitely be happy to fly from this terminal again.