London Heathrow Airport

Unfortunately I travel through Heathrow frequently and often use flight connections at Terminal 5. It is unbelievable that a relatively new terminal would be such a disaster when one has to transfer from one flight to another. The queues just to get through to the queue for security are unbelievable full of people panicking they will miss their connection rude staff blocking the escalators up to security in an effort to "control" the crowds. Once you do get to security more of the same massive queues people trying to jump ahead of others in their effort to make a connection total chaos. I cannot imagine how you survive the experience is you are elderly or infirm.

I am echoing many of the comments of my fellow reviewers by saying that I will avoid LHR in future because it has become the worst transit airport I have experienced in 50 years of international travel. The staff are poorly trained. Terminal 5 is very unfriendly to the disabled - we were separated from our 89 year old family member at several points after waiting long periods for assistance. We asked how long we would have to wait in the wheelchair holding area and even the supervisor said anything from 5 minutes to 5 hours. The British philosophy of security seems to be to zero in on easy targets no common sense is applied such as spending 20 minutes on a 90 year old wheelchair passenger. Lastly having to ride a train several times as well as go through security again and then sit around waiting for a gate number which might mean yet another train ride is just about the worst scenario you can devise for people who have to ride in cramped poorly air conditioned planes for perhaps 12 hours to get to Heathrow and then have to do the same to their next destination. Going through Madrid now seems like heaven.

Arrived terminal 4 on 25 Feb 2014. Had organised a wheelchair as I have breathing problems but it didn't turn up. I struggled along to stand in Passport Control for an hour or more. The queues were horrendous. I got through eventually and got to baggage reclaim to find out like hundreds of other people did that there were no trolleys. I tried to get help but there was none and they did not know when the trolleys would be collected from the car parks. I am 70 years old and had to struggle trying to pull 2 small suitcases and my hand luggage. I will never fly from Heathrow again. Quite honestly it has the worst Airport service I have ever had and I have been in many over the years.

Security check is a disaster. Led over terminal for miles waiting in queues for long times staff rude. Everybody annoyed felt very sorry for elderly people. Cannot imagine them to catch anything but bottles of water and lighters.

I had the misfortune to use Terminal 5 again at LHR two weeks ago - domestic flight. The Security Staff are horrendous they are extremely rude off-hand and downright unpleasant! I am a middle-aged professional respectable female and I find these people completely odious in their attitude. Yes of course they have a job to do but why does that involve a total lack of courtesy and aggressiveness! Unfortunately I have to use LHR on a regular basis and have now trained myself to simply "zone-out" and not give them the satisfaction of reacting to their behaviour!

Terminal 1. No comparison to other terminals - signage is strange and people are very rude. There is a physical sign that states gates 77-80 I asked where gate 76 was and rudely told - around the corner by three people. When I said there is no sign for anything lower than gate 77 I received a who cares stare. I don't utilize terminal 1 99% of the time it is terminal 3. All passengers around me had the same challenges and thought it was interesting that there were no signs for gate 76 until you actually reach it. Also when I was connecting from T3 I was told different answers to transfer and obtain a boarding pass for BA LHR-DUB.

I arrived from AMS BA429 yesterday we landed at 10.40am on time within 20 mins I was through immigration and had my baggage in my hand off of the baggage belt it is not often this happens but when it works it makes a great difference to getting home without having to wait sometimes 45 minutes for luggage so well done! I always use the Pod Parking too which makes for a fast exit from the airport too I have heard that BAA are looking to extend the Pod Parking to the long term parking further on down the road this will be great if they do as it will mean no more waiting for buses which run around 15 minutes part.

If BA offers you a tight connection Heathrow will always be an awfully stressful experience. Keep in mind you will always land late because unless you arrive before 6am you will first circle London 2-3 times. Staff are overall very rude. Every aspect of your journey is handled by a different company. I travel with a disabled family member. If you begin your journey at Heathrow disability assistance drives you to a series of checkpoints where typically you will sit unable to leave with a supervisor who hardly speaks any English. Even if you start out 3-4 hours before your flight you might have no opportunity to shop or get some food. If you have a transfer through Heathrow disability assistance insists on driving you to a checkpoint near passport control where you will be stuck for some time while the assistance staff socialises with one another and inefficiently makes its future plans. Last time we flew through Heathrow was 9-10 months ago. We had a tight connection made still tighter by the aforementioned Heathrow slow flush cycle. Disability assistance came late then sat there for 10 minutes then drove to the checkpoint and sat for 15 minutes doing nothing. Luckily a BA tight connections assistant came by and checked out tickets for the connection we were already late to board so that it would not leave without us. She also gave us orange "short connection" passes and asked the disability assistance to hurry up but neither was to any avail. Then we walked the remaining distance to the gate which took another 10 minutes. We were met by about ten BA employees at the gate who were horrified at how long it took for us to be escorted through the airport on a tight connection. Learn my lesson - don't transfer through Heathrow unless you really have to but certainly never do it on a tight connection.

Arrived by Heathrow Express not having used the airport for a good many years. No problems throughout transit to flight departure. On return I was on the Heathrow Express and London bound within an hour off stepping off the plane.

Flew into T5. On transfer to domestic flight we found directions confusing. On queuing for security the whole queue of approx 12 people were told off for lining up in the express line which actually was the only one open. We dutifully moved over to the correct line which she then opened for us. No word of apology or explanation. We found the staff to be rude and officious. After a 13 hour flight and after the positive experiences of 3 airports in Australia Singapore Christchurch Bangkok and Chiang Mai it was dispiriting and embarrassing. Why can't we get basic courtesy right? First impressions count.