London Heathrow Airport

Terminal 4. Departing - far more enjoyable experience than T3. Nice range of facilities clean easy check in experience security a breeze and quick boarding. Hassle free experience. Arriving - 30mins circling London at 6.30am Sunday morning. Not much space in baggage collection area but smooth easy connection to Tube. However Passport Control big queues. Lots of flights must have arrived at same time but few staff (especially on international desks) - queue was well past the 'at least 45 minute board' down corridor before even reached the hall and lack of signage was confusing as queue was way before a sign highlighting which queue to join. E-gates were playing up but got through manual control reasonably fast and out the door in 30mins from getting off plane. International passport holders would have been much longer!

Not for the first time has a flight been changed from gate 8 to gate 80 with little or no notice and it's a fair walk. Something to be aware of if your flight is posted for Gate 8.

Definitely the worst airport I've ever transited. The availability of wheelchair assistance was spotty and the wheelchair assistance co-ordinators were not polite. When we really needed one there was no one at the assistance station at all. We missed our flight and were delayed 24 hours. Even without assistance challenges Heathrow has the worst layout of any airport in the world. I would have thought it would be better after the Olympics. Not so. Transferring between terminals is interminable.

Arrived to check in at T5 for early eve flight to Philadelphia. Absolutely no queue at the Bag drop and was quickly checked in by the welcoming check in clerk. Security was quick and efficient. Boarded from C gates which were very quiet. Efficient well organised boarding.

Terminal 5. Bag drop queues were long about fifteen minutes passed through fast track into security to be delayed over half an hour because they seemed to be taking every other bag for additional screening. Bags and passengers were stacked up waiting for the two screeners to get round to them. They unpacked each bag completely and swabbed them all and every hard surface in each passenger's belongings. They even searched my wallet! They found nothing of course in any of the eight bags/passengers in front of me in the line. What a waste of time and resources. My previous good opinion of T5 now in ruins. The "pod" transfer from car park to terminal however was fast and efficient.

Arrived T3 and had an outbound at T5. While going through T5 security they were picking out every 3rd or 4th persons bags for screening stood there for 30 minutes until they got to our bag unloaded every item one by one at a glacial pace. Then went over to do the swab talked with their buddy and finally returned. 10 people were waiting for bags to be gone through at least and then he leaves leaving all of us standing there with no replacement. We will go around London next time.

Came through the fast track and had my bag set aside for a search. I waited 10 whilst the staff stood and had a conversation. They then put my bag back through the scanner but then decided they wanted to search it anyway. My bag was then taken to the other end of the security hall and put through another scanner whilst the staff member stood and chatted to his colleagues. He then brought my bag back and painfully slowly emptied every single compartment. He opened the pouch that had all the cables for my laptop in and zipped it back up without even looking in it. After the bag was completely emptied he asked would I like him to re-pack my bag. I packed it myself to save time. He made a mockery of the security at T1.

I recently arrived at LHR Terminal 4 and departed Terminal 3. I had Fast Track both ways. My United flight arrived 40 minutes early at Terminal 4 and I was expecting a breeze in the Fast Track line. Unfortunately the line was long in the Fast Track line and took over an hour. I departed from Terminal 3 and there was nobody in the Fast Track line. However my bag that went through the X-Ray screener required a personnel to search it. I had to wait over 20 minutes till the security agent got to my bag. They explained that they are very short staffed. I think this is unexcusable for the busiest airport in the Europe that just had the Olympics there. Terminal 3 itself is nice and had a lot of restuarants and shops.

Came back via Madrid into T5 and after Immigration where they were still welcoming visitors to the Paralympics 10 days after it finished - how hard can it be to revert the screen messages? We went to baggage reclaim. Followed the signage to the relevant belt and waited. Eventually cases started to trickle out now about 45 minutes from landing time but not ours. Asked a passing worker how long it should take and were told about half an hour but maybe check for other Spanish origin flights. There weren't any but as our concern and indeed panic rose we began walking the length of the hall checking every belt where eventually we found one case on the belt for a flight from Abuja Nigeria. After nearly an hour we were about to go to baggage enquiries office when the last case appeared on its own again on the Abuja flight belt. You have to ask what kind of system manages to misplace not one but two cases so very far from correct. This terminal appears still not to have fixed its problems.

Arrived morning (07.30) of 14 July into T5: no queue at passport control and the luggage began to come through as I arrived at baggage reclaim. Time from aeroplane to taxi rank was 20 minutes which was quite good considering half of that was spent going from the gate to passport control. Passport control person was not impolite which made for a nice and very welcome change.