London Heathrow Airport

An old airport and it shows the carpets are worn and dirt dust over everything. It needs a good clean. Signs are well posted and very clear. Border control - very long wait as is the luggage to be delivered on the carrousel.

T3. Arrived at Heathrow from Hong Kong early morning. I did not expect too much especially Hong Kong is claimed to be one of the best airport. However I was pleasantly surprised. Terminal 3 is old but some money has been spent to renovate the terminal. It is a long walk from the gate to the immigration check but there was no queue for European passport holders. Even for foreigners the queue was moving pretty fast. It took me less than 15 minutes from landing to immigration check which was impressive. Then I went to pick up my luggage and surprisingly they were waiting on the belt. It was a total 20 minutes from the time I landed to the time I got on Heathrow Express. Much more efficiency than Hong Kong. Maybe I was just lucky but I have had really good experience in T1/T3/T5 in the last year. Well done and I am looking forward to visiting Terminal East!

Terminal 5 may be very attractive but it is a functional disaster. We were flying Business on BA with a 90 minute connection time. Despite being able to use the fast-track lines it still took a lengthy amount of time to get through the repeat security rigmarole. Our outgoing flight was leaving from a "C" gate which meant not only a hike to the train but a train ride then another hike to the gate. We arrived at the gate with only 10 or 15 minutes to spare - no time to visit the BA lounge - there isn't one in the "C" section anyway. Would suggest premium class passengers allow a bare minimum of 2 hours of connection - heaven only knows how much time economy passengers should allow - probably at least 3 or 4 hours. Will do my best to avoid connecting at LHR in the future even if it means extra cost or additional inconvenience. Everyone complains about connecting from International at O'Hare but that connection took 1/3 the time and 1/10 the hassle compared to our Heathrow connection.

Passport control T3 Saturday arrivals 19.00 (quiet time). Hand luggage only no checked bags. Was given a fast track pass and wished I hadn't bothered. The e-gates were closed (not that I can use these yet - old passport) and there were only two people serving the fast track queue. EU citizens were stuck behind more complicated immigration needs. It would have been quicker to join the regular UK/EU queue. The only way Fast track would work properly is either a) all 6 positions open or b) segregate UK-EU and Other in the fast track or c) Fast track only for UK-EU. Broadly speaking the 3 e-gates are an irrelevance and these should have their own queue. And the passport area was hot.

T3 - old tired if I had a choice of direct flights from anywhere else in the UK I would go there. Very little seats around other then in the expensive food areas long lines for departure security and then got to front at staff change over time and had to wait while they all had a chat to each other. No fast food places before or after security so if your travelling with kids be warned. Plenty of expensive places to eat and as far as I can tell even the snack food is twice the price of the high street. Seats full there were 2 delayed flights. Long walks to some gates. On a plus side on return no lines at passport control but made up for by a long wait for bags to even start arriving.

We had a two-hour layover between Boston and our connecting flight to Dublin. We arrived at Heathrow on time but missed our connection due to nightmare queuing and no less than 4 security checks (although we were so traumatized that we lost count). And we were not alone in missing that flight. On the return trip we had an almost 4 hour layover which allowed us to make our connecting flight but with not that much time to spare. Once again the queues were a nightmare. Heathrow provided us with absolutely the worst airport experience we have ever had bar none. We will never ever fly into this airport again. If you can avoid it do so at any cost. If you can't make sure that you have comfortable walking shoes not too much to carry and plenty of time between connections.

Arrived at terminal three from Hungary. The plane parked up on the apron and a series of buses arrived to transfer passengers to the shabby terminal with a long drive through a building site followed by escalators a broken down travelator and eventually to passport control - mercifully clear but clearly set up to cater for horrendous queues at busy times. The whole thing manages to function only because of goodwill from the staff at the airport but is a national embarrassment.

Flew with BA from Sao Paulo to London arrived at T5 early morning on a Thursday and had a wonderful experience at the airport no queues through border control clean modern beautiful terminal and arrived at Paddington in Central London very easily. In my opinion one of the best airports in the world.

Was a passenger only connecting via Heathrow T5. Stress and frustration is my only experiences at Heathrow. If T5 is the most modern of all the airports terminals then it is really one of the least efficient in the world. Our flight landed on time and although we were not exiting the terminal we went through the security process once again which is something I don't understand as transit passengers we were already scanned in our origin airport (in this case Zurich). This additional screening took over 2hrs and meant we were running for our connecting flight. Fast track was also backed up and provided little benefit. Bottlenecks at every screening points and nothing but frustrated passengers and staff. The layout and ineffective processes cannot help. Thank goodness we were not travelling during the Olympics. Good luck to those who do!

Arrived T3 to connect to T5. Spent 2+ hours in line at one check or another bus trip and more delay at another 2 check lines to finally get to boarding gate at T-5. Only had time for one toilet stop and spent rest of time on line and trying to get to gate. Flight was in final boarding when I arrived and barely made flight. Shameful experience at LHR for the traveller. Would not even consider coming back for an event in London if I had to transit LHR.