London Heathrow Airport

19th April. LHR-EDI. Terminal 5 a delight and massive improvement on other terminals. Modern design and bathed in natural light great views of the airfield. Just wish we had left more time to enjoy the views! Will definitely look forward to using T5 again in the future.

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.

LHR-LAS-PHX-LHR. Very straightforward passage through T5 on outward journey. One avoidable hitch when we left the lounge for T5B. We were unloaded from transit for an apparent fault and put on the next. The first then left with people on it anyway. Impressively fast on the way back in spite of recent adverse publicity about the UKBF/UKBA. There was a wait for the transit at a busy time. There were queues at immigration but to my surprise IRIS was still in operation. Baggage handling was commendably fast but then a lot of time was wasted waiting for the inadequate and infrequent Hotel Hoppa. A broken toilet had a sloppy sign indicating more that it was not being fixed than it was likely to be any time soon. A key escalator in the still fairly new T5 was not working and another in the same sequence was taped off even though it was running. Heathrow should be very amusing during the Olympics but I don't plan to test that.

Arrived at T3 at 05.45 from Singapore. Joined a queue of about 50 people in Fast Track - the queue behind me grew to hundreds in minutes. Two passport officers were dealing with Fast Track arrivals. After about 5 minutes one of the officers closed his desk down and walked off. Totally mysterious. I got through in about 30 minutes - God knows what happened behind.

Earlier this year I arrived at Terminal 3 of the 32 immigration desks available 3 were occupied by staff - lines were endless and the waiting time unacceptable. I later complained to the Border Agency they didn't even investigate the complaint. It was slow and chaotic and had nothing to do with robust border control if anything it made it seem something of a joke.

Arrived from Dubai early Tuesday morning 24 April tired after night flight with a one year old. Utter chaos through passport control. We were blocked from taking the Baggage collection route and were not advised how to get there. We went to Baby changing room by the baggage pick up which was a big room but only had one baby changing table! How ridiculous is that and what sort of impression does that give to visitors in a brand new Terminal? I wanted to transfer to the Bus Station I searched for signs to the bus station of which there were none was told I took the train to Terminal 1. No information on the train station as to which stop for the Bus Station.

I arrived at T5 on Wednesday 25 April as non-EU citizen from South Africa. I brought my elderly mother along. However at Border Control we had to queue for 2.5 hours with control officers leaving their desks often for coffee or breaks although there were many passengers waiting. I booked a shuttle service over Internet and our driver left the arrivals hall since we did not show up after 2-3 hours though the flight was not delayed. I had to call the company from the arrivals hall and they finally charged me 20 pounds extra for inconvenience.

Whoever is responsible for the queues on 25th April morning should be ashamed of themselves. Expecting weary often hungry and thirsty passengers to stand in line for 1 2 3 hours is just inhumane and unheard of! I travel to and from the USA at least 5 times per year and T5 is the worst border control experience I have ever had by far. I could not believe the chaos and torture that awaited for me when I landed just an absolute joke that it has been allowed to go on. One day a fluke - any more than that sheer neglect.

5:40am arrival on Cathay to T3. 15-20 minute walk from the gate to customs is excessive - a Skytrain is sorely needed. Customs queue was relatively short at about 20-30 minutes due to early arrival. Baggage claim was also fairly quick for the same reason. Terminal interior drab and not spacious all round. Overall very unimpressive for the world's busiest international airport.

Arrived back at T5 last night. Transit took an age. No escalators working and then a queue that snaked all the way back from passport to the far end of the terminal. Olympic adverts everywhere - seriously need to get act together.