London Heathrow Airport

Used Heathrow T5 a couple of weeks ago for domestic flights fast check in good security - noticed the family lane with cartoons on the actual scanner good idea to calm children. Excellent departures area. all in all impressed.

T5 during a peak travelling period. Queue for bag drop was satisfactory - check-in staff efficient. No queue for security and went through with no problems. Not the friendliest of staff but wasn't expecting much. Great view of the runway and flights taking off made the wait to board quite pleasant. Facilities in the terminal were adequate.

Used Heathrow for domestic flights twice in the last week. Terminal Five clean bright and airy but seemed to be struggling with the number of passengers. Long wait at bag drops stressed out check-in staff long queues at security and food outlets very busy/crowded. Lack of seating at gate - myself and many other passengers were left standing for a long time as the flight was delayed. Great range of shops but a long walk down to A19/A20 if you are in a hurry! Both flights were delayed a considerable amount of time once boarded due to runway congestion - delighted to hear that mixed mode is going to be used on an introductory basis. Used T1 on 7 August and security queue was much shorter - was through in a few minutes and the terminal seemed far less chaotic. Heathrow is improving but is inconsistent.

I used T5 at LHR on a recent trip to New York. Check in was swift although Fast Track could have been quicker. Lounge facilities were excellent and there is a wide choice of shopping and dining facilities. Adequate seating at the gates and the transit system is really efficient.

Horrible queuing system. They need more staff at the UKBA counter. I had a wait of 3.5hrs to pass through immigration in a very hot and humid hall. Inefficient and rude.

Arrived at T4 on an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi in the evening. The queue at Border Control was very long and only less than 10 counters out of 30+ available counters were manned. It took me 2 hrs to get through Border Control (Foreign Passport Section) and I missed my ground connection to my final destination.

Used T3. long line for security little free seating in main departures area due to a small refit. Long walk to plane food outlets very expensive. On arrival better shorter walk no passport control line to speak of and bags coming up when arrived at the belt. Trolleys hard to find in baggage area.

Running frantically to catch a connecting flight on the other side of the airport I was stopped at the security checkpoint and searched. They got into my bag and took out a ziplock bag of medicine that I had for my high blood pressure. The medicine was in liquid form and was accompanied by a doctor's prescription. The airport security took it away and said it was not permitted on the plane. They said that it would be sent to me and gave me a ticket receipt. When I went online it turned out they wanted me to pay $70 to send the medicine from England to Latvia. A complete rip-off. So now I won't have my medicine the entire time I'm in Latvia and will have to get more only when I am back in the States.

Terminal 4 is new and very efficient. Through customs security and detax (claiming back 20% VAT for tourists) in 20 mins! You can't do better than that! But Wifi is not free and the paid services are slow and expensive at 9.95 pounds a session should not be called broadband because they are not broadband. Maybe 128k speed. But signage is good airport is clean staff are good too. Terminal 3 I landed at T3 and had connecting flights at T3 very efficient. I had 2 hrs 10 mins to do a connecting flight and I was panicking I would miss my flight. But nothing to worry. Got off the plane my Virgin Atlantic flight through customs collected my luggage checked through my British Airways flight to a European destination pass security in 30 mins! American airports can learn from this. Last time I was connecting in LAX-JFK and it took 2.5 hrs.

You really have to consider LHR as 4 separate airports according to which terminal you use. Arrival from JFK at T5; and absolute joy. Clean bright terminal with plenty of space and well-laid out. UK border control inwards a breeze through the EU passports line (queued for less than 5 mins after 0700 arrival on a Sat) and baggage already waiting at carousel. Reached the big bright arrivals hall in less than 30 mins after touchdown. At an airport like LHR such a feat is impressive. Whether departing or arriving T5 is always a pleasure. Easy transfer to T3 with the LHR express but T3 itself is another story. It is cramped and all thoroughfares are jammed with throngs of pax mostly with overloaded baggage trollies. Seating is an option only if you buy something at one of the food outlets. Queuing at security is efficient thanks to the staff who constantly keep watch and regularly re-distribute the queue. I never sit in the central seating area/food court. Too much like a shopping mall and always unpleasantly overcrowded and noisy. I always go through late enough to have my gate number posted on the FID's and head straight there and it's usually fairly painless. Queues security etc. are all fairly tedious I agree but considering that LHR is the world's busiest airport it performs well. If planned around realistic transfer times a transit through LHR can be painless.