Never seen it this bad, so if you are traveling through T5 today, beware! I honestly thought there was going to be a fist fight at one point. BAA needs a rocket up the proverbial... I even had to let myself into the fast track queue as there were no staff directing. Sigh.
One a more positive note... I write this from the hallowed turf of the Concorde room! Never thought I make it in here, but thanks to my second opup to First of the year, and a connecting flight, here I am...
One a more positive note... I write this from the hallowed turf of the Concorde room!
Fancy inviting me in? I'm in GF at the moment and have promised to guest someone in in a couple of hours. Am only here early because the internet in the hotel was such a dog as to be unusable.
As for security, I found it ok actually. Managed to get through unscathed without a pat down or bag search.
I was highly irritated by the T5 security yesterday. The day before yesterday it was blissful at 5am. Yesterday at 0930am, it was irritating with weird staff members, although the lady who was doing a secondary bag search was wonderful and polite. I wish they were all like her, but two of the security guys were embarrassment.
Fancy inviting me in? I'm in GF at the moment and have promised to guest someone in in a couple of hours. Am only here early because the internet in the hotel was such a dog as to be unusable.
As for security, I found it ok actually. Managed to get through unscathed without a pat down or bag search.
Achk! Actually I am back in the Flounge (I originally came over for some breakfast and left my luggage, then realised I could go over to the CCR!). So am off to the gate in a mo. Are you here still?
I am not sure which lounge I like best - the dining area in the CCR is definitely very nice. And the concorde seats in the board room are awesome!!! I want one for my office!!!!!
I got stopped for secondary screening yesterday - that's either 5 or 6 in a row for me now and the guy I was chatting said that they had no idea why they were doing so many more now. He said the alert status hasn't changed but they're doing way more than normal at the moment.
He also suggested that MAC makeup was giving a lot of false positives in hand baggage swabs as their products contain 'a lot' of gelatine which is one of the substances tested. That'd explain my previous test which came up positive much to the alarm of the family waiting next to me. Fortunately no-one else seemed very concerned and they let me on my way.
Achk! Actually I am back in the Flounge (I originally came over for some breakfast and left my luggage, then realised I could go over to the CCR!). So am off to the gate in a mo. Are you here still?
I'm still here. TBH I'm not that bothered about going to the CCR really, just would be nice to take a look at some point. Thanks anyway! Have a good flight.
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I went through South Security last Thursday (noticed it was bigger) - and it was fine - pretty quick. I didn't notice anyone at all being picked for a second bag check.....
I was quite relieved actually given all the poor comments on here recently.
The last 2 or 3 times through fast track, I've gone under the tapes into the faster non-fast track. I wonder if there's really any point in having a fast track any more.
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Instead of spending time and money on the non-offers from the Advent Calendar, I think BA should get round the table with BAA to sort out the dreadful security shenanigans at T5. Would be far better marketing!
Achk! Actually I am back in the Flounge (I originally came over for some breakfast and left my luggage, then realised I could go over to the CCR!). So am off to the gate in a mo. Are you here still?
I'm still here. TBH I'm not that bothered about going to the CCR really, just would be nice to take a look at some point. Thanks anyway! Have a good flight.
Shame to miss you though - I have only had the pleasure of meeting 2 other FR'ers to date. Now in my seat so cheers!
Transit Security on Friday evening ( at 1800 admittedly a busiy time) was a PITA.
We were three hours late into LHR from LAS ( had been rebooked onto the 1830 LHR-EDI) and of course we arrived at the C gates.
Getting to the domestic bp checkpoint about T-34 I was expecting to be told you were too late but the BA agent said that you should make it.
Took the escalator up on the fast track lane only to find the queues to the fast track lane going back to the lane number ( all lanes looked equally as bad) but do not know how many lanes were being used ( it did not appear to be all of them).
I joined the lane and people behind me were saying that they had tight connections ( I replied that we were all in the same boat).
The BAA lady said that one fast track lane had been closed ( she did not know why) and even a BA agent who was escorting a couple of pax was amazed ( and not in a good way) about the length of queues.
I could see that people were still coming in from landside ( I would have thought that they would have closed it to clear the backlog of transit pax).
It took eventually 20mins to clear security and had to run to the gate which said flight closing and was the last to board.
If I had been at the back of the plane from LAS I probably would not have made it.
My bags did not make it to EDI and were delivered 5pm yesterday.
Regards
TBS
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Last edited by The _Banking_Scot; Dec 9, 12 at 7:01 am..
Instead of spending time and money on the non-offers from the Advent Calendar, I think BA should get round the table with BAA to sort out the dreadful security shenanigans at T5. Would be far better marketing!
BAA and security people alleged that BA only pay for a certain number of lanes to be designated fast track. I have no idea if that is true or not.
But that's not the point. Shouldn't security be taking no more than 10 minutes for everyone, let alone fast track passengers, sensibly speaking?
BAA or their contractors or whoever they are should be hiring more people and deploying many more equipment, because don't BAA get paid per passenger for security surcharge??
Only about half the machines were working yesterday morning, maybe 65% at most, with a lot of security people just seemingly doing nothing while the secondary manual bag search people were working absolutely flat out. Something doesn't seem right to me.
Why don't we file a complaint online around the same time to BAA so they have a better chance of being noticed due to a spike? There is an online form I believe.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LTN Phobia
But that's not the point. Shouldn't security be taking no more than 10 minutes for everyone, let alone fast track passengers, sensibly speaking?
BAA or their contractors or whoever they are should be hiring more people and deploying many more equipment, because don't BAA get paid per passenger for security surcharge??
Only about half the machines were working yesterday morning, maybe 65% at most, with a lot of security people just seemingly doing nothing while the secondary manual bag search people were working absolutely flat out. Something doesn't seem right to me.
Yes, that's exactly it. First, security should not take ages, it's just a matter of (a) organising it properly and (b) having sufficient capacity. I don't know the details of the situation, but BAA operates the place and as such I hold them responsible for the above (although I suspect the average traveller might not even have heard of BAA, which is why BA should consider the impact on its reputation).
There is always a lot of faffing about at T5, wasting time all over the place. Staff are chatting with one another instead of progressing the security queues, there is not enough equipment in use and the secondary screening circus is ridiculous.
The other day I waited almost 10 minutes after loading my tray before being able to go through the arch because a woman in front of me had to be patted down and they had to wait for a female officer to come over from somewhere else. Instead of taking her aside and process the rest of us, they made us all wait until the female officer turned up. You can imagine the queue that build up in that time. And this was on the "fast track"! Never seen such inane organisation.
I'm in GF at the moment and have promised to guest someone in in a couple of hours. Am only here early because the internet in the hotel was such a dog as to be unusable.
