skye1

There & back to Dublin....
A relaxing dinner and drinks in the lounge, an exit row with empty seat next to us, (flight is half empty), yes, a good trip so far.

NewbieRunner

If I were a BA flyer it would have been tempting to fly to DUB and catch a ferry home but instead I'm at Euston waiting for a Virgin train. Enjoy your flights to/from DUB.

Jetstreamer

We were departing from A to BHD but took a tour of the B gates. You can get back, you just have to take a lift back down rather than an escalator. Not a great deal to see though.

KeaneJohn

A mixed day overall.. I didn't see anybody with Flyertalk tags. I registered around 1045, was given a Premum Economy Eva Air ticket to Taipei.

A long queue for lunch and being told to go to catch flights we would be given connection scripts for the return to A terminal, headed to the B gates. No transit and 2 short travellators. Can see many people unfamiliar with airports missing flights here.

Boarded flight only to be told there were no connection scripts they were arrivals only. Was told there would be lunches in International Arrivals.

Headed back towards arrivals but held for ages with no reason. Appears that it was an incident in the arrivals tunnel that needed the fire brigage. I learnt subsequently there were expecting it to be a short matter but it wasn't. As they weren't sure if the burning smell was coming from the air ducts they had to turn the overhead air conditioning off making the arrivals bridge like an over. Trials staff getting water and chocolate for diabetics. Eventually we were taken back via an Emergency Route to the B departures gates as it was a bit cooler. More water and chocolates given out.

Only one announcement in the upstairs bridge heard by the front of the queue this was not repeated and no speaker used so people at the back just followed the ones at the front. Once downstairs one announcement to say what was happening. Then all of a sudden about 20 minutes later without further announcement a mass departure of people as they had to take us out through the departures tunnel.

Now here comes the interesting part... and you could not make this up though it is logical I suppose, although an escalator can go both up and down the departures escalators had not been tested to go up with mass people on them, so people were released in groups of 15-20 and they had to clear the escalator before the next group of people could have been released.

This meant more queues, lots of people looking ill at the foot of the escalators, and one unfortunate lady collapsing. Call for the paramedics .. seemed to take ages for anybody first aid trainer to assist. Hastily grabbed a lunch and water then departed through A17 to be landed. Told to follow the script but really could not be bothered although made the effort to find out where my bags were as my arrivals flight had landed over 2 hours earlier. Lanyard collected.. a bit disappointed that these were not given back as souvenirs like the previous one's were but given an OKish umbrella and a small bag.

So most of today's prooving trials had to be abandoned with lots of teething issues would not like to be travelling through Terminal 2 anytime soon. (Veteran of T5 Day 1 departures here so speaking from experience).

bruno-s

Have fun in Dublin.

BA-Flyer

The trial was over quite quickly for me. I arrived at noon and proceeded straight to the registration tent, where it took about 20 minutes to register and listen to a briefing. I then proceeded upstairs to collect my instructions. My only complaint about the day was that it seemed pointless to wait for registration and then again to collect the script. (We were deliberately kept waiting 'to make the experience more realistic').

I had no luggage so went straight to security. Only 4 people ahead of me but the staff seemed to have a very relaxed attitude - no sense of being efficient to get people through. As my departure was 1.30pm they fast-tracked me to the front of the lunch queue.

I took 5 mins to take a few photos of the departure lounge before going to gate A19, so didn't get a chance to listen to the chap who was making a speech, or watch much of the footage playing on the big screen.

After checking-in I went downstairs to become an arrivals passenger, which is when I saw a fire engine speed by the air bridge.

At this point I discovered my only fault with T2 - the water pressure in the toilets was immense! The water shot out and splashed all over me and the walls. I also discovered one of the 2 hand dryers wasn't working.

Passing through the UK Border was easy enough - seems like they had a lot of e-gates, but I was directed to the staffed gate. There was a short wait before my baggage belt was announced, and another delay before the bags arrived.

The whole experience was over in a few hours, including time spent taking photos at the end. I was surprised at how small T2 is - it makes you realise what a large operation BA has!

exilencfc

We are. Lounge is ok. Good outbound

skye1

Indeed we are. In the lounge, more food, obligatory Guinness in hand, raising a glass to Adam for the day's umbrella storage

JimboandtheJetset

A pleasure for MsJetset and I to meet LondonAndy and LA Jr earlier - and thanks to LA Jr for entertaining MsJetset! Also good to see Fredandgingermad on the way to the gate and I think I spotted a few others matching the descriptions above.

We were on a flight that was obviously due to leave from the B gates but luckily never left the main lounge and so when they started cancelling things we just took our time and enjoyed the entertainment. A big thank you to those who have explained what happened - I think this whole thread shows FT at its best.

My only tip from the day is that if you do find yourself in T2, then gate A18 is a quiet corner and has good views of the west end of the southern runway.

Also, first time using self-tagging. Not convinced that it is quicker, especially for lone parents trying to control kids!

exilencfc

Self tagging was a bit disastrous imo. I had 3 goes before I got the machine to work through the process and Johnny5a needed 2 even with me advising.

choirgirl

I had a pretty short and sweet experience - arrived at about 11am and was done by 1.30pm, before the fire alarm started causing problems. Everything worked smoothly for me, but that was probably helped by not having checked bags on either journey (out to Stavanger, in from Munich). I particularly liked the layout of the baggage reclaim area - if you've only got handbaggage you walk in a straight line from immigration to the customs doors and the belts are arranged on either side of that 'walkway' , making for a compact layout rather than the more strung out arrangements elsewhere that can have you walking a considerable way up and down.

sigma421

You'll be pleased to know your umbrellas are happily stored and ready for collection at your leisure. What my flatmates made of me arriving home on the hottest day of the year carrying three giant umbrellas is another matter.

exilencfc

Three girls worth of beach shade obviously. Or you could have come with us and avoided the problem

BA-Flyer

We were on the same flights.

steve76

My experience was fairly brief too. First I had to find the VAT counter. On my previous trial I really struggled to find it; of course this time I knew where it was but I did immediately see lots of signs. I'm not sure if the signs are new or whether I was being particularly dim last time...

I had no luggage to check in, and already had my boarding pass, so went straight through to security. The wait was short and the staff were super-friendly. After security, I completed the quick survey on the tablets. The frustrating thing with these was that there was no 'free form' questions to provide feedback; you just had to agree or disagree with statements, even though many of them were not applicable in my case (so I just had to agree... which means that the results could be misleading).

Then down the stairs to the main departure lounge. I didn't really have any time to look around the terminal, as nearly all my time was spent (1) queuing for lunch (about 20 minutes!) and (2) searching everywhere for coffee. It turns out that the tea and coffee was in the corner on the left after security, on the upper level. I had been directed right and down the stairs so missed that completely :-(

I boarded from the A gates so missed the T2B excitement. My gate for Berne was right in the middle, behind the sushi or oyster bar or whatever it is. The location was a bit awkward as it there wasn't a huge amount of seating and it was so close to the general traffic. I hope they only use those gates for smaller planes.

After boarding I received my arrivals scenario. Again, I had no luggage, nothing to declare, nada. So other than waiting for 5 seconds at the e-gates, I just had to walk out.

Airport-wise, everything went fairly smoothly for me, but then I seemed to have ridiculously simple scenarios. (I can't help but think that they could have made it a bit more interesting - if I hadn't been on an earlier trial that gave me time to explore and also took me to the B gates, I would have been a bit disappointed). My only minor complaints were that the elevators to the car park where not well marked with respect to which ones went to the car park and which ones didn't. Also the hand dryers in the bathrooms - either above the sink (surely this is just going to create logjams?) or ridiculously low (for wheelchair users, obviously, but I found to be very difficult to use).

Trial-wise, it didn't go as smoothly as my previous trial. It took about 20 minutes to queue for registration, then a logjam in the registration tent, and then long queues for lunch (and people were being told to give up waiting if they had a plane to catch). I spoke to people who had to choose between looking around the terminal or getting lunch. Plus lots of confusion at the end regarding payment for the car park (I never received my promised 10p, didn't have any change on me, and couldn't find anyone to ask).

However, on balance it was a fun day, but obviously some kinks to work out. It will be a nice addition to Heathrow.