pbh220

Hi Everyone,
Just a heads up at LHR: even when connecting to an outgoing flight, LHR security has ramped up to require 3 passport checks before one goes through bag security and the UK being what it is, the lines are LONG and the security agents are slow. The airport has only gotten worse since we connected there (2 years ago).

Furthermore, the bag security is punishing and only one personnel person works at a time. My backpack was completely emptied, all my cosmetics (including non-liquid items like bar soap & stick deodorant) had to repackaged in small "government issue" bags (which were alot smaller than the quart size) and true to Brit form, the bags were flimsy and virtually unsealable.

Result was she relished the opportunity to dump at least half my lotions and my rx liquids.

Added to the misery was the female agent who took her sweet time emptying all my packing bags, then throwing around the entire contents of my backpack, including my chargers, adaptors, phone, official documents etc, its a miracle that I didn't lose key docs. Passive aggressive to the max!!!

This "repackaging" project took 40 minutes alone while I stood in bare feet-seemed her key goal was to instill rage. That meant an hour standing in this line alone and enduring the last of three security checks. We had allowed 2.5 hours to get to our gate and we barely made it.

Can you imagine the ordeal once Brexit is completed? We've decided we've no of the UK experience. They can keep their rude and inefficient procedures and there will be a price to pay with the airlines.

stut

Moving to the UK & Ireland forum.

stut
Moderator
Europe Forum

PS Can I assume this was T5?

dddc

What Terminal were you in and what time of day were you there?

Just for a complete contrast (and I'm still in shock) I arrived at T3 from a transcontinental flight a couple of weeks ago. We were at the gate 2.52 and I cleared security and got may bag and as out by 3.08!! 16 minutes to clear an international flight after being dumped at the far end of T3 too!!

At least the liquid bags were free. Some airports charge you for them. Can you post a photo of your free bag please?

Going in I've not had the problems you've had and I bought my liquid bag from Muji. Everything fits in. Never had a problem with solids like soap, but waxy stuff like lippy has got to go through.

pbh220

We landed and connected in T2-which we have done many times and most recently mid 2015. LHR has never been a preferred airport for me, but this was a nightmare of petty bureaucracy. Thankfully US airports have cleaned up the TSA to prevent problems like this.

Buster

We were in T5 this weekend and while we didn't experience what you did, I felt that the entire process was punitive and slow. I was told that EVERY SINGLE ITEM had to be in its own bin (kindle separate from ipad separate from jacket separate from bag, etc). The screener yelled at the poor elderly folks in front of me, who were concerned about making a tight connection. She told them that she'd make them miss their flight if they said anything else, and when they asked for more bins to accommodate the new separate bin request, she said that she was not going to lift a finger to help them.

Petty bureaucracy sounds like a pretty accurate description for what I experienced.

Ber2dca

Heathrow can be a nightmare with the security checks, but I don't know how Brexit would affect it. Security checks don't have much to do with EU membership and they already aren't in Schengen.

technical_bob

You will find that other UK airports are markedly different from LHR. I regularly fly long haul from EDI, connecting in LHR, and the LHR experience is uniformly obnoxious, whereas the EDI experience is almost always fine.

Similarly, I have had hellish times at some US airports and lovely experiences at others.

stifle

It can seem a bit punitive, and many of the clerks go on power trips particularly with any hand luggage violations or the body scan. They know they can screw up your day, and it shows.

However, the rules are different here to America. All electrical items and your liquid bag must come out, which you may not be accustomed to if you typically have TSA Pre-Check. Their SOP requires a certain percentage of bags to be hand searched. The liquid bag size is 20cm square, not "a quart" whatever that is, and they give out the right size bags free.

KARFA

Having connected at T5 this morning I confirm nothing seems to have changed from the usual process I have seen for several years. One passport check was sufficient to get me in to the UK, and beyond that no further need for the passport. Also security seemed no different to usual - my iPad, liquids, and laptop went in one tray just as usual and this was not a problem.

The removal of liquids and iPad/laptop is standard at UK airports for many years now.

lhrsfo

I regularly use T2 and have never had an issue with security there, unlike the Hitlers in the USA and some rather officious Germans in FRA.

It sounds like the OP doesn't know the form. All liquids must go in bags, which are provided foc unlike in most places. Also, standing in bare feet sounds odd as there's no requirement for taking normal shoes off.

KARFA

I missed the shoes point, but you are right of course. I don't remember having to automatically take my shoes off in the UK, only when they are rather large boots or something similarly substantial. In the US my experience was always that shoes must be taken off (although thankfully I can avoid that as I now have TSA pre-check).

I would generally say my experience of security in the US is significantly worse in terms of waiting than in the UK, certainly at major airports in the US.

Mizter T

Yep. In terms of the experience of actually going through pre-flight security, I haven't encountered any of this nonsense in recent years at the other London airports of Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. The attitude and approach of security staff generally seems pretty good.

It also seems to vary between terminals at Heathrow - there's been several reports here recently about the pleasant security experience at the new(ish) Terminal 2. There does seem to be an embedded element of the awkward squad at T5 in particular.


That also seems a possibility.

catandmouse

The reason that security at LHR is pure theatre is precisely because of what the op describes. If a suspicious item is found at security, instead of clearing that item, the security operation is transformed into a retaliation operation, which has nothing to do with security.
The slowest, rudest, most incompetent operative is charged with emptying every item from all bags (including those that have passed the initial security check), and passing them one by one through the scanner. It suffices to have more than one passenger going through this process for long queues to build up. What this has to do with security has always defeated me.

IAN-UK

Not sure i can entirely agree with that proposition :roll eyes:

Travelling from Paris to Phoenix through PHL was a bit of a challenge. It didn't help that i was selected for a full-scale customs inspection; but I'll accept that as random bad fortune. The line for the subsequent TSA inspection was horrendous, perhaps a small facility overwhelmed by incoming flights. Agents were pretty aggressive, and my (blameless) hand baggage got inspected all over again.

A two-hour plus connection was whittled down to a dash between piers. I made it - really not too upset. I sadly accept this sort of thing as the norm, and report it here only to dispel the rosy picture you paint of US airport connections for visitors.

BearX220

Beware of generalizations -- I flew from T3 Tuesday and security was quick and reasonable. Every single item did not have to be in its own bin, and only my laptop had to come out of my backpack -- I asked specifically about my Kindle (having just read this thread), chargers / converters, etc., and the agent said not to worry. Got through in about 10 minutes including queue time.

They do make a much bigger deal of the liquids-and-gels bag than TSA does in the US. It has to come out whereas most TSA checkpoints don't care anymore. The agent studied a tube of hair gel within my bag at length to insure it was within the size limit -- that was my big holdup -- but decided it was OK. When I got on my flight I sat next to a woman wielding ferocious knitting needles suitable for eye-gouging.