My experience has been different. Two years ago I arrived at Heathrow at 5:15 am for a 7:25 intraeuropean flight. I barely made that flight, and then only because it left late. There was nothing special going on that I knew about to delay things, and I didn't have any personal delays like being searched at security or being given a hard time at immigration or having trouble at the gate with my reservation. It took well over two hours for the ordinary, routine business of getting on the plane. Afterwards, I tried to count up the number of different lines I had had to stand in; I think it was nine, but I may have forgotten some. That was when I decided that in the future I would never fly to or through LHR again, even if it meant not making the trip. (That wasn't the only reason, but added to all the other horrors of Heathrow, I decided that was it.)