Thank you to all for the tips. Some I self discovered on my arrival without having seen the helpful comments.

If CE, crew gave FT cards. They did not work, then realised needed a VISA. Thought what is the point of 2 long queues even with time not an issue.

They would not let through transit initially and said need to go to transfer 'security' on the left. Got to place said, found only applied to Turkish airlines and sent back. But the guy spoke good English, he took me back across and taken through the resultant queue.

BA Lounge is not very good and the pizza looked not that edible! I left my bag with the staff and wandered round the terminal for a hour. It was very busy and long security queues (compared to my transit switch). Picked up a couple of Xmas presents, magnets and Turkish delights.

Returned to lounge and caught up with emails, clearing stored podcasts and reading. As the lounge filled up - bandwidth cannot cope! If can access, Star Alliance lounge looked fab from my airport tour.

CE bigger plane - formation is better in the middle. Plane full with Xmas traffic. Flight left late due to traffic control delays across Europe.

We had great landing gate and cleared passport control in less than 2 minutes!!! Unsure whether because T5 was used to flee the UK or world had ended. Then discovered LHR express was down .... Painful long tube transit accompanied by festive drunks .... More a TP report

Have a wonderful Christmas one and all