Great reply, thanks, definitely clears things up for that queue to the right of where i was right next to the customer service desk (we were just to the left of them as you noted in what was a fast track line for uk connections). I think that is the main problem, there is no way unless you worked on the design of the hall to know what zone is what!! I just always find it odd no one ever seems to be in the domestic connection + status queue. Maybe they all get herded into the wrong queue and i have just been lucky! People moan about MIA, but at least you know where to go and it is more or less orderly (unless it is completely rammed, then arguments begin). And having got GE approved yesterday.....well, mia is now officially great for me!
Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
The hall is divided into 3 zones, though you'd struggle to see it. Most people are in the UK Border zone, leaving T5.
The next biggest area, the one nearest to the customer service desk is Flight Connections. This often looks a zoo, if you don't have status, but on that level the only thing that is happening to them is getting their boarding passes scanned. The people in this channel are connecting at T5 from one international destination to another. They don't therefore go through passport control. This is the area some people complain about, but most complaints are about the security scan up the escalators.
You were in the smallest zone: UK Flight Connections, which as you say rarely has much of a queue. This is between the UK Border and Flight Connections. You have 2 additional checks: passports, then the photo scan. Despite the additional checks, as you indicate you are then generally sent off to security very quickly.
For the main flight connections there is a Fast track on the furthest edge, which is also generally quite quick. UK Flight Connections also has a fast track, which isn't alway open, but that is the channel nearest to UK Border and e-passport machines, so if you were let in to that area from the main UK Border zone through the tensa barriers, that is where you would have ended up.