Thank you
ScottishPoet and
C-W-S
since the transfer bus would be quicker I would say the transfer bus. I will take you a while to get to wherever your dad has parked, you then have to navigate your way around the central area of Heathrow to the tunnel under the north runway. just getting there will no doubt take as long as it would take to get to T5 transfer area and conformance on the transfer bus
Yes - it's normally pretty quick to exit T3 (apart from the long long walk!) and pop outside to the 'dropoff/pickup area, but I was a little concerned about how long it might take to get from T3-T5 via car. For some reason, I never seem to have good luck when transferring at LHR in terms of the wait times for both the buses and also the security.... so I was thinking that it would be quicker to go via the First Wing security. Or at least more pleasant.
In the circumstances it is probably best to agree to meet somewhere airside in T5 (e.g. Pilots, Itsu). If you get AA's wifi on the way back you can perhaps change that to landside once you've done the calculations and worked out that you are on time or early in terms of arrival, and thereby agree to meet landside (e.g. Carluccio). In which case, assuming you are HBO, you best go on the transfer bus and exit the UK Border there.
Good point about the wifi on the plane - I entirely forgot about that. I was thinking that we should set up some cutoffs - e.g. if I land before 1.30pm then pick me up, if after then I'll meet you there. But real time communication would be better! Are you saying that if I wanted to go landside it'll be better to do that in T5 and let LHR transport move me from T3-T5 then clear immigration there? How easy is it to clear and get to First Wing from there? I usually enter via T3 and know my way around that pretty well, but not too sure about T5.
Thanks for your help!