Originally Posted by
rockflyertalk
You can be off the train and in the very lovely new lounge all within 8-10mins at LGW S. It’s a pretty decent experience now.
Maybe I'm spoiled by the T5 First Wing experience, but every time I've been through Gatwick South since the move from North, the experience has been anything but decent. (Better than North was with no lounge, mind you, but still a long way off T5/T3)
My biggest gripe is "premium security". They always seem to insist on feeding 75% non-premium customers in the queue from round the side, which means there's always a wait, always too many trays trying to get through, and importantly always loads of non-regular travellers who don't know + don't listen to the rules. Every time one of my trays is selected for secondary inspection, which means a 20+ minute wait because there's so many waiting to be scanned. Last time, my tray with coat + ipad + laptop had been bumped a lot waiting to get through the x-ray, and my coat had ended up partly covered the ipad. Apparently that was enough to mean it got sent to secondary and a very long wait and a re-scan! In general through, bags which routinely get through all Heathrow terminals (any many other EU airports) without problems are pulled for secondary at Gatwick, and somehow the Gatwick staff make the T5 security staff seem friendly and efficient...
Add in the late opening of the First lounge at LGW, to my ever raised blood pressure when dealing with LGW "premium" security, and you'll see why I pick LHR over LGW when Heathrow is anything up to 50 quid more, and why the other half prefers Heathrow to nearer a hundred quid price difference!