squawk

Hi Tocsin, afraid not - I flew today.

There is indeed a fast track lane at NCL, and I went down it, but they’ve introduced self-scanning of the boarding passes about halfway along the corridor (where the person usually sits and scans them for you). Because several people were there at once, and there were about 4 machines, we were directed to the free one which was further left - as the split in the queue Tensa-barrier thing was hidden behind the staff member that put us into the “regular” security line. As there wasn’t really a queue it would’ve been more hassle to double back or limbo under the barrier, so we didn’t!

This wasn’t a deliberate thing on the part of the staff member, so as long as you bear right after the self-scan of the boarding pass you should be in the fast track security line. It still doesn’t definitively answer whether or not you “should” be allowed to use it with a guest...

As for priority boarding, a staff member at LHR prior to boarding confirmed that I was indeed able to bring my guest into the priority boarding line with me (they compared it to the Lounge guesting). In the event, a very last minute gate change from A10d to A10b, necessitated by a malfunctioning T5 door to the waiting buses, meant that boarding was a little chaotic - everyone ended up piling into the priority queue, and I’m not sure anything was even properly called.

We also had the longest trip on the bus to the plane I have ever experienced at LHR: a full length of T5A (east side), then a complete loop all the way around the entirety of T5C to finally reach the remote stand furthest away/east from T5 and closest to the southern airside road.