orbitmic

One thing we rarely do as a forum when talking about conformance is discuss alternative arrangements. Of course, we know the other "extreme" which is let people through and let a mess happen as in most other terminals, but one interesting experience is Eurostar where instead of a black and white conformance, if you pass security stamp stage after their recommended time, they will stamp a message effectively saying that you are welcome to go through but boarding but because you arrived after the recommended deadline boarding is not guaranteed (and, in effect, if you miss your train it will be your own fault).

I think that is probably a generally clever compromise. I'm generally favourable to some sort of conformance as I am typically arriving early and have been the victim of people thinking that their plans meant they were "supposed" to arrive at the airport 45 minutes before schedule and couldn't possibly guess that a tube or train can ever be 10 minutes late or that there is ever any traffic on the M25, but I also know that under the right circumstances one can technically make your flight with minutes to spare when passing through security less than 35 minutes before departure even though I would never advise it (flight a bit delayed, fast track, A gates, slow boarding effectively finishing 10 minutes before departure, whatever...).

At the moment, if you miss conformance, you start a sort of negotiation that may well involve you talking to BA staff (rather than security staff) who will ask that conformance be overridden. The issue is that everyone is wasting time at a moment when it is most precious, so the 3-5 minutes negotiations may well tip the balance from making to missing your departure especially as some people have a nasty habit of getting all defensive in those circumstances and telling their entire life story to a random agent to try and convince them that it really, really wasn't their fault why they are so late without realising that they are merely harming their own chances and that the agent couldn't give a monkey.

Even without any undue explanations, I have had those cases happening with transfer security (a slightly different process) at T5. Our and several other domestic flights was late and most people connecting, so everyone was rejected at the automatic security gates, agents would take the time it takes to assess whether each of them should be given the right to go through anyway or not generating a cumulative delay for all and we missed our flight to LA (last of the day) after queueing nearly 15 minutes for the agent to clear us, the gate having just been closed when we reached it. You don't have to take my word for it, but as someone who uses T5 on at least a weekly basis, I am 100% certain that had we been let through right away with a "at your own peril" message instead of having to wait for people to finish endless (and pointless) discussions, we would have made our flight with time to spare.

By contrast, the Eurostar system is clear and fast (and unrelated to questions of reaccommodation later). You are there after the deadline, you get the extra stamp which adds maybe 3 seconds and if you miss the flight this will be discussed later with the agents simply having the information that you passed security after the recommended time.