It could be tricky, but I've not seen these so-called LHR delays and I've travelled through LHR 3 times in 6 weeks! Becareful you don't read too much into the press talk and assume it's like that all day every day. It really isn't, particularly in terminal 5.

With that in mind, if you can ditch your suitcase, 15 minute Express ride into Paddington and have a wander from there, even if it's an hour? Me and a friend had a 6 hour layover at Vancouver and decided to head into town. Border control thought we were nuts (once they saw our return flight was in 6 hours they were fine), but let us through, we hired a car (so quick), drove to a superb coffee shop, then into the city, did some shopping, grabbed some lunch, another coffee on the way back, even had time to stop at the outlet centre near the airport, dropped the car off and still had time to go to the BA lounge before boarding!

We were - or I was - amazed what you can achieve in a 6 hour layover. We probably spent 3 hours in Vancouver, but got so much done in those 3 hours.