Flew JFK-LHR roundtrip again last week. Again, no possible view of London if it hadn’t been low overcast upon arrival. On the return, middle of the flight, while transiting to the restroom, I saw a Captain raiding the snacks. I politely asked if I might ask him a(nother) question.

He was quite gracious. Said he’s been flying to LHR for 25 years and completely understood the question. Said in the past few years, ATC has gotten better at arranging LHR arrivals, airplanes are slowed hundreds of miles out so less frequent holding patterns. He said there were 4 or 5 or 6 “gates” (basically waypoints I think) gesturing in a semicircular fashion around the east of London where planes might be told to fly to on the way to LHR. Thus there’s no longer a higher probability of seeing the city from one side or the other of the plane (or at all).

(For my return, we actually took-off on RW 9R, first time (out of 15-16 roundtrips) that I’ve experienced an eastern facing runway at LHR. Made an immediate right turn so never got close enough to see the city.)