Originally Posted by
Dom Fly
I am traveling from heathrow in a couple of weeks, my friend is also flying on an earlier flight and has CCR access so I was going to go early to meet be able to access the concord room his flight is at 2 and mine at 4. I was wondering if there was anywhere past security to smoke before my flight. Or can you go back through security to the check in area and then back through security again? Do boarder agents have an issue? I assume im not the first to ask, but also people who may have left things in cars needing to go back etc.
There's zero provision for smokers at T5 beyond security. Getting back out again is possible but problematic. I've done it once during a long ground delay but wouldn't do it again. It requires BA staff on opening security doors for you to re-land to the arrivals level and to exit via the UK border. You then have to get your boarding pass reset in Departures before attempting to pass security again as the system records you as having already passed security and won't let you through again. For the sake of a couple of hours it really isn't worth the hassle and the potential risk of missing your flight if you can't find someone who has the authority to reset your boarding pass.
There's provision for smokers after security in T2 and T4 and in theory you could transfer over to either via the airside bus transfer before transferring back again after your nicotine fix. In reality i don't know how easy this will be to accomplish as you won't have a boarding pass to depart from there. I suppose you could be needing to purchase something from one of the shops there that isn't represented in T5.... but I don't know if this is a permissable reason to make the terminal transfer.