I think it was Henry Kissinger who said, "Give me heaven or give me hell, but don't make me go through Heathrow." I would tend to concur. A few years ago, I transferred from a ORD-LHR flight to a LHR-DUB flight on BMI. After a 30 minute search for a bus, a ride through the dark bowels of the airport, and four (yes, FOUR) security checkpoints, we finally made it.

The most hilarious part of the visit was trying to get into the United Red Carpet Club after our flight to get a shower. (This is in 2003 or 2004.) We walk in and the agent says that we are not allowed to enter because we have not gone through security. Of course, I find this hilarious because we are standing right in front of her... clearly having been screened at some point. She directed us to a security checkpoint at the airport whose sole raison d'etre was to re-screen passengers who were already in the terminal and give us a little stamp on our boarding passes. To me, this seemed the height of stupidity. But what do I know. We returned to exactly where we started, but now with a stamp on our boarding passes, and were allowed to shower before moving on.

Ah, Heathrow.