Foreigners buying coach tickets T5 -> LGW is more difficult than necessary
I came into T5 from PHX this afternoon and decided to take the National Express coach to LGW catch a train. The arrival in T5 was pretty easy - straight off 27R into the nearest stand, the guidance was on despite our being 20 minutes early and the only real comment I have is about buying the coach ticket. The way it's set up seems good at first sight - there's a bank of large touch screen machines and the transaction is easy until you pay for it. I swiped my US issued credit card and nothing happened. The Lady machine minder told me the machine was duff and to try another one. Same result. It finally transpired there's a second tiny (3" x 2") payment screen that I could barely see standing up (I'm 6 foot tall so nothing excessive!) and if your card doesn't have the infamous chip & pin you have to follow some non-standard sequence (ie push the card in & out twice?) to get it to work. Why they couldn't use the same process that everyone else uses baffles me, but foreigners beware.
Apart from that, touch down -> stand -> passports -> baggage -> coach ticket -> kerbside was about 45 minutes which seems reasonable, and certainly better than previous trips through T4.