enviroian

Looks like starting 8/2 vaxxed US RESIDENTS will not have to quarantine anymore. I wonder if AA will increase frequency.

scubadu

My bigger concern is, can Heathrow actually handle the sudden influx in capacity? I'm certainly excited with the possibility of resuming leisure travel to London (and England in general), but based on the chaos I'm seeing reported regarding the the customs lines, etc. at Heathrow, I'm still on the fence about whether we'll be heading there anytime soon.

Heathrow is a hot mess in the best of times and I'm concerned a rapid influx in US capacity is going to bring them to their knees.

Regards

enviroian

I agree LHR's ability to handle a large influx of people but from what I've read most of the bottlenecks have occurred in T2/T3 not 5.

cmd320

Well, now that T3 is reopened and the entire airport should be operating again, one would hope they will be able to handle it. Whether or not that will actually be the case is another story entirely.

I'm assuming they're just going to have the border agents checking vaccine cards but if the process is more lengthy than this it could create issues.

enviroian

Which leads me to my next question...they better open up fast track again!

carlosdca

Sorry to be pessimistic but we are not at the end of the tunnel.
The US just backpedaled on a few pandemic related issues.
UK-Europe may do the same.

Another thing to consider is that not all pax on AA LHR flights have London as final destination.
A large part of the LHR pax are connecting to elsewhere in Europe.
So this has to be looked in the context of not only what UK does but what the rest of Europe does.

Restrictions are in constant fluctuation.
Really hard to predict one way or the other at this point, IMO.

grapkoski

I get that, but it seems like most of Europe and the UK are now entering the later stages of this 'wave.' It seems like masking may make an appearance in the US, but even here it seems like this wave will peak much earlier than past waves. The vaccines work and as long as it prevents major hospitalizations and deaths amongst vaxxed recipients we should be good to continue living life. I, for one, am excited for a booster.

enviroian

Agreed. I've seen CWS's data--and it appears delta is running it's course (at least in a downward trend) in the UK. Perhaps that will be the case here in the US too.

carlosdca

We are getting here into OMNI and I didn't mean to be ominous at all.
Again, too many things to consider, and things are in constant fluctuation. Hard to predict, IMO.

ORDflyer92

I was in T5 in June and the Galleries South Lounge was an absolute madhouse (this was before PP became OWE, so I was relegated to the Business Lounge, but the First Lounge looked quite packed) as well. BA definitely needs to extend the Galleries North hours.

The C gates were very quiet, but they always are. Arriving was also awful at T5, because for some reason they had not only fast track closed, but also the e-gates.

It seems most of the problems can be solved easily with a few tweaks if AA plans to stay at T5.

scubadu

Fair point and though I'm hopeful your observation proves true, I guess I'll have to be "cautiously optimistic."

Never underestimate the ability of Heathrow/LHR to take, what in practice, should be a simple process and find a way to amazingly complexify it. Also, as I understand the new guidelines, even if vaccinated, we'll still have to "pre-book" a Covid test for arrival or by the 2nd day of arrival in England, so I'm guessing they will demand to confirm that as well.

Regards

IADCAflyer

I was in LHR in mid-June (possibly like ORDflyer92). I arrived early afternoon for a mid-evening departure. T5 in general I found to be not too crowded. Seats were available; the security transfer from the "C" gates to the "A" gates at LHR took 10 minutes tops. As ORDflyer92 noted, the Galleries South lounge was very crowded. Not packed, but quite crowded. They have very very little self serve in terms of food and beverage (the buffet steam table islands are being used to hold large trays of bottled sparkling and still water). Any real food items must be ordered via an online order system which was more efficient than I had expected. The bummer was the Galleries South main lounge closed at 4:00 pm - forcing everyone into the Galleries F lounge one floor below. Then....things got crowded.

If AA is going to resume service, the question is whether AA resumes service out of T3 where it used to be or stays pat in T5. If T3, then certainly the Admirals Club needs to be re-opened as currently NO other 1W carriers have an open lounge in T3. If AA remains in T5, then BA really needs to be pressed about opening the T5 Galleries North lounge.

enviroian

In lieu of a test result upon entry?

enviroian

I wonder if AA will up its current one-only daily (early) DFW departure .

krispy84

Just a quick correction, the queues you have seen are for immigration and Covid checks, not customs.

Customs for the vast vast majority of U.K. arrivals is a non-eventful walk through an empty hall/corridor.