markzz2

I was on a flight yesterday from a VERY busy TATL airport.

We were delayed leaving the US but made up a little time en route. Then we entered the stack at LHR for 20 minutes and eventually made the gate about 30 minutes late. I would guess that about 200 (really!) people missed tight connections. The whole flight people had been asking what I could do to help them, BA had sent us messages for some of the flights saying they had already been rebooked on later ones, and then when we entered the queue some of them had even lost the rebooked flights.

Some of these unlucky customers had booked less than an hour connections on onwards flights that only had one a day flights, so a serious re route or overnight would be necessary.

Personally I wouldn't allow less than 2 hours at LHR for a connection. If the onward flight is to somewhere that has multiple flights then maybe at a pinch, but expect some stress as a 20 minute queue in a stack going around in circles is common. Also if you arrive at peak times the security lines are an issue (20 minutes non fast track would be a realistic allowance for planning on a normal day).

On our flight yesterday most of these passengers could have chosen an earlier flight (even one hour earlier) and saved the stress and inconvenience.

I know the official minimum is unrealistic and we need to keep telling HAL this. Only then will they adjust it, or improve the speed of security. They will lose money as people will only go through the experience once and will choose somewhere else to connect next time. BA truly do their best, and punctuality is a prime focus. They do not want to be late, and they do not want you to miss your connections. It costs money.

As an aside, it is worth noting that if you arrive at a B or C gate, and your next flight leaves from a B or C gate you can now clear onward security without going back to A which can save alot of time. Can cut at least 20-30 mins off a connection, so check the screens before you go to the train. This mostly affects long haul flights but also some Euro flights too.

I have connected in an hour from a flight in T5 to T3 but would never plan this as a minimum, in my personal opinion it is not worth the stress and I would rather have an hour relaxing in a lounge than 7 hours of stress on the flight wondering whether or not I am going to make a connex.

Sjoerd

Exactly.

BA/Heathrow had/have a relatively easy job. T5 was designed and built relatively recently, so they don't have the excuse that "the terminal was originally designed to process 5 million passengers and now 25 million are using it". Furthermore, BA is (almost) the only airline at T5 so they need the information from only one airline to predict the passenger flows on any given day.

This is no rocket science. T5 has been designed poorly and there are insufficient security checkpoints / staff for the passenger flows.

What is inexcusable is that BA/Heathrow do not deploy staff to provide information / guide passengers who suddenly find themselves in a long queue and have no idea what is ahead of them. (I mean the queue yesterday stretched so far back that 1) a first time visitor to T5 would not know what the queue is for; and 2) he/she would have no idea how long he/she would be in the queue) Even Disney style signs "waiting time from here until security checkpoint: 2 hours" would be helpful.

Some more T5 experiences from yesterday:
1) seating areas very dirty (food leftovers on chairs)
2) gate nr for our AMS flight appeared on screen only 32 minutes before scheduled departure time. Given the fact that my boarding pass told me to be a the gate "20 minutes before departure" and the time needed to get from the main T5 to sub-terminal 5C is signposted to be 20 minutes, people were getting very nervous. BA staff knew nothing about the AMS flight.

corporate-wage-slave

What-ho BertieWooster, welcome to Flyertalk and the British Airways board, absolute topper of you to join our little party, please make yourself at home and I hope you have a spiffing time here. Do muck in, old bean!

T5 does have it's "off moments", including it seems this week, now that the summer peak is upon us and the schools are on holidays. In terms of December, particularly if you avoid the two Fridays before 25 December then you should be fine, and not need to do the okey-cokey. Despite some of the views here I'm often transferring at T5 with 60 or 70 minute connections, and though I know the airport quite well it really doesn't take forever to get through Flight Connections. I've only missed a few flights at T5, which is a tiny percentage overall, and I have never missed a flight if I've passed conformance, when your boarding pass is scanned right at the start of Flight Connections (20 to 35 minutes approx before takeoff).

Sjoerd

True, however, the gates for the connecting flights are only announced 1 hour in advance (or so I was told) and in our case yesterday appeared on the screen 32 MINUTES before scheduled departure time. We arrived at B and I noticed I didn't have to go to A if our departing flight was from B or C, but as I didn't know the gate for the departing flight and was told that it would only be known 1 hour in advance we had to go to A anyway.

lhrsinsyd

Gates are displayed on the screens only when staff arrives at the gate. If your gate was open late or very late it means there was either no staff available or flight was already delayed and gate team was assigned automaticaly -45.

Sjoerd

ICN, HKG, KUL, SIN, AMS, CPH, HEL, MUC, PEK are some of the airports where I have connected quickly and with minimal hassle.

So it is very well possible to design and staff an airport appropriately.

corporate-wage-slave

I don't know the particulars of this flight, but usually the monitors in B and C give slightly different information to the monitors in A. For that reason there is a big monitor bank in the middle of the floor of B just before descending down to to the transit, though many people don't seem to spot it. If your connection is 3 hours or less these monitors there will tell you that the gate is in B, precisely for your circumstances. However I'm going to speculate that the decision to run the flight from B was made late, due to the fact that the inbound aircraft found itself unexpectedly having to dock in B rather than A, hence the late information on the screens. Usually gate information in A appears about 50 minutes before departure, when the staff arrive at the gate (and sign in! This sometimes takes a while....), slightly longer for B and C. Otherwise people pile up to the gate wanting information or seat changes and there is no one there. Lounge monitors give more information still (e.g. on delays).

Sjoerd

LHR is the only airport (that I know) where gate information is provided so late. Another big minus point for LHR.

markzz2

I agree and really do not understand why this cannot be changed. This also means that the B lounge is always empty when the South Lounges are overflowing! If they could say the gate area say 90 minutes before departure people could go to the nearest instead of filling the North and South.

pititom

Similar experience. Plus the shuttle frequency isn't enough in my opinion. Last time, not knowing my gate, I waited for it in Lounge B (so that I am in the middle of A-B-C). I left the lounge immediatly when the screen started indicating the gate, in satellite C. Even doing so, they were calling the last passengers when I arrived.

So yes, it really is too short notice too often.

BertieWooster

What-ho yourself and thank you for the warm welcome

We are flying out to the US on 9 December so hopefully things shouldn't be too crazy in that case. It would be nice to get through Flight Connections quickly so we can spend some time in the lounge and maybe (if there is any availability) get a treatment in the Elemis spa before we depart.

Bertie

dannyrado

To the OP, Hellrow is simply wonderful isn't it? T5 seems to be even more so. Supposedly easy 'same terminal' connections are both hideously complicated, long winded and, every time i've travelled at least, packed to the rafters.

I'd travel via any other airport given the choice, but unfortunately, I don't have much choice.

HilFly

British state schools aren't on summer break yet, are they?

corporate-wage-slave

They are in Scotland, and have been since 26 June! Northern Ireland state school holidays started last Friday. Also my (English) state school has broken up (and probably anyone in Sixth Form isn't doing very much at the moment), but most have a few more weeks to go.

Yahillwe

School vacations or no school vacations, connecting through LHR takes on average 2 hrs..one of them spent going another security. IMO it is really a stupid move... I have already gone through security, spent time in a confined place, have not harmed anything, YET, I still have to go through security... And oh yes, that bottle of water I have in my hand... oh yes, I got it from the damn secured plane, since my foot hasn't left a tightly secured area.