hugolover

For whatever reason, if one wanted to leave airside T5 what are the necessary steps? I take it an escort would be in order, but who can organise that?

corporate-wage-slave

The official way is to go to the customer service desk by Gate 11 and request to leave the premises. They will then find someone to escort you out, but it may take a period of time before someone is available (30 minutes I've heard of). There used to be an hourly, on the hour, smokers conga, but someone pointed out that it was somewhat iffy to "encourage" smoking, so that was the excuse they needed to stop that service.

The unofficial way is to take the transit to C (not B), ignore the recorded instructions to get off the transit, then it will take you back to the UK Border. If there is a HAL staff member working the area - unlucky if that happens - they may want you to leave, but if you stand your ground and say you wish to go to the UK Border I doubt they could do much about it. If you used this route you would then need to get a reissued boarding pass in Departures should you wish to go back in, and if you will not be going back you would be well advised to tell BA that you have offloaded yourself.

hugolover

Excellent, thank you CWS.

Tafflyer

In all the times I've used T5, I never thought of that one c-w-s.

When there's heavy disruption, BA often open a boarding gate with direct access back to the UK border. During the ATC meltdown last week, this was gate 23. You go down the steps and walk back as if you have arrived.

Dave_C

If you're on a domestic flight and don't have your passport, then you'll need to go the official route by asking to be escorted out at the customer service desk. I've only done this once, and had to wait about 15 minutes for a number of BAA staff to play around with the biometrics and then escort us out.

marcusr

I made the walk through the gate (23) and back through arrivals on Saturday. The bloke on the passport check asked where I had come from - "here" was enough to get me through.

Interesting they use a particular gate, we all went to gate 23 but as we queued the screens went blank, and ba.com reported the flight as cancelled. I guess they were expecting that to happen as all the luggage was already going around the carousel after the short walk there.

BOH

Don't you have to go to B to get to C though? And if you tried to only go to B and stayed on the train you would finish up at C anyway?

corporate-wage-slave

I was possibly being unclear. Some transits only go to terminal B, most go to both B and C. Either way you don't get off at B, you stay on until C. Then the transit will return to A, after opening the doors on the right, the recorded message plays, doors on the right close, doors on the left open, transit goes to B then A.