Calchas

There is a dedicated UK Border for connecting passengers. It's usually very busy and understaffed. It's inside the Flight Connections Centre to the left hand side of the International Flight Connections boarding pass check.

Schengen passengers are screened because HMG doesn't trust the implementation of the screening protocols at every Schengen airport in the system. I agree that this is stupid but there we go.

South London Bon Viveur

I went through T5 on 2 Jan and, unsurprisingly, it was deserted, a bit like the City of London generally. I got through South Security quickly and also got a taste of the body scanner. It will be interesting to see how things are when it's busier. here's hoping for a fast track 2015!

paulwuk

Arrived off Rio today, and connections didn't look too bad, so I thought I'd give it a go.

6m30 to get from conformance to passports
9m30 to get from passports to the start of "fast track" security

The acutal xray process was fine, just under 4 minutes from starting to empty my bags to finishing collecting them. Total trays stacked thanks to lazy people: 7, plus my 4.

Total time from conformance to end of security: 19m49.

After conformance I noticed that the e-passport booths were completely empty, and I suspect I could have saved 10 minutes by going landside.

Skipping the domestic connection process (i.e transferring internationally) would have saved about 7 minutes, so 13 minutes end-to-end, with fast track. Without fast track the queues were horrendous.

Comparison to Rio security:

Rio: Laptops in bag, liquids in bag, electronics in bag. Belt off.
Heathrow: Laptops out, Ipad out, liquids out, bag of electronics out, other bag of electronics out, belt off.

However Rio then had a 40 minute wait to be allowed out of the country with departure passport controls, something that the UK and US do right and most countries do wrong.

paulwuk

[QUOTE=TheBaps;24137377
Still found myself having to clear up trays after other people to make space for mine though. Sigh. I really think they should introduce a compulsory full body cavity search for people who don't stack their trays away [/QUOTE]

There is an attitude that exists amongst many on BAFT that servants should clean up the trays, probably dating back from their school days

Today at MAN I put away 13 trays before my 3 emerged. It wouldn't be so bad, however the large number of people in front of me were all BA cabin crew/flight deck crew.

MAN can allow 5 trays on the receiving end. With an average of 3 trays per passenger this quickly backs up, especially if people do not remove their trays to re-pack their bags.

Not only were these BA crew doing their best to slow the entire airport down, they stood there looking bewildered at the fact no more bags were coming out. One eventually got the idea, but instead of removing the tray and putting it on the return slider (which takes one tray at a time), she stacked it on top of another tray.

I thought people with 3 and 4 stripes on their arms were supposed to be bright

KARFA

I did about 7 at T5 south security on Sunday afternoon. There are signs on all the panels behind of where you trays come out. No idea why this is so difficult for some to do.

malioil

Really surprised that Fast Track doesn't exist anymore for international passengers connecting to a UK domestic flight in passport control... that was a major plus of flying premium on BA (and having status) that has magically evaporated, very disappointed to have had spent 45 minutes or thereabouts in a queue at LHR yesterday.

KARFA

Hi malioil. There was a lot of comment on this when the fast track for domestic connections was closed off last year.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...hancement.html

I would say most of the time now I am doing the egates, landside, and south security route instead of going through connections and north security.

Tobias-UK

... and I am choosing other airlines, especially on short haul, to avoid T5 FCC altogether

Genius1

Hopefully once the works complete the connections process in T5 will be a lot smoother. Fingers crossed, anyway.

rumbataz

T5 security was back to its usual rubbish self this Monday morning.

Disinterested staff, ushers barking at people to get them to join the longest queues rather than the shortest queues. X-ray machine operators who were counting each pixel on the display for every single item of hand luggage - it was almost comical how they were peering at the screen intensely, calling their colleagues over to have a look and just spending an absolute age per item of hand luggage. Should have gone to Specsavers, methinks.

And, inevitably, just one male and one female security person after the metal detector causing a huge bottleneck.

If any company wants to learn how to do things as inefficiently as possible, learn from LHR T5 security.

Genius1

Great to see that the T5 security officers were carefully checking hand baggage on the day of your trip ^

paulwuk

I recall my interaction with T5 security, where they gave my bag a once over and extracted a small bottle of shower gel from a pocket, and sent me on their way.

They didn't spot the 5" knife in a different pocket.

hugolover

Why can't they employ someone to do it? We pay exorbitant fees to use LHR and yet they can't employ enough staff to make security work properly-especially connections? Not to mention the extra job creation. SO many times the operators chair is unoccupied, where has he/she gone? With many pax being subject to additional screening why not employ an additional staff member (especially male) to keep the queue going. Why do the trays move so slowly? Why are all the lanes not open nearly all the time? Why get rid of fast track on UK connections? How about enforcing fast track. I've never seen it happen, most people just duck in the line after the UK border or duck underneath the barrier.

I do know the answer, its all minimal bare bone costs for max profits. Minimal staffing levels etc. I say to HAL you are a fool, keeping me in the security line means I'm not in Louis Vuitton or Prada buying a �2k-�100k plastic handbag or a pair of diamond encrusted winklepicker's. Perhaps they could have products for sale around the security lane like in M&S and that could pay for the extra staffing and equipment levels to make connections work better? It seems generous the bags are free.

FlyingScientist

We just need to wait until T5 opens, and queues will be a thing of the past.

TTL

Experienced this week a secondary check at T3 transfer security. Had accidentally left a 20 ml shower gel among my stuff in the carry-on and there it went. Waiting and watching other people�s luggage to be sorted out in front of rest of the queue was rather interesting but maybe also embarrassing to subjects under search. Why can that not be done in a more private manner? Speed of the search was also astohishing(ly slow).

One poor guy had a back pack full of different adaptors, power units, small electrical gadgets and bunches of cable. That must have looked peculiar on the screen. It would be much more difficult to build an explosive at airside from a 20 ml bottle of shower gel and a small iPhone charger with short cord.

Five secondary screenings including me as the last one took fortunately less than 20 minutes. But the red smiley got it�s punch in due course. Had been screened twice before without any complaints during the same journey CPT-JNB-LHR... So LHR security appears to me as top notch in their accuracy !