Gagravarr

I'm a fairly loyal OneWorld traveller, currently BAEC Gold, I've had Silver for a few years before that, and nearly enough flights already booked for next year for Gold again. The virgin little red status match tempted me to try them for a trip to Edinburgh, and I have to say I'm largely very impressed. Someone from BA really needs to head over to T2 and learn! Possibly bringing some contract lawyers who can then negotiate with HAA about the better bits...

So, first up, the only downside. The bus from Oxford drops you right outside T5, where as for T2 you have an extra 10 minutes to CBS then a walk. Not terrible though.

Checkin for little red had a small queue, but probably less than I've ever noticed at the T5 business desks any time I've used them in the last year. BAEC Gold luggage tag raised no eyebrows, and boarding pass quickly issued.

The entrance to security had no makeshift queues outside it, and someone checking fasttrack use. Round the corner to a spaceous area, little bit of delay with getting the photo to take, then through to security. Loads more space than T5 for unloading bags, staff actually seemed friendly and helpful, seemed to be working a lot faster than most in T5 manage. Through security in only a few minutes, unstressed.

Little Red use the Aer Lingus lounge, but I have a priority pass so I took a walk out to T2B. Here, the United Club (business class) lounge is a world away from T5 Galleries. Plenty of staff, who are proactive. Large staffed bar, with champagne and a very decent cocktails list. Lots of non-alcoholic options too. It's mid afternoon, and they have hot food available, which was very nice - it's a buffet but quality at or above T5 GF. Sandwiches and salad too. Staff around the buffet to advise and help. My champagne glass was just refilled by someone clearing plates!

Admittedly I still have the walk back to T2A (and more lounges to try!), but after all the cries of "we can't do any better as it's Heathrow", it's an eyeopener.

BA really need to book some staff on a virgin little red flight + give them a priority pass, and have them see what can be done in Heathrow! Then get the contract lawyers out, and see what they can force HAA to mirror. Otherwise, I'll be rather tempted to switch some of my short haul stuff over to here, and I suspect others trying it may think the same...

RedcardPingle

I assumed the staff were rotated around the terminals; didn't realise they were fixed. Last Friday at T5 it was quite striking at how friendly the security staff were (at least on the two fast track lanes I observed). It was really quite striking just how different it was to normal.

Kgmm77

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 8_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12B435 Safari/600.1.4)

Actually the two terminals are almost identikit copies. I'd argue the main difference is usage v capacity and the many benefits not being at/above design capacity has at every stage of the passenger process.

T5 is no longer fit for process based on current and future pax numbers.

layz

Well they'll be close to identikit copies when T2 is fully open. At the moment it's missing a satellite and T1 is obstructing where T2A will be expanded into.

What surprised me when walking through T2 was it seems relatively light on retail. Enough shops to keep the shoppers happy but they don't seem to have gone overboard.

The fact that bmi no longer exists (and I believe were the no 2 operator at the airport) means the terminal is probably less busy than originally planned.

adrianjc32

......

daftboy

That’s a good point layz – not that one could ever forget dear old bmi (mmm…cheese toastie ), but I only ever think of them in terms of BA taking the routes over, I had forgotten that they would have comprised a good portion of activity in T2.

T2 is quite impressive I must say. Love the Perfectionist café. I'm flying SQ J out of there this weekend for the first time (heresy!), recommendations on lounges welcome, I might just pop into them all given the SQ lounge is not yet open (LH, UA, AC and Plaza if it’s an option – which I think it is for certain flights).

McCoy

T2 is great.
Not only does everything work, but I agree with the OP, the staff are definitely friendlier..
And I think all the airline moves are now complete?
I use VS/Little Red for all my domestic flights at the moment.. am gutted they are closing next year.

T8191

... Which rather screws the Op's long-term strategy!

What then, I wonder?

layz

Well by then Virgin will have a rail monopoly on all routes north so they could use that

Gagravarr

I popped into the Plaza Premium lounge, and spotted they had about 10 tables roped off with a sign saying "Signapore Airlines First / Suites". Unless they have additional services offered in there when running, I think you'd be a bit miffed being put there on a SQ first ticket!

I only tried the United Club, Plaza Premium and Aer Lingus lounges, so can't comment on most of the *A ones, but the United one seemed by far the best of those 3! Aer Lingus had better beer and more light than the Plaza, Plaza wins on food and ambiance

Genius1

If you are travelling SQ First Class/Suites, I would recommend using the UA Global First lounge whilst the SQ lounge is still being finished off.

layz

What beer did the EI lounge have? Things like this are important considerations for me next time I think of going to DUB.

Dicksbits

Connecting to a short-haul European flight from a long-haul USA one I was astonished at the chaos in T5 at around 11am. Huge queues for boarding pass checks (ahead of security). I was in Fast Track and the queue was also enormous (not what you need after a 9h30m flight from LA). Then when I went up the escalator the queue for Fast Track security for connecting flights was so long a number of us had no option but to 'fall' against queuing passengers at the exit or we would have had to 'doggy paddle' on the escalator causing a health and safety hazard (and injuries). I overheard an American guy say to an aghast woman behind him: "Welcome to Heathrow" in an exasperated manner. T5 planners seriously underestimated the volume of passengers using this terminal.

paulwuk

Yes, T2 is lovely. For now.

The Aer Lingus lounge is great for a small domestic lounge, to while away half an hour or so before the 3 minute walk to A25. As I posted last week, entirely possible to do Paddington to Gate in 30 minutes at T2, with a T-15 gate closure. You'd barely get to conformance at T5 in 30 minutes, and then another 35 minutes, means VS is 20 minutes faster on little red compared with BA.

The Aer Lingus lounge also has this wonderful shower room, I really should try it out before VS stop flying from there.

paulwuk

Guinness in a can, Carl*g Export (Carlsberg I think, but could be carling). Some nice soup too.

If only there was a nice big red emergency stop button at the top, bottom, and centre of the escalator that you could push...