nldogbert

I was taken by surprise today indeed when passing through T5 - the line for the First Wing (and also all other First/Club counters) was crazy, luckily I had already my boarding pass and surprisingly the First Galleries was not too crowded.
On a side note - yes indeed, there were lots of families checking in, and while waiting to ask a staff if can proceed to the First Wing to access the security and lounge, I saw a families with like 5-6 passports in hand. I believe most probably they could not get into the lounge with the whole "troop" - therefore the lounge was still moderately busy.
First time post-pandemic (if I can call it) - seeing Heathrow close to the normal level of business with humans every where. [In fact arriving this morning in T5B and wanting to take the train to passport control, the terminal transfer train was packed to the brim, in the end I just walked]

Cheers!

KeaneJohn

Thats probably due to people being unprepared for travel due to the covid documentation’s and verify short comings too.

KeaneJohn

As per the other thread on the delayed Lisbon (BA519) the captain blamed the multiple hour delay on a shortage of staff in 4 different areas. We’ve seen for many weeks now the strain normal operations has at the weekend. Add in extreme weather and an IT glitch and BA goes into total meltdown costing them millions of pounds. Whilst the check out desks might have been fully manned the delays /lack of stands/air stairs/buses/tugs/baggagE handlers is not as a result of travellers not being au fair with covid documentation needed for travel.

KARFA

The lack of catering has hit a few flights this afternoon/evening and it was due to an issue on the roads around LHR delaying catering trucks getting in.

Yes those problems elsewhere are well documented in a number of threads.

However, we are specifically talking about long queues for check in here which are a different issue. Lack of staff and delays on getting aircraft on to stand and turning them around wouldn't cause check in queues.

James91

There is a degree of people being unprepared in general. I checked in at IST two weeks ago and nobody in the line to drop bags had uploaded documentation, neither did they have it ready. The wifi in IST wasn't working for whatever reason and so the whole operation was absolute chaos. For very old people fine, maybe the doc verification system goes over their heads but for everyone else - the lack of "can do" attitude is just baffling. People in their 20s yelling at the staff because they wouldn't let them check in without showing the PLF / vaccination status etc. I think they had my bag dropped and I was off within 90 seconds . Insanity. I know it doesn't directly relate to LHR but just my experience of what's going on in general - I'm not sure how many more emails BA can send out reminding people to upload documents ahead of travel.

Misco60

Why do you think that "very old people" are any less capable of completing pre-flight formalities than anyone else? Some will certainly be confused by the current travel requirements, but so will very many much younger people. This oldie has been travelling the world and using computers since (probably) before you were born, and hasn't yet lost his faculties.

James91

I don't! But I feel like when we have these discussions people bring up Grandma a lot . I was born in the 90s so your presumption is correct . Like I said, the very loud people were all young.

aks120

How about we agree that we live in a world full of ignorant people that want/need to be spoon fed - no accountability in life appears to equate to long queues of people flapping. I have full sympathy for lesser travelled folks as the rules are very confusing but if you wave a gold card in my face and tut as I pass you then you are fair game!

aks120

choosethedrew

Good luck to British Airways in extricating themselves from this mess. Believe it or not I do mean that as once upon a time I really liked flying with them. I look at their jobs website and read the JDs, what with the highfalutin' language they use, combined with the salaries on offer, the company is living in la la land so I don't see this ending anytime soon. It all feels like such a brittle set up with a fragile balance of 'premium' image, crap hard and soft product (by and large), aggressive shareholder return and massive demand with high expectation based on a reality at least 10 years old. The house of cards was bound to fall down one day but I don't think anyone expected it at this vital stage as we emerge from the pandemic.

lcylocal

Was caught up in this today. Walked into T5 later than planned with a little more than an hour and half to go to the flight, checked in, but with two bags to drop. Big queues at all my options Club, family, self drop. Luckily was pulled to the front of the family queue after about 5 mins, so was saved really. Then went to south fast track which was awful, backed up and a real scrum in the queue. Should definitely have used the normal lanes which looked busy but flowing well and organised. Managed a 15 min pit stop in south lounge in the end before heading to the gate.

I didn’t get a sense of how many people had already checked in while dropping bags, however it wasn’t straight forward for me to get it to work. BA.com didn’t understand the lack a vaccine/test requirement for small children going to Spain and then I couldn’t get a mobile boarding pass, so had to fall back onto PDF.

davidcamp6

There has probably been a knock on effect on CE/CW for those who have paid enough in WT/ET too without the commensurate re-deployment of staff to those sections.

IntVic

I find this thread very interesting to read.
Was due to fly with BA from Zagreb to LHR but they cancelled the return flight for Sunday and Monday and I was not prepared to wait till Tuesday.
Flying to Croatia with Croatian airlines, T2 at LHR was efficient and organised. I certainly did not miss T5 even though the Lufthansa lounge food offering was not to my liking, I took a long walk to the Singapore lounge which was very good

flybymonkey

OSL - LHR last night (6pm), we landed about 20 mins early at satellite C and managed to get from the plane, immigration, baggage off the belt, and through customs all within 15 minutes. A totally smooth and effortless experience.

xenole

Aren't OSL flights T3? My ones next month are.

Tobias-UK

From today OSL operates from T3.