lcylocal

I think the policy last Saturday was 60 mins to pull people forward, although we were pulled forward at about 80 mins (there was a bit of debate among staff members about this that I overheard).

When joining the queue we were also told to make ourselves known to staff at 60 mins if we hadn’t been pulled forward.

CatchThePigeon

Rather than start a new thread, has anyone had any recent experience of check-in or security delays at LHR T3 in the past few weeks? Traffic has increased there quite a bit but I've not seen any reports of issues on here recently.

moral_low_ground

Perhaps slightly OT but was listening to the radio this morning and a Journo came on and related his 4.5 hour wait to get through security at MAN last weekend. He joined the queue at 7pm and finally was through at 1130pm. He contacted the airport authority and they said that the situation was likely to persist for many weeks as they were short staffed after Covid layoffs and now the current staff were going down with Covid and not coming in to work. They confirmed there were over 1000 people last Saturday evening trying to get through with only one security team operating. The Journo said it probably didn't help that they were putting people into secondary for even having a lip balm out of their liquids bag (...!!!).

Is this the same in all the Regions ? I could probably put up with 30mins - 1 hour in a security queue but certainly not 4.5 hours and what about the elderly, those with Children etc etc

speedbird66

Hmm...suspect I'm jumping the gun somewhat, but does anyone have a feeling for how long these issues might persist for? Done a lot of domestic/short-haul flying in the last couple of years but got my first long-haul for a long time coming up in mid-May. And it's on a Saturday!

Flight is early/mid-afternoon (1400 from memory). We're in WTP and I'm Silver so we'll have a choice of 'premium' check-in desks to choose from, although from the pics posted earlier it looks like that might not make a great deal of difference. If humanly possible I'll have sorted OLCI and VeriFLY before we get there, but we need to check bags. We'll be staying in Woking the night before so won't have any trouble getting there in good time for the flight, but now I'm torn between getting there well before (3+ hours) and possibly getting stuck in the morning's festivities, or leaving it a little later (2 hours) and hoping that things might have subsided.

Or maybe I should just leave it a few weeks to see how things go. Any thoughts from the experts?!

DYKWIA

Dunno about everywhere, but DUB seems to be having the same problems as LHR & MAN. 3 hour queues for security.

And LBA :- https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...worsen-3621163

Quote:

Dozens of holidaymakers miss flights from Leeds Bradford Airport as queues and staff shortages worsen

Lefly

May I kindly ask why?
Of course I'm passing through just this weekend...

By the way, I'm arriving on BA and leaving on AA (BA ticketed). In the event I need to get there a boarding pass for the next flight, is better to use the manned kiosks before connection or going landside?
And if landside, since the flight is on AA, do I need to find an AA desk or the First Wing works anyway?

thegamebird

We're flying out to the US on Friday in J on an 11am flight, so would check in about 8:30 usually. Dreading the T5 experience, TBH. As a gold I usually use the First Wing to check in and if it's just me and MrGB (silver), we go through the FW security and into the lounge. However this time, we GBJunior in tow. What's the likelihood they'll allow all of us through the FW security if we promise to go into the Club lounge? We've talked about me and the son going through with all of our hand baggage and MrGB hitting the regular fast-track and meeting in the lounge. Any experiences/thoughts would be welcome.

UKUAFlyer

My experience is you will not be allowed to go through FW security as a GCH with anyone other than 1 guest. Even if the third / fourth person is a child. (Unless the third person is an infant).
I say this as a GCH with kids, who regardless how politely I ask if it is possible, am always advised ‘sorry no, one guest only’.
They also police the lounge policy pretty stringently at LHR, so if you go through standard fast track security and go across to the F lounge, the answer is ‘sorry no’ to anything other than GCH plus guest.

Given you can all check in at FW, you’re a good part of the way there in terms of the substandard LHR experience.

TBH, F lounge ain’t what it used to be.
(Though not been there since last month).

thegamebird

Thanks for your response. We've also tried in the past, with a similar response, but hoped that potentially they may turn a blind eye if the regular security is a bun-flight. GBjunior is, in fact taller than both of us and sprouting fur, so don't think we'd get away with calling him an infant (although I'd like to half of the time - but that's another story).

I agree re the flounge. We've been across to the US a few times in the last couple of months and it's certainly nothing to write home about.

HarryHolden68

Weekday normality has returned today. No queues in the Gold wing and minimal queues in any areas. Plenty of space in the F-Lounge.
Still no burgers - humbug.

Berrisfo

I'm due to fly to Venice on Friday morning (8:35am) from T5, and just received a text from BA suggesting I check in my bag at the airport the night before. I'm BA Bronze so I can use the club check in area; does anyone know if the talk of the weekend being super busy extends to Friday too? Wondering what would be a good time to arrive at the airport on Friday - I will need to check a bag, but won't be able to drop it the night before.

SpurMan

Our flight BA281 was cancelled due to LHR instigating capactiy restrictions in the morning. Not happy about that, but as BA cancelled it, we might be entitled to a bit of compo, though no doubt BA will say it's not their fault. Was their decision as to which flights to cancel though...

corporate-wage-slave

The long standing scheme for this was from 16:00 or 18:00 hrs onwards, depending which update you look at. I'm not sure if this is a reference to Twilight Check-in or something more than that. Evenings are generally very quiet at LHR T5, even Fridays, it's very much a morning thing since that's when the weight of travel is fixed at the moment. I wouldn't make it any later than about 21:00 hrs, since the last flight is at 22:25 and there are very few flights - typically 5 or so - in that final hour.

fastflyer

Used the T5 First Wing on Monday morning -- took just a few minutes to check in Hand Baggage Only. But security was as slow as ever -- all liquids and laptops out of baggage and the tiny plastic bags required. About half of luggage was further pulled aside for manual search, which took about 20 minutes more as there was only one person doing manual checks for the entire first wing.

Total time from taxi to lounge was 45 minutes. But then there was a trek to satellite B for the actual departure, and that was a mess. Gate opens about an hour before departure time, which is a boarding card check then another sit-down-and-wait. Then the boarding door opened at T-30, and the staff were doing a second boarding card check right at the bottom of the escalator, causing a back up and people falling into one another. Yikes.

ABZLocal

Not sure if this is the right place to post or a new thread, waiting to board in T5C and notifed whole of BA boarding system has crashed.

uodate 2:09, worldwide BA system outage reported at the gate