London Heathrow revealed
 

So ok I'm not sure whether it's correct to make this post here [moderator, if it's not, feel free to move it to somewhere more appropriate than the bin] but felt I had to share with you something I discovered about ops at London Heathrow:

Probably not unusually, the airport derives most of its income from retail ops. Retailers at LHR don't pay any rent for their premises, but they do have to forego 90% of any profits made in favour of British Airports Authority. Maybe it explains the somewhat poor retail offering at LHR... anyway, the story goes on...

Back a little while ago, BAA polled a representative sample of its clientele on why they didn't like using the airport. Out of this came the headlines that it's difficult to get to and the baggage takes too long to arrive on the carousel.

So BAA, being a formidable business, maid the lion's share of contribution to see the Heathrow Express built and lobbied Government to create the [subsequently] disastrous bus lane on the motorway back to London.

Now for the baggage bit :-) BAA thought "we can do something about this" so it offered baggae handlers a pay bonus if the first bag off each plane hit the baggage carousel within 10 minutes of landing.

... And so it did, but it was the only bag which did...

So, on closer examination BAA soon uncovered the ruse by its baggage handlers and moved the goalposts to 1st and last bag off. One slight problem with the latter, some who transferred from another flight didn't make the connection... so no last bag.

... Which may explain why it still takes an average of 30-90 minutes to get any checked baggage at London Heathrow.

Maybe someone with inside information can offer more qualified comment?

BAA is run by nimrods... pure and simple

BAA Heathrow is the classic example of BUILD IT WRONG AND THEY WILL STILL COME...

I can't believe the number of US originated folks who believe it's the best airport to connect through...

LHR has to be the WORST Europe airport to connect through, even worse than DUB, MAD or MXP...

To add to the nightmare, connect from LGW to LHR and enter the raffle to see:
(0) how long will you hold before landing
(1) will bags turn up at the final destination
(2) in how many pieces or what shape
(3) will you make the connection
(4) will the Terraces guardian dragons let you past the front counter
(5) how many people in the shower queue before you
and so on.....

As I don't find anything in this thread about an actual FT get-together at LHR, I'm going to move this to TravelBuzz.

Please continue to follow it there.

------------------
Moderator - FlyerTalk Community & Women Travelers