RichP

I tried a quick search on this but couldn’t find anything; wonder if anyone can shed some light, please?
When moving from airside to landslide after arriving at T5 and exiting customs, you walk along the corridor and before the HEX ticket booth and the duty free on arrival shops is a staff/crew exit on the left hand side. It doesn’t appear to have any security on it beyond a usually rather sleepily looking security guard - no key card access and the doors have always been open. Is it all possible for a mere passenger to cut through there on the way to the car park? I walk past it most weeks, then have to double back on myself, passing that exit again on my way to the car park, and it just seems inefficient to walk the loop when there is a perfectly serviceable cut through...
I presume there’s some kind of “all pax must pass the shops” reason for it, but it’s starting to annoy me!
Thanks!

Can I help you

No it’s not possible, the security staff member will redirect you, that is the reason for them sitting there.

MPH1980

It is another one of the things I find astonishing about T5 ... that someone is paid to man that door.

It could be security card protected ... code protected or some other system ... but no ... it takes a person sitting there.

Would it be THAT bad if a few people slipped through without being asked 'Heathrow Express Tickets'?

FlyingScientist

I usually think "you don't serve Edinburgh" when passing the HEX ticket desk before continuing towards the departure lounge upstairs.

Tobias-UK

Perhaps they are also there to prevent people from heading to the baggage hall?

MPH1980

I dont recall a similar person on the other side. It is just on the exit near baggage 7-9 if I remember right.

In any case ... if reentry was a worry - a code lock would do it.

Tobias-UK

There is a similar ‘guard’ at the domestic arrivals too. They are there to prevent people re-entering the secure area/baggage halls.

bjorns

There is one reason and only one reason why PAX are not allowed through the staff shortcut and that is that HAL wants to force us to walk past as many shops as possible.

710 77345

Correct, this has been discussed in the past. If they were there to stop people going the other way, they'd be facing the other way!

LTN Phobia

T5 arrivals duty free still is very meagre compared to what you cop at SYD arrivals duty free.

OSL one is quite something else (although quicker to get through than SYD) but I do find something I want to buy there, unlike T5 or SYD.

LordBuckethead

The difference being that SYD (as with OSL and KEF) permits duty free purchase on the way in, whereas the UK does not. So HAL's shop is full-price goodies (and therefore rarely worth it), but Australia can provide some (relative) bargains, and as such is more popular.

Tobias-UK

Which shops are bypassed using the staff exit?

Beaulieu

Presumably that small world duty free just before the exit doors to the ground floor concourse by international arrivals...

Globaliser

Obviously, it depends on what you mean by "full-price" - but AIUI what is in the Heathrow arrivals shops is at the same price as in the departures shops. If you buy from the arrivals shop, it is of course a tax-paid duty-paid purchase, and the shop must account to HMRC for all of that. But that is no different from many of the purchases made in the departures shops, and thus if it's worth buying upstairs (wherever you're heading), it may well be worth buying downstairs.

Tobias-UK

Isn't that immediately next to the door?

Where is the 'guard' positioned to prevent people returning to the baggage hall?