- only 1 piece of carry-on permitted regardless of travelling class
:) I love this and wish all airports did this

But agree NOT a great airport, but hardly the worst (you must not have travelled much in africa or asia?)

Which part of Asia? HKG, SIN, KUL, ICN, NRT, etc outclasses LHR by millions of miles.

even Bangkok Suvarnabhumi is better than LHR

Try Luton Instead Of Heathrow For New York
 

Silverjet fly from Luton to New York instead of Heathrow. It's way more civilised. They have a private terminal so you just roll up and they take your bags at the kerb. You can check-in up to 30 minutes before a flight departs, security is proper fast track because they have their own security channel and you're allowed as much cabin baggage as you like within reason, eg I took a briefcase, an overnight bag and a laptop aboard and that was no problem - or you can check in 2 x 30kg cases. The terminal has a wonderful lounge and there are no check-in desks and queues, you just take a seat, get yourself a glass of champagne or whatever and someone comes up and takes your passport and comes back with your boarding pass. Silverjet are only flying to New York right now, but I believe they will expand their network and flights will continue to avoid Heathrow and use Luton instead. Highly recommended.

Newark in fact.

and Gatwick for HK
 

On that theme, Oasis (a LCC) fly Hong Kong direct from Gatwick.

Don't want to push the thread OT, but I "hope" this will be the undoing of LHR. If we have more airlines doing point-to-point direct flights rather than via hubs, we might not end up at LHR so often. I think this is the future according to Boeing (and their 787) as opposed to Airbus (and their A380).

Yes, I hate it.

Fast Track is a joke. It is often more crowded than the regular immigration lane.

It's a crap shoot. I've had a 50/50 'hit' rate with Fast Track. Depends on when you get in, what class you're in, how 'smartish' you get to immigration, and who's working the queue. Sometimes it takes ages and I'dve been through long ago in the regular line. Sometimes I'm through in a flash when the regular line would've taken 30 minutes longer.

You want bad immigration? NRT. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE a Fast Track line there. Makes LHR look positively speedy.

And more to the general topic; I rather like LHR T3. Fabulous duty free options. I developed a huge appreciation for having Boots airside... it also helps for last minute gifts but is WONDERFUL for when you've forgotten a charger/earphones/medication/etc etc or develop a sniffle between leaving for the day and getting to the airport, etc. Also, great magazine/book options, etc. Not cheap, but I'd rather pay more than not be able to buy at all. I prefer T3 to T4, although the Concorde Room is definitely preferable to any other OneWorld lounge option at LHR.

I don't find LHR that much of a pain to get to. Perhaps I just walk quickly but I think the HEX is quite convenient and makes getting to LHR easy. It gets around the vagaries of traffic which is a boon. LGW, even by train, is much more painful. The train ride is longer, trackwork seems to be much more frequent and once there, you still must board a tram to Terminal North.

That gets us to the other major problem I have with LGW, Terminal South. Anyone complaining about LHR should be forced to fly out of LGW South for the next year. They'll be thrilled to go back. LCCLand is simply horrid. Lines snaking around and crossing over lines, early morning holidaymakers still hung-over from Saturday night piss-ups that haven't a clue ... they're going... grans that look as though they could (and would) kick Mike Tyson's arse... absolute chav central. There's one place where Fast Track for security is a godsend.

Could just be me though, I seem to like airports others hate. I LIKE MIA (although that could be eye-candy influenced), I LIKE JNB, and god help me I like DFW (especially since Skylink). I even like GRU (probably for the same reason as MIA... it sure ain't for the Excellence in Lounge Options).

Oh I'll give you NRT. They are atrocious, you're right. Actually everything about NRT kind of sucks, particularly that ride into the city (although the RCC is nice :)).

With fast-track, I just find that even if I'm in C or F, walk fast, etc., I'm still competing with a bunch of pax from other flights. I've often had better luck just sticking it out in the regular lines where there are (many) more agents.

That gets us to the other major problem I have with LGW, Terminal South. Anyone complaining about LHR should be forced to fly out of LGW South for the next year. They'll be thrilled to go back. LCCLand is simply horrid. Lines snaking around and crossing over lines, early morning holidaymakers still hung-over from Saturday night piss-ups that haven't a clue ... they're going... grans that look as though they could (and would) kick Mike Tyson's arse... absolute chav central. There's one place where Fast Track for security is a godsend.

I think the long term plan is to get all the major scheduled airlines into the North, there has been a feasability study into moving Continental to the North and reutilising Zone B, which is a bit of an odd area anyway.

Grrrr
 

I read in this weeks Sunday Times that LHR T3 is to get a facelift as part of £6 Billion upgrade of airport facilities (I'd love to see exactly where they are spending the money)

CEO Tony Douglas did not comment on the level of disruption to passengers this facelift will cause.

Chief among the innovations will be a drive through check in facility for Virgin Upper Class Passengers!!!!!!!!!!

Don't they already have this! How about improving the terrible conditions for the other 95% of your f***ing customers before improving something that already seems top work quite well

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Reasons I loathe flying through London

1) Outrageous taxes;
2) Horrendous transfers between LGW and LHR;
3) Ridiculously overpriced overnight lodging;
4) Cramped and miserable airside facilities;
5) Significant probability of experiencing BA labor unrest.

London is at the bottom of my list of European gateways...and BA is on the bottom of my list of airlines serving London. A pox on all of them.

Totally agree! I'm making it my mission to never go near LHR again... Having recently gone through ORD I think most of that applies to it as well

BAA take note of this thread...
 

If there are any BAA lurkers or workers on this forum, they could do a lot worse than note the comments on this thread.

Judging by the comments here and the major grumbles (with very few objectors) you could well have on your hands a candidate for the world's worst major international airport


hmmmm, I feel a petition coming on, must get to the Prime Minister's web page :D

Quite.

And, last Friday, I arrived at Schiphol at 4:05pm for a flight *departing* at 4:30pm (bit of a mess-up on times, and a delayed train). I made it on board, though I did have to run. This is at a peak time on a Friday afternoon.

If Schiphol can do it, LHR should be able to.