matinicus rock

Anyone passed through LHR T5 recently in mid afternoon? Arriving on Monday at around 4pm and wondering what I'm in for with my family - on US passports.

merlin90

I landed mid-afternoon on a Sunday recently having flown from LAX. I have a UK passport but I don't think it makes a lot of difference these days. Everyone from all arriving flights gets ferried into the same long queue, unless you're coming from a "red list" country. It was probably about an hour from joining the queue to getting through to collect my bags, but seemingly some people have endured worse. I'd check to see which other flights are arriving at a similar time to yours.

dwugson

Am due to pass through T5 between 9 and 10 am in a couple of weeks. Any recent experiences as to the wait time. Want to arrange a car transfer from the airport but don't want to have the driver waiting for ages and end up paying extra - the testing costs are heavy enough! Will be passing through on a Wednesday which I hope will be quieter but would be interested to hear from others. Many thanks.

matinicus rock

Passed through LHR T5 yesterday 4/12 - it was a ghost town. Absolutely no lines at all at immigration - none.

dwugson

Thanks! Hope I'm as lucky.

N830MH

I don’t like they waiting. Everybody had it right to go through immigration. No more wait for 10 minutes or an hour. Please stop wasting your time! They need more immigration officers. So please beef up!! No more asking about COVID, and else. Move forward!!

enviroian

what time?

lhrsfo

Does the Home Office have specific exemption from regulations to permit them to force thousands of people to stand withing 2 metres of each other indoors? If not, should PC plod pay Pritti Patel a visit? And should she be arrested for GBH against all those she has forcibly made ill?

pilot007

I contacted both Border Force and HAL about the inefficient queuing system I mentioned in post #16. At first there was finger pointing between agencies, but after following up I’ve finally reduced a satisfactory reply from HAL:

“I would like to confirm that our teams have recently updated the queue pathing at Border Control to better suit the number of passengers travelling through the airport and to better manage social distancing between passengers.

While the queue management has been updated, we regularly requesting that Border Force increase the staffing in this area to ensure that passengers are able to complete their travels in a more timely manner than what we are currently experiencing.

I can confirm that due the shortfall of staffing by Border Force, Heathrow Airport are deploying colleagues to the front of the queue to assist passengers and Border Force to advise when the next official is available.”

Can anyone confirm if the system has improved? Have they relocated the end of the long queue, and does it now drop you in buffers? Or, have they just added an usher to the end of the queue?

matinicus rock

we deplaned at about 3:30 terminal B. Straight through. Nobody there. Bizarre!

13901

More news of queues in T2: https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-...llers-20449823

stewardo

Yes - it has improved somewhat but wait times are long and unpredictable. There are now three instead of two queues: those who have been in a 'red zone' country, people holding passports who in the before-times could use the automated gates (UK/EU/Japan/NZ..) and then everybody else. When the crowd gets above a certain level additional border staff come out and check by hand [PLF & testing] documents of the second group before sending them to the automated gates.

The UK handling of the hotel quarantine group seems inept compared to the approaches I've experienced in NZ/AU/HK/JP. Those in that queue seemed the most likely to have masks down across chins and as well as being in close proximity to other travellers in the immigration hall were taken through other open terminal areas including in lifts and mingling around the general luggage carousels.

citizenofnowhere

Arrived at T2 on Sunday 25th April. Flight landed at 13:05, I was picking up my checked bags by 13:30. Immigration took 7 minutes (I timed it), presumably because ours was the only flight in the queue and we arrived from one of the safest countries on earth at the moment (Israel). Documents checked: PLF, pre-departure PCR test, booking confirmation for day 2 & 8 tests.

CarefreeBA

Something doesn't add up somewhere. I was on a flight from Dublin to LHR T2. When I de-boarded, there were about 10 Border Force agents which met my flight doing all sorts of checks. Is this normal? I was a bit surprised about the fact there was a check at all (since Common Travel Area) but the fact that there were so much Border Force staff there when there are these queues elsewhere.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Possibly looking for someone of interest?

Regards

TBS