Heathrow Terminal 5 Review – British Airways
Update Nov 2008: Click here for Part 2 of my Heathrow Terminal 5 Review
Flew out of T5 today on a flight to San Francisco. Here are my thoughts on my experience…
- They changed the terminal from 4 to 5 a few days before my flight. Didn’t trust them too much to double-checked online at BA.com just before the cab turned up take me there.
- The fare to T4 from my flat in Richmond is usually £22 – to T5 it was £27 as it’s further away so that’s an extra tenner already!
- I have a BA Executive Club Gold Card which means I can check in at First Class which is always a bonus as no queues. At T4 the 1st Class check in is way in the right hand corner. You then have to double-back halfway along the concourse to go through security. They’ve done exactly the same thing at T5 – I had to walk the length of 10 football pitches to get there only to have to walk 5 pitches back to get through security.
- At check-in the 12 year old boy (looked it) who greeted me was fiddling with a mobile phone he and it seems all the staff have been given because the place is so god damn big. Receiving or sending texts while you’re checking in passengers isn’t very pro now is it?
- I couldn’t tell how quick security would be if all flights were leaving from the terminal as I went through by myself. They’ve at least got the trays coming back automatically instead of having some duffer picking them up and carrying them around and about.
- There are loads of shops selling the usual stuff. Not sure how Prada will do? Is BA really that high class that people will be flocking to Smythsons etc. The rent must be huge!!!
- There are loads of restaurants too – Gordon, Wagamma and Itsu is all I saw as I rushed into the 1st class lounge (ahem!)
- The lounge was pretty empty – the lady on the door just scanned my boarding pass. She didn’t have to do any of the typing which has always amazed me.
- Hot food and pukka wines were on offer plus those nasty coffee machines. Why do they insist on the Scottish shortbread biscuit varieties? For the Americans?
- The toilets were individual which was a nice touch.
- Off to Gate B34 – you have to get a lift down a couple of floors and then get a train. The doors took too long to open and the train went far too quickly as a voiceover warned us all to “hold on tightly” – not arf!Not looking forward to hearing about the first elderly casualty of that mode of transport…
- Passed the customer service desks which were empty – see above!
- Straight onto the plane through fast track 🙂 Lovely!
Now I might look like I’m jumping on the negative “let’s all bash BA for cocking up” but I’m all for things British and especially fair play, however since they introduced the touch screen video-on-demand service a little over a year ago, I have complained nearly 10 times that mine either hasn’t worked or I have had partial service during a flight.
The last time was on a flight to and from Seattle so when I complained they rung me back and admitted they had had huge problems with the system and gave me 25,000 free airmiles.
We take off today and I spark up my TV…
Guess what?
It doesn’t work! – It’s flashing at me, changing channels at will, and then to cream it off, the volume starts going up and up and up in my noise-cancelling headphones until I’m temporarily deafened and have to throw them off because I can’t turn it down.
The cabin services director comes by and spends about 40 minutes re-setting and even wiping the screen to see if it’ll work. Nothing does!
He gives me a “Sorry your entertainment system isn’t working” form promising me 10k airmiles or £50 off their already overpriced “duty free”!
No thanks mate – I will be having words again with your customer service team again, and again, and again.
Not sure if BA knows that Northwest Airlines are opening up a direct route between London & Seattle. There’s every chance they’ll undercut BA and Microsoft will use them for the thousands of flights we make between the smoke and the mothership every year!
I’ve never understood why it costs £3.5k for a return business class ticket on BA from London to Seattle but only £2k the other way around.
I’m sick of rip-off-British-Airways!!!
Do you think they track their online reputation? Hope so…..
