Heathrow arriving different terminals question

You can do what we did in this situation; it worked out well. In our case, we were the later-arriving flight, at T5. Our travel companions, my sister and her husband, arrived earlier into T2. The used the landside transfer via Heathrow Express to come to T5 and were waiting as we exited the door from customs into the arrival lobby, holding a sign with our names on it as though they were a chauffeur service meeting us. It was fun, and there was no chance of anyone getting lost or waiting at the wrong spot.

In your case, you would transfer from T5 to the T3 area using either the Heathrow Express, Elizabeth Line, or Tube (I believe the Heathrow Express or new Elizabeth line is easiest). Here is a guide the process:

https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/airport-maps/travel-between-terminals

Note that for the Train ( HEx or Elizabeth Line) they ask you to obtain a free transfer ticket from the machines before boarding. For the Tube, you need to use an Oyster card or contactless payment card to get through the turnstiles to the platform, but you won’t be charged. If you don’t have Oyster cards already, your credit cards with contactless payment might work, but not all American Visa or Mastercards do. ( Ours did not). So this is another reason to use the train for inter terminal transfer.

And here us a diagram:

https://www.heathrow.com/content/dam/heathrow/web/common/documents/transport/Heathrow-free-travel-map.pdf

Once in T3, you head to the arrivals lobby, and look for the doors exiting customs and the secure area. There will be others waiting there to meet arriving passengers, so it should not be difficult to find the right spot.

using either the tube or heathrow express

Normally the Elizabeth Line is preferable to the Heathrow Express, depending upon hotel location.

There is an airside transfer T5 to T3 also, but I don't know if there is a check for a boarding pass to get on the bus. In that case you could meet your son's plane at the gate.

The easiest, though not the friendliest, strategy is to each navigate the Heathrow maze independently and meet at your apartment. Or in the vicinity, such as a pub, easily located using Google Maps for the apartment neighbourhood.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. After looking it over decided to pay a little extra and just have our son fly out on the same airline (British Airways) so we should be in the same terminal..hopefully that makes things a little easier

British Airways flights use both T3 and T5, so booking him on a BA flight does not guarantee you will both arrive in T5. Where is he flying from?

Also, T5 has three separate buildings (A, B, and C), connected by underground trains, so even if both flights arrive in T5 you may have trouble finding one another, unless you have a good understanding of how to move between the 3 buildings without getting on the one-way path to passport control.

Well shoot.. thank you for letting me know. We will be arriving from Denver our son from Las Vegas.