Heathrow was abominable!

We came through Heathrow on June 21. The line to check luggage was "apparently" unusually short that day. It still took around 45 mins. Security was another matter. The lines were very long. We spent about 1 hour in that line. Yes, we were there three hours before. Our gate was the furthest out and took about 20 min walk. I would almost suggest 4 hours before a flight at Heathrow these days if you are checking in luggage.

Margaret

So I’m sitting in the airport right now. I’m flying business class so I was able to use the priorty lines. Took me two hours to get my one bag checked and to get through security. The Virgin clubhouse security which is normally incredibly fast was incredibly slow - part of that was that they were training new employees which obviously they need so I can’t really complain ( I had the most through pat down I’ve ever had in my life)

To make it more fun there was a problem on the Piccadilly line so I had to backtrack from my hotel to Paddington to get on the Heathrow Express.

Lindy, good to know you arrived 4 hours early. Based upon your experience and the unpredictability of the situation, 4 hours may be cutting it close going forward into the peak travel months of July and August.

Unfortunately all European airports seem to be dealing with the loss of employees. I read in The Guardian that Germany is allowing the recruitment of Turkish workers to deal with the airport worker shortage. It's not rocket science why they need workers. Companies furloughed or laid off many during the pandemic, not to mention many people don't want to work in a public area and dealing with the public with a pandemic still ongoing and for low wages.

Blame the companies that want to maximize profits not the workers.

Glad I am able to travel off season.

Which terminal?
Which airline? United?

I do not believe that anyone is assigning blame to workers, companies or the gods that be, only the fact that there is a worker shortage which is affecting passengers at Heathrow. I do believe that it is an airport's responsibility to have signs and ones that everyone can see however!

Robert, it was Terminal 2. My airline was United, however, it was the airport overall that I addressed. Checked baggage and security were for all airlines in that terminal, not just United. Heathrow, that day, made Newark look like a dream. . .

For Heathrow, IMO, the terminal used makes all the difference. I won’t use any terminal at Heathrow but 5 even in the best of times. Heathrow terminal 5 is my European airport of choice.

Also, this is just the way of travel right now. Knowing the shortage of help, trips need to be planned accordingly or wait until things are back to “normal”. I usually take an historical perspective on things like this. These slight delays sure beat sailing across the ocean in a frigate…

As travelers we have to adapt to theses situations. However, a lot of the problems may be short staff, but the real problem is management. I am not talking about the CEOs, but those that are one or two steps over the actual workers you see. These are the people getting paid to manage, and they are not.
The simplest example is the lack of signs for what line. Signage would go a long way to prompting people, to mitigate endless questions in your mind or endless questions to airport personnel. Not even permanent signs, but any sign, would do part of the job.
Airports and airlines have failed miserable, over and over and over. Same things too. You would think someone somewhere in management would take a look see. Try something new, or try something at all.
As long as there is a buffer between those who could make the decisions and those who have to deal with the lack of guidance, little will change. It is simply put off as an aberration of the moment and that the future will even it out.
Too bad there is no way to simply not fly, en mass, for a time, and leave them without customers.

Too bad there is no way to simply not fly, en mass, for a time, and leave them without customers.

We already tried that during early days of the pandemic and what did the CEO's do? They fired all those sergeants and foot soldiers. I disagree that it is not the fault of the CEOs, they are responsible for the performance of the organization from the top down. When an army is defeated in battle, do we blame the sergeants? No, we blame the generals.

We need to accept the fact that the airlines do not exist to serve the customer and just be thankful that so far they haven't been crashing. Delta recently cancelled 3 flights from Atlanta to Charleston(somewhat weather related), the flights the next day were full and the only rental car available was $600/day , but did they hire a bus to take people to Charleston(approximately 4 hours) ? Of course not. That said, my flight on Virgin from Heathrow earlier this month was easy without a long wait in security(I didn't check luggage).

I came home from London 4/30 and felt even then that the line to check my bag was maddeningly slow, perhaps an hour--this was when we still needed a negative covid test to return and there were employees checking that prior to joining the bag check line. It seems a simple matter, to me, to put your bag on the scale and the clerk checks your passport and boarding pass and off you go, but some people just seemed to be at the desk for a good 10 minutes with no discernible issues going on....I had plenty of time to observe this. Security moved quickly but my 3-1-1 bag caused epic concerns due to it being US size so the agent had to inspect every.single.thing in the bag, my carry-on and my purse. I get it, security is important, but this had never happened in 12 overseas trips so before I travel again I am finding a universally compliant bag.

Actually, what the OP is describing sounds like my very first solo international trip that had me connecting through CDG--the horrible, milling confusion and lack of clear directions or signage, though I grabbed someone and was magically whisked to security and onto the waiting plane.

@Wray: Please enlighten me on how you get to pick what terminal your plane uses.

I think you pick your terminal by picking your airline, in this case, British Airways uses Terminal 5.

Sam is correct. I fly BA, but even so, before purchasing my tickets, I always check to make sure both my flights use Terminal 5.

@Wray Thanks. We are looking at flying Virgin Atlantic. Will pay attention to that detail when shopping.

I flew out of Heathrow today using Terminal 5. The security lines were a nightmare. They snaked through the terminal. I could use Fast Track but they were sending people without Fast Track to those gates. If you actually had Fast Track you could use the electronic gates and bypass the long line. Even then security took well over 30 minutes when in the past it was no more than 15.

The terminal was very crowded.. My flight to JFK was full (American) and there were delays everywhere.

Normally, I never get to the airport more than two hours before my flight. Today I added a half hour and I'm glad I did. (I had no bags to check and was able to download my boarding pass.)

On the bright side, Global Entry at Terminal 8 at JFK is completely using facial recognition. The machine takes your photo, out comes a slip. Hand it to the immigration agent and he says "Have a nice evening." No passports, no questions.

@Wray Thanks. We are looking at flying Virgin Atlantic. Will pay attention to that detail when shopping.

Virgin uses Terminal 3, not my favourite terminal other than the fact that it houses the best airline lounges in the airport (apart from the Concorde Lounge). T5 is my favourite, yes it is large but it's very open which makes it less claustrophobic and easy to navigate.

British Airways are moving nearly all of their flights out of T3 in a couple of weeks with AA and Iberia moving in the opposite direction. A move at such short notice is unusual and could affect people who have made plans around a specific terminal. Security delays are somewhat bigger in T3 than T5, in relative terms.

The plan for a few AA flights out of T5 was only scheduled until Oct. 30. After that, it was up in the air. Hopefully by then, the terminals will be more back to normal with crowds as the summer season will be over.

There is a strong rumour that AA will move back to T3 in July but this has not been officially been confirmed yet, although the Iberia one has been. Since IB will be using AA staff in T3 there seems some logic to their own move.

as a counter-example, we were there June 23rd, Terminal 2, United. We were leaving around noon and figured we could wait that morning at the hotel or wait at the airport. Figured it was better to get thru security and wait at the airport. We got there around 9am and walked past all the airline desks until we found a sign saying "departures" where the terminal entry was, maybe 25 people in line to go thru the security screening. It was less than 10 minutes to get thru (we just have carry-on bags, no checked luggage). As a side note they were passing out 1 liter bags your liquids had to fit into and had us repack ours from the 1qt bag we had into their bag.

We flew back to Chicago this morning from Heathrow and breezed right through because we didn't check luggage and had a morning flight. Exactly why I don't check luggage.

This certainly won't help anything:
British Airways Check-in Staff Could Strike In July:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/british-airways-check-in-staff-strike-july/

https://anglotopia.net/british-travel/british-airways/travel-alert-british-airways-workers-vote-to-strike-in-pay-dispute-in-late-july/?utm_source=weekly_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=anglotopia_newsletter

American Airlines move to T3 confirmed: https://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/destinationInformation/lhr-airport.jsp

Flights are being cancelled in banks pretty much every day at the moment (30 today). Tends to be domestic & short-haul European rather than long-haul. Mid July at the start of the school holidays will probably be the biggest pinch point.

Yup.

We flew on Delta out of Terminal 3 yesterday (Thursday, June 30). Flight was at 2, we got there at 11 and got to the gate just as they were boarding.

Checking in bags took over an hour, security almost an hour. We got off the lift for security and the initial line was snaking around an eating/lobby area presently under renovation. That line inched forward to the area where they VERY CLEARLY tell you to GET THOSE LIQUIDS IN PLASTIC BAGS. Once we got through that, the actual security - put stuff on belt, go through scanner - only took maybe 15 minutes. It was an odd system (although I see why they do it) because the space is clearly not set up to accommodate the numbers of people going through.

But I will say the flight was on time, which is far better than what I've experienced in American airports recently....

I'll also say that in both lines they were pulling people out of line who had pending departures. So at about noon, they were calling for everyone who was on the 1:30 to Detroit to come out and go to the priority line, etc.

A useful link directly related to this topic---over there I go by 'zebec'.
I am done. the hairport
https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/warnings-for-flying-from-or-transferring-at-heathrow-1708418/page2/

FWIW, we just returned on BA from terminal 5 a couple of days ago and didn't experience any of the problems that have been reported at terminals 2 and 3. There were no delays checking our bags or making our way thru security. I did ask the BA customer service rep how things were going over at terminals 2 and 3 and she just shuddered - apparently being assigned to either is the airport equivalent of a stint in purgatory, so best to avoid them if you can.
Of course all this could change later this summer when the BA strike action takes effect...

We departed via Heathrow Terminal 3 on Thursday morning, June 29th. We checked my husband's bag with his hiking sticks and were through security in less than 30 minutes. BUT, my husband had insisted on arriving to the airport 5 hours before our flight based on what he'd heard from folks we chatted with on our travels. (We'd been told that United was advising at least 4.5 hours for T2, so my husband wanted to be on the safe side.) I thought 5 hours was a little bit excessive, which is odd as I am usually the early bird! On the other hand, there were people literally running onto our flight as the doors were closing (one girl was shaking, I felt badly for her), because it had taken them 2-3 hours to check in and get through security. Our gate was also quite far from security and not especially well marked. So I would recommend if you can, arrive very early for your departure flight from Terminal 2 or 3. It's better to sit, relax and read your book than to stress about missing your flight. And carry-on will help minimize the wait unless you absolutely need to check.

If everybody arrived very early it could cause queuing problems of its own. Heathrow hasn't done this yet and I don't know whether it will at all, but Schiphol crowd control has been refusing entry to the terminal to anyone if their flight isn't within four hours.

Some airlines allow bags to be checked the day before although leaving them at Heathrow overnight might be more risky than in normal times.

My husband has a medical condition that requires a script for certain liquid skin meds which would be flagged by TSA for the amounts, therefore, he takes some onto the flight but must check the rest. Trying to explain to TSA the necessity of the lotions is a bit much even though he carries a copy of the script. He learned about the difficulty with scanning trying to explain his combo implanted defibrillator/pacemaker and how he could not go through scanning. They can't know every medical necessity. Therefore, the need to check a bag for those who suggest only carry on. I'm sure others have similar needs to check in bags.

We arrived at T3 around 9 am today for a 2 pm flight. By the time we got through baggage check and security it was 1 pm and our flight was preparing to board. (Take it from me, get coffee and breakfast beforehand…I thought I was going to pass out by the time I finally ate.)

The airport staff were doing their best under pressure, but things did feel confusing and chaotic…we had to ask multiple times where to go. Some clearer signage and people directing us to the right queues would have helped immensely.

It wasn’t an experience I’d want to go through every day, but we made it. I am glad I added an hour of padding to the suggestion to arrive 4 hours before the flight. Otherwise, we might well have missed it.

My mom has a disability. They were booked in business class, transiting through Heathrow. Incoming flight was late, zero wheelchairs, assistance or people. , AA shirks all responsibility. My parents suffered terribly that day going thru hours of security and hours of changing terminals, trying to get rebooked.

Though some of the staff at the terminals had pity on them and helped. The finale was an officer higher up lady who offered and pushed mom's wheelchair to her international flight, seconds before gate closing.

I will never book thru Heathrow ever again. there are tons of such experiences on other forums. seniors are really suffering at LHR and AMS.

Heathrow just announced a cap on daily passengers, effective today:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/12/londons-heathrow-imposes-capacity-cap-of-100000-passengers-a-day.html

Can't see this in that report, but passengers have been asked to arrive no earlier than 3 hours before their flight time.

I get where they are coming from, but if I had arrived only 3 hours early I’d have missed my flight by a wide margin.

I get where they are coming from, but if I had arrived only 3 hours early I’d have missed my flight by a wide margin.

The reason they want people to show up no earlier than 3 hours is so they don't get the large queues. If everyone showed up 3 hours ahead, the lines would be manageable and so would the crowd.

I get that, Frank, and understand the logic, however, I'd be nervous arriving 3 hours before my flight in this environment.

Most of the people stuck in the long lines on the day I flew out were within that 3-hour window (as evidenced by the number of people who raised their hands when the staff called for those on flights that were boarding soon). It would not have helped. It was as much a staffing problem as a passenger volume problem.