London Heathrow Meeting Place

Heathrow has multiple terminals and first you need to check to see which one her airline uses. Go to the Heathrow website www.heathrowairport.com and you will find a "Which Terminal" link where you can find out. Once you do that, I'd suggest that you look at the map for that terminal and just choose a place in the arrivals area. I always suggest that people meet at their hotel if they are staying in London. It is just much easier to leave a message there and a much more comfortable place to wait.

Each terminal has the "Frosted Doors" through which people clearing Immigration and Customs emerge into the rest of the Terminal. My memory is that it is signed "International Arrivals". There are metal barriers forming generally a funnel through which they come out, and I have always stood against that barrier watching the frosted doors open and close expelling their human cargo. There are also restaurants or shops that you could pick, but I always found those I was picking up by watching the doors. It can take a while...

Thanks Laura and Nigel.

Last year we met my cousin and her friend at Heathrow. Their flight was landing 1 hour after ours. We had to get to their arrival terminal and met them as they exited from their flight. They had our flight number and the hotel in case something went wrong, but this worked just fine.

My friend and I met at Heathrow last summer, flying in on different flights, different terminals. Learned a few things. Have a back-up plan. I flew in to Term 1, I think, and I was more comfortable travelling so went over to meet her at Term 3 - that was easy. Missed seeing her flight on the screen (should have checked as soon as I disembarked). Waited around the arrivals area (go to the seating area - you can see the arrival doors from there) for the agreed-upon hour. Then checked with information, just to find out that her flight had been cancelled in Canada! Could have saved 1 hr by doing that first. Then we had agreed to call her husband at home for messages if anything went wrong; that worked fine. She would have been too nervous to go to the hotel alone - first time overseas. I went back to Heathrow to meet her for her flight the next day.

Hi, It's after she clears Immigration then Customs, she heads towards Baggage Claim. If you know at which terminal she's arriving, meet her at Baggage Claim, the spot where her flight's luggage is coming out. Is the flight from Chicage on Br. Airways? From the west coast on BA, it's usually terminal 5.

Isn't baggage claim prior to customs and still in the sterile/restriced area?

She will be on UA 958 ORD to LHR. Currently, that flight arrives in Terminal 1 at Heathrow. Not sure if it will be in Terminal 1 on June 12

Hi, Sorry...I stand corrected. At Heathrow Baggage Claim is still within the restricted area. (I was thinking of domestic flights within the US where outsiders can meet passengers in Baggage Claim waiting for their luggage to come out.) It's not until you're done at Baggage Claim that you enter the general area. In that case how about meeting her at the ticket booth where tickets for the Heathrow Express are sold.

All, Thanks for the responding. I'm now very comfortable that we shouldn't have a problem. Thanks Tom