The New T5 Opens at LHR!!

As far as I know T5 at Heathrow handles only British Airways (B/A) flights. CNN is reporting today that carry-on luggage is ok. Checked baggage isn't working. Another confirmation that it pays to "travel light."

There is a headline on the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk) today that there are baggage problems at T5. Planes leaving without luggage, major delays waiting, etc.
Sound like the same problems BA was having this past summer. I am glad we are not going over the pond till next fall!

Tom

Lost luggage? I am not taking a carry-on so I hope to goodness we don't have any bad experiences at LHR.

Not sure if we'll be going through Terminal 5. FA, how can I check on that?

Yes, British Airways has exclusive use of T5 - so I'll probably never see it. :(

Here are some links for LHR I thought might be useful to some of us...

www.heathrowairport.com

www.airwise.com/airports/europe/LHR/

www.baa.com

Eli, PM on the way!

Hopefully Al from the UK will be able to give us a first hand account!! I'm sure he's experienced T5 first hand :>

My wife and I will be traveling through terminal 5 on Monday. Hopefully things will be smoothing out by then. we will only have carryon luggage. i just hope our flight isn't cancelled. that would stink not being able to get to vienna!

It's my understanding that SkyTeam is relocating to Terminal 4.

According to the BAA website (British Airport Authority?) Terminal 5 will be exclusively British Airways. There will be more than 50 airlines changing terminals in the 2008 and 2009 as terminals 1 and 4 are refurbished and terminal 2 is razed to make room for the replacement terminal for terminals 1 and 2. One World alliance airlines will fly out of terminal 3, Sky Team will be out of terminal 4, and Star Alliance out of Terminal 1 until the east Terminals (5 A, B, and C) are fully completed, at which point terminal 1 will be razed. They say that by 2012 the airport will essentially be a new airport from what people experienced in 2005 before the work began. The links below can give you more information:

Terminal 5 Information: http://www.heathrowairport.com/assets/B2CPortal/Static%20Files/T5_Info_packnew.pdf

Heathrow Transformation:
http://www.heathrowairport.com/transformation

The transformation has a pdf link at the bottom of the text.

I hope this is useful.
Kevin

On Friday morning, BA announced that 20% of its flights will be cancelled today and into Saturday. Long Haul flights will NOT be cancelled--only European and domestic UK flights are in jeaopardy.

The BBC is also reporting that European airlines will, as part of the open skies agreement, seek to fly domestic flights in the U.S and buy U.S. owned airlines. This is supposed to come later this year. Opposition from politicians and labor unions is expected.

It's been the biggest disaster BA have faced in over 10 years ( and they have had some lou-lou's )

Flights cancelled on an unprecedented basis.

BA unable to give hotel accommodation ( which they are legally obliged to do ).Passengers sleeping on the floor of T5.

Queues as long as you can see. Nothing works, everything has broken down.

Willy Walsh the CEO of BA has had to go on TV and issue the biggest most 'egg all over the face' appology in the history of BA.

Absolute disaster ( nice terminal though ).

I'm truly sorry for all the passengers caught up in this but as an employee for a rival airline we can't stand up for laughing our heads off. They cut too many corner on training and technology - as usual. They didn't learn a single lesson from their last disaster.

I'm truly sorry for passengers caught up in this catastrophe.

It's probably a good idea to avoid T5 until they get the "bugs" worked out (if possible).

This is one reason I usually choose either Gatwick or Manchester for trips to the UK!!!

Cheers!

My brother was scheduled to fly out of terminal 5 this morning. He received an e-mail shortly after midnight alerting him that his 7:15am flight had been cancelled until Monday. The chaos is just unbelievable! I suppose his situation is better than those that were forced to travel without their luggage last night because he's going to be living in Oslo for 6 weeks and has a lot of stuff with him.

Only carry-ons, I would recommend. Here's BA's 3-28 info:

As a result of the disruption yesterday, some customers’ bags will be delayed. We are working hard to process the remaining bags as quickly as possible. The baggage tracing system on ba.com will be updated throughout the day and customers should check later in the day. If there is no new information available, it is because we are still processing your bag for delivery. We will provide the latest information as quickly as possible.

We are very sorry for the frustration and inconvenience the disruption has caused to our customers and we are working extremely hard to overcome these issues as quickly as possible.

The move to Terminal 5 is one of the biggest and most complex airport moves ever undertaken. We are working hard, together with airport operator BAA, to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

I've edited my earliest post about Sky Team's location.

As Michael indicated, T4 will be Sky Team's future location. I had posted a link for Continental which is Sky Team, out of T4 and got mixed up. Sorry!!