Flew into London Heathrow from DFW on June 5 with a tight connection (90 minutes) to Oslo. Landed at Terminal 5; had to get to Terminal 3. A bus from terminal 5 wasn’t running, so we had to take the inter-terminal train to terminal 2 and a bus to terminal 3. After a long, circuitous ride through the bowels of Heathrow, we finally got to security at terminal 3.
A small, leaky perfume bottle held us up for 15 minutes while security attempted to identify the potential hazard in my bag. Eventually I “donated” the contents of my quart-sized ziploc bag to the security agent and ran—literally—through terminal 3 to our gate, 2a. It felt like miles. We made the flight with time to spare, but OUR LUGGAGE DID NOT. I will say that BA in Norway was quick to solve the problem, and our luggage was delivered to our Oslo hotel within 36 hours.
On the flight back to the US yesterday (June 19), our plane sat for 20 minutes at our arrival gate until a staff member was found to attach the air bridge so we could deplane. We waited in line for 35 minutes for the bus from terminal 5 to terminal 3. It was running, but apparently there was only one bus, so it took several trips before we were able to get on. Luckily we had a 3 1/2 hour layover, so we had time for delays.
Apparently it is well-known that British Airways and Heathrow are struggling with a staff shortage—and that translates to not enough people doing the jobs necessary to make the airport function effectively. First-world problems to be sure, but forewarned is forearmed. Allow lots of time—I’m not sure I’d do a 90 minute connection again, unless I didn’t check bags.