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    Terminal 5

    Has anyone been through it yet? Is it full of pointless clutter? Is it very slow? Is everything in a stupid serif font? Is there too much furniture in the way? Are they all trying to sell you stuff you don't want? Are lots of people getting lost trying to get there?

    I'm heading through tomorrow, boosting my carbon footprint even more.

    It's needed, I'm pretty sure of that, whatever the whiney protestors say. Unless you cut back on the number of flights, which isn't happening any time soon. But it's pretty obvious that Heathrow couldn't cope before - the number of hours I've spent in immigration queues, and baggage reclaim, or worse still held hostage in a plane for an hour or two unable to make its way to its gate.

    Although I'm still left wondering how every other airport on the planet can have 5 terminals all within walking distance, yet Heathrow needs them so far apart that you need two different proper rail services to get between them.

    #2
    Terminal 5

    I'd think seriously about taking hand-luggage only...

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      #3
      Terminal 5

      Believe me, I have no intention of checking any bags in tomorrow. I fear that, because it's all of BA's flights over there, it's actually going to be even worse than it ever was before.

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        #4
        Terminal 5

        Incidentally, why would anyone fly to Paris from London?

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          #5
          Terminal 5

          Because it's cheaper than the train, and if you live nearer to an airport than you do to King's Cross it might also be faster.

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            #6
            Terminal 5

            Has Terminal 5 got fitted carpet like all British airport Terminals seem to have?

            Which in a few years will be all worn and held together by duck tape, covered in stains you don't wish to know about, and altogether giving visitors to the country a fine first impression.

            (Terminal 5 is in bold as I am trying out the Bold button, no other reason).

            Far prefer the foriegn airports with their ice skating slippery ,hard floors.

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              #7
              Terminal 5

              They could sort out the immigration queues by, you know, hiring more immigration officers. I've been in a completely full arrivals hall with only three officers before.

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                #8
                Terminal 5

                You could make the same point about Dulles, say, GY.

                They could usefully have more than one IRIS thingy at each terminal, too.

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                  #9
                  Terminal 5

                  Oh, and I hate British airports' horrible drayed worn thin carpets. But not as much as I hate those dirty looking dark yellow illuminated signs which haven't changed since the 70s and looked tacky and tatty then. They're the big beacon that says to me "Welcome to grey, miserable, wet, inefficient Britain. We hope you enjoy your stay in the immigration hall and the one at baggage reclaim, and then enjoy spending the same amount to get to your destination as you did on your plane ticket."

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                    #10
                    Terminal 5

                    The BBC is now reporting that all check-ins at the new terminal have been suspended. What a mess.

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                      #11
                      Terminal 5

                      It's needed, I'm pretty sure of that, whatever the whiney protestors say.
                      Where's the wagging finger smiley when you need it?

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                        #12
                        Terminal 5

                        It's like a road though, isn't it? Just fills up with more traffic. What limits are in place?

                        I couldn't believe how bad Terminal 4 was the other week. Not only had Al Qaeda necessitated stringent checks, they'd also blown up about half the check in staff by the look of it.

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                          #13
                          Terminal 5

                          It shouldn't fill up any more. There's no room on the runways for more flights (indeed, there's probably no room for more flights even with a third runway), so this should merely ease congestion.

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                            #14
                            Terminal 5

                            It's needed, I'm pretty sure of that, whatever the whiney protestors say.
                            What about the non-whiney protesters?

                            Unless you cut back on the number of flights, which isn't happening any time soon.
                            Why shouldn't it though? Sooner or later, it will (have to) happen. Or will our mutant descendants be justifying Terminal 30 in 80 years' time on the same gounds?

                            They're pretty much destroying an entire village for Heathrow's expansion. At what point do you actually make a long-term principled decision and say it's time to stop?

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                              #15
                              Terminal 5

                              On Sky they interviewed a traveller who was told that her flight had been rerouted from Terminal 5 to Gatwick, and she had been told to find her own way there. Which would be scandalous.

                              I don't think I'd be likely to opt for a BA flight any time soon.

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                                #16
                                Terminal 5

                                You ought to be grateful. Bucharest is hosting a NATO summit next week and the country has gone fucking mental security wise. Half of the capital city has been closed down (already, even though the summit doesn't start until Wednesday). I'm at the airport today and it's already gearing up in a big way, plus the queue of traffic stretching into Bucharest basically reached here - about 20kms north of the city. Passed rows upon rows of buses bringing extra cops into the city from all over the country. People are not even going to be allowed to walk along selected streets in Bucharest. Yesterday they went along putting flowers and trees along all the routes that the dignitaries will use - and by this morning half of them had already been nicked.

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                                  #17
                                  Terminal 5

                                  E10 Rifle wrote:
                                  They're pretty much destroying an entire village for Heathrow's expansion. At what point do you actually make a long-term principled decision and say it's time to stop?
                                  Was that for T5? Or would that be for the T6 and third runway expansion, which would increase the number of flights (and seems to me a pretty stupid idea for all kinds of reasons)?

                                  It may be a nice idea that Heathrow would reduce the number of flights coming through, but clearly that wasn't happening even without Terminal 5. As far as I can see Terminal 5 doesn't add any more flights, and there was never any reduction coming in the medium term, so at least making the airport less unpleasant to use would be sensible.

                                  Clearly, from reports so far, it no less unpleasant than before, just more spacious and more useless. But providing more gates and more space and more infrastructure but with the same number of landing and take-off slots (as there are still only two runways) is still the right thing to have done.

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                                    #18
                                    Terminal 5

                                    I always take a great deal of schadenfreude delight when a multi-million pound computer system, brought in to "save" the need for hundreds of organic computer systems to do the same job as well, conks out and causes chaos.

                                    I mean computerised luggage handling, FFS. You tell someone which plane you're travelling on. They write your flight number on a label. Tie it to your bag. Then take it to your plane. Why did anyone at BAA think that letting some Dallas-based programmer and his latest Metal Mickey invention take that over would be a great idea?

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                                      #19
                                      Terminal 5

                                      Chubby Cyclist, the extra capacity that Terminal 5 creates will almost inevitably lead to pressure for a new runway.

                                      I'd like to link to an article by former Isleworth resident, Ian Gilmour, but E10 would take the piss out of me too much.

                                      Anyway, isn't 24 Hour news great when someone like BA are in the shit?

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                                        #20
                                        Terminal 5

                                        It's hilarious how nothing is working. The baggage system isn't working. The employees can't log in to their workstations. The lifts aren't working. The bank machines have broken down. It's a fantastic failure on a grand scale.

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                                          #21
                                          Terminal 5

                                          The Money Pit writ large.

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                                            #22
                                            Terminal 5

                                            I'd like to link to an article by former Isleworth resident, Ian Gilmour, but E10 would take the piss out of me too much.
                                            Heh. We could do a trade off in that regard. You post up something by Gilmour and I post up something by the current MP for the area affected by Heathrow's expansion.

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                                              #23
                                              Terminal 5

                                              Would I be right in suspecting that the baggage problems in particular are due to "teething troubles" with very just-in-time working practices?

                                              BA is starting to get the sort of reputation in media coverage that BR had way back in the day. To the point where i've twice heard BAA (the airport authority) referred to, and slagged off, as BA (the airline). My heart bleeds.

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                                                #24
                                                Terminal 5

                                                They could sort out the immigration queues by, you know, hiring more immigration officers. I've been in a completely full arrivals hall with only three officers before.
                                                To be fair that's not the Airport's fault, that's the fault of HM Customs and Excise.

                                                Heathrow is a mess and always will be. This pdf thing for the TCPA is quite interesting in terms of history etc.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Terminal 5

                                                  Is it David Wilshire you have in mind, E10? He seemed to be of the "it's going to happen because it is" school of argument. And that was talking about Terminal 6.

                                                  A lot of Tory MPs argue like that. I'm surprised John Harris (in the article you put up the other day) didn't suggest that a lot of them had seen The Undertones.

                                                  BA's reputation is way below what BR's ever was. BR was mostly wisecracks about catering.

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