The Absolute Sh*t Hole That Is London Heathrow Airport

[steffi]

Just came back from a week in London and overall impressions of London were pretty low but generally I always have low expectations when travelling to the UK. But arriving and departing London's Terminal 3 is not a pleasant experience. First you're expected to walk outside to get anywhere and overall it's just dirty and run down. Now granted they are renovating and I look forward to seeing it when it's complete but that area is a high stress area for me. I even saw staff talking to people whilst chewing gum and chastising them for having overweight luggage. When we got to the departure gate there were vending machines in the room but none of them were turned on.

Is it this bad at other London airports? Perhaps I've been out of London for too long and expect too much.

[lazeeboy]

Just came back from a week in London and overall impressions of London were pretty low but generally I always have low expectations when travelling to the UK. But arriving and departing London's Terminal 3 is not a pleasant experience. First you're expected to walk outside to get anywhere and overall it's just dirty and run down. Now granted they are renovating and I look forward to seeing it when it's complete but that area is a high stress area for me. I even saw staff talking to people whilst chewing gum and chastising them for having overweight luggage. When we got to the departure gate there were vending machines in the room but none of them were turned on.

Is it this bad at other London airports? Perhaps I've been out of London for too long and expect too much.

have'nt been to the uk for 12 years ,your post makes me not want to go for another 12

[Spee]

Perhaps I've been out of London for too long and expect too much.

Sounds to me like you expect too much. If you're paying for an economy class ticket, then what you can expect is a seat in a waiting area, a seat on a plane, safe arrival for you and your gear and no special treatment. At Heathrow (and other places) Biz or 1st gets you fast-tracked through all the lines and that or club membership gets you comfy waiting space in a lounge with food and drink instead of stuck in a cramped room with 350 other people.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've use T3 probably 30-35 times over the last 3+ years. No doubt things have gotten to be more of a pain since the '05 attacks and less pleasant since the new construction started. Yes I think some of the current rules are over the top But hey, it is what it is. That is the price of living in a free society. Would you rather have no security or screening where the odds of getting hijacked or blown out of the sky are 1 in a 1000, instead of 1 in 100000?

Personally, I hate all the hassles as much as anyone, and deal with it more than many because of the amount of travelling I do. For me T3 is nothing special, no better or no worse than anywhere else. It's certainly no different that many international airports I've been to in the post 9-11 world.

Compare that with some recent T-V stories of traveling in and out of LoS. 200 seats in a single waiting room for 3 different flights and over 500 passengers is one of mine.

[observer21]

Most UK airports have now been contracted out to the Gestapo.  All staff have been trained to be aggresive and 

surly.

All passengers are suspected to have criminal intent - unless they carry a CMA card.

All vending machines in departure lounges/gates have been decommisioned as apparently coca cola and mineral water are deemed to be dangerous weapons of destruction -  in the right hands.

Just part of the friendly police state - all in the name of protecting the individuals liberty.

PS  what you are thinking now could be deemed to be thought crime - you may wish to report yourself and be re-educated

before your children report you.  Dont risk your freedom - report a friend or neighbour now!

Welcome to Heathrow, gateway to the land of the free

Edited July 5, 2007 by observer21

[binnsy]

T3 is like landing at Bagdad/delhi/karachi at the same time.i would hate to have to wait as long as non uk passport holders are made to wait.If tou take a Thai wife back it must take 2 hours to get through imm

[OxfordWill]

Im normally too tired to notice, but I suppose the lack of smiles in general is the impression I am always left with. You become invisible right after landing.

[nidge]

T3 is like landing at Bagdad/delhi/karachi at the same time.i would hate to have to wait as long as non uk passport holders are made to wait.If tou take a Thai wife back it must take 2 hours to get through imm

Last year i took my wife to the UK and we landed in Gatwick. No one told me i could take my wife through the UK passport holders queue until i got right to the front of the other queue, 3 hours later

[PhilHarries]

Good God, some people need to get out a bit more. London Heathrow like Bagdad? What a wally. FYI T3 is over 50 years old, built in the days of mainly propellor aircraft, and it's showing it's age. Yes the security screening is a pain in the butt but made more so by the jerks who don't read the instruction signs or think the rules are made for other prople. It's odd isn't it, why do we only hear Brits whining about airport security and not Israelis?

I shall be passing inbound through T3 tomorrow and again outbound on the 11th. I shall not enjoy the experience but it's something that has to be got through in order to travel. But whatever my experience is I most certainly will not be writing a pathetic whinging post on ThaiVisa about it.

Piece of advice. If you travel to a place expecting it to be sh1t you will end up looking for the sh1t and, not surprisingly, finding the sh1t. If you travel somewhere with an open mind you will be surprised at the good points you will find that, more or less, balance the bad ones. Low people have low expectations, that's why they are low.

[sungod]

Slightly off topic with regards to Terminal 3 Heathrow, but people crave about Dubai airport. Has anyone been there in the early hours of the morning met with the sight of hundreds of passangers waiting for connecting flights? Dont even consider getting a chair. Its a job to to walk in the place as floor space is taken by sprawling bodies with scenes simialr to that of a refugee camp.

[steffi]

Well I've never seen staff ever talking to passengers whilst chewing gum but the overall impression is that nobody smiles. This is typical of all of London really especially on the Tube and outside. I expect most of that because I think most Londoner's are generally miserable and I can certainly understand why. But there are simply too many people allowed in that airport who aren't travelling. As for the long lines I'd say it's similar or slightly worse to what I've seen in America. Overall the security experience is generally quicker than those I've experienced in America but I've never had to walk outside the terminal to get to my check in area before. What are you suppose to do if it's raining?

So then is it just Terminal 3 that's like this? I definately want to avoid T3 next time.

Good God, some people need to get out a bit more. London Heathrow like Bagdad? What a wally. FYI T3 is over 50 years old, built in the days of mainly propellor aircraft, and it's showing it's age. Yes the security screening is a pain in the butt but made more so by the jerks who don't read the instruction signs or think the rules are made for other prople. It's odd isn't it, why do we only hear Brits whining about airport security and not Israelis?

I shall be passing inbound through T3 tomorrow and again outbound on the 11th. I shall not enjoy the experience but it's something that has to be got through in order to travel. But whatever my experience is I most certainly will not be writing a pathetic whinging post on ThaiVisa about it.

Piece of advice. If you travel to a place expecting it to be sh1t you will end up looking for the sh1t and, not surprisingly, finding the sh1t. If you travel somewhere with an open mind you will be surprised at the good points you will find that, more or less, balance the bad ones. Low people have low expectations, that's why they are low.

[keebone]

Departed from T3 2 weeks ago and cant say I was either impressed or disapointed with the experience.

In the immortal words of Basil Fawlty - what was you expecting, Sydney opera house, the hanging gardens of Babylon ?

[samran]

Last time, I used London City Airport. Small and not too busy. Fly swiss to Zurich (preferably) or Lufthansa to Frankfurt and then change to a Thai code share flight. Easy peasy. Slightly longer, but MUCH less hassel.

[steffi]

haha, "why because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment" "Herds of wildebeasts sweeping majestically"

the good old Mrs Richards...

Departed from T3 2 weeks ago and cant say I was either impressed or disapointed with the experience.

In the immortal words of Basil Fawlty - what was you expecting, Sydney opera house, the hanging gardens of Babylon ?

[PeaceBlondie]

I had to spend the night in T4 twice in May/June, and transfer to T3. I didn't notice it any worse, or better, than the five other terminals on that same trip, or the 19 other terminals I've used in recent years. The Aerlingus people let me make two free phone calls from their desk, whilst giving me a free English breakfast in a pub where the manager actually talked to me. The free underground tube between terminals is excellent. There were some long walks, but that's standard. Security measures? Pretty much draconian, anywhere. Vending machines? I live out of them sometimes, and they usually worked, even whilst waiting for the tube train to arrive. And you can sleep on the benches overnight at T4, which surely beats trying to sleep in the smoking lounge in T3 whilst some raging homophobic bloke from India was screaming in my ear, two years ago.

Okay, one time incoming to Heathrow two years ago, we had to make an emergency landing for fuel at Stanstead; Aerlingus was 8 hours late leaving Heathrow this time and lost my luggage again; I learned the hard way to never, ever try to use those stand-up coin machines that lie and pretend they're going to hook you up to the internet. I had a lovely conversation with a nice couple from...the USA, I think. The Irish are lovely people. I didn't find the English people to be ill-tempered.

[tayto]

PeaceBlondie.

I think you deserve a nice Irish saying for your kind words.

May your troubles be less

And your blessings be more.

And nothing but happiness

Come through your door.

[PeaceBlondie]

tayto, thanks for the blessing. Can we hijack this thread into a lovefest for Ireland and the Irish? I'm looking at the photos we took of my son's wedding, and that Irish countryside and coast line are almost as good lucking as the people in the photos. However, the big family photo of everybody staring up at the camera in the balcony looks as if we all arrived on a spaceship from Omega Six.

[tayto]

Unfortunitly some people here would not be in agreement with you.

[the gent]

In part I would echo the OP's sentiments but the situation can only improve when T5 opens in April 2008.

Most of the UK's major airports were designed for a byegone era and cannot cope with the economic ambitions of the current owners who universally share the same ethos viz. screw the public for as much as they can get and give as little as possible in return.

Open spaces designed for the ease of passengers have long been sacrificed to the retail god to the extent that most terminals resemble shopping malls where the real needs of the traveller are rendered secondary. Profit is the only concern, motivated by an all devouring cynical avarice.

Quite simply, too many carriers are operating and when a security crisis occurs the system collapses. In truth, the system is already grossly overstretched but who cares. People want to fly for peanuts and companies are only too happy to treat them like monkeys.

But certainly, the UK is the pits for this corporate strategy and possibly quite symptomatic of the country's overall culture.

Makes me quite pleased to be Irish even if I may be running the risk of involvement in a Peaceblondie lovefest......

[mbkudu]

People want to fly for peanuts and companies are only too happy to treat them like monkeys.

Quite possibly the best sentence I've read for some time. You could substitute the word 'fly' for just about anything and get the same result.

[terry57]

Just came back from a week in London and overall impressions of London were pretty low but generally I always have low expectations when travelling to the UK. But arriving and departing London's Terminal 3 is not a pleasant experience. First you're expected to walk outside to get anywhere and overall it's just dirty and run down. Now granted they are renovating and I look forward to seeing it when it's complete but that area is a high stress area for me. I even saw staff talking to people whilst chewing gum and chastising them for having overweight luggage. When we got to the departure gate there were vending machines in the room but none of them were turned on.

Is it this bad at other London airports? Perhaps I've been out of London for too long and expect too much.

i just love it when the english slag of there own turf, as it just goes to prove that when people tell me never to go there, one of there own come out of the woodwork and confirm it.

thank you very much steffi and i salute you.

[kiakaha]

People want to fly for peanuts and companies are only too happy to treat them like monkeys.

Quite possibly the best sentence I've read for some time. You could substitute the word 'fly' for just about anything and get the same result.

And the flip side being that people order and pay for peanuts but winge when they dont get served haute cuisine from a Michelin 3 star chef.

[JimsKnight]

You know what, the airport (T3) may well be sht, but if the people had a decent attitude and were friendly you'd hardly notice the delays and bad things as much, you'd roll with the bad things and not let them bother you.

I have noticed that the private armies / security firms that rule the roost in airports might as well stick a swastika on their arm bands.

Security, I'm all for it. The stinking attitude from some of them I'm not.

[baboon]

[quote name='PeaceBlondie' date='2007-07-06 12:27:12' The Irish are lovely people. I didn't find the English people to be ill-tempered.

Well sod off then.

[kratindaeng]

Just came back from a week in London and overall impressions of London were pretty low but generally I always have low expectations when travelling to the UK. But arriving and departing London's Terminal 3 is not a pleasant experience. First you're expected to walk outside to get anywhere and overall it's just dirty and run down. Now granted they are renovating and I look forward to seeing it when it's complete but that area is a high stress area for me. I even saw staff talking to people whilst chewing gum and chastising them for having overweight luggage. When we got to the departure gate there were vending machines in the room but none of them were turned on.

Is it this bad at other London airports? Perhaps I've been out of London for too long and expect too much.

Maybe they had low expectations of you also? As for the vending machines, there is a plug at the back, try it, and get us a Mars bar whilst your bent over love. Joking aside, I dont miss the place whatsoever, in fact, It IS A DUMP your right! 5555!

[baboon]

Why not fly from your local airport to any major European city and transit there? Easy and hassle free flying from Newcastle-Amsterdam- Bangkok for example.

[kratindaeng]

Why not fly from your local airport to any major European city and transit there? Easy and hassle free flying from Newcastle-Amsterdam- Bangkok for example.

European cities?! Please dont advise her to follow through (no pun intended) to Amsterdam, she'll be testing the nasty cheap sex toys/used panties 'Vending' machines over there in no time!

[baboon]

Stupid reply. How can anyone be expected to fly in comfort without used panties and/ or a large rubber fist?

Edited July 7, 2007 by baboon

[kratindaeng]

Stupid reply. How can anyone be expected to fly in comfort without used panties and/ or a large rubber fist?

oh, rubber fist?! <deleted>?! I know some people love those fist websites sure, but I'd rather settle for a Mars bar 'a la Heathrow' 5555

Edited July 7, 2007 by kratindaeng

[baboon]

Stupid reply. How can anyone be expected to fly in comfort without used panties and/ or a large rubber fist?

oh, rubber fist?! <deleted>?! I know some people love those fist websites sure, but I'd rather settle for a Mars bar 'a la Heathrow' 5555

There are some sick people out there. Ignore him. Mars bars? You should be banned for spreading smut and filth on Thaivisa.

[kratindaeng]

Stupid reply. How can anyone be expected to fly in comfort without used panties and/ or a large rubber fist?

oh, rubber fist?! <deleted>?! I know some people love those fist websites sure, but I'd rather settle for a Mars bar 'a la Heathrow' 5555

There are some sick people out there. Ignore him. Mars bars? You should be banned for spreading smut and filth on Thaivisa.

I didnt mention the fist until you did, you bad dirty hairy man! I wont tell if you dont.....