Another poor Heathrow experience
Back to Forum- This topic has 165 replies, 38 voices, and was last updated 25 Jun 2016
at 13:30 by PeterCoultas.
-
- Author
- Posts
- Skip to last reply Create Topic
-
Tony-UKParticipantTravelling from Rio to Manchester via LHR on BA in Club Class. On arriving at passport control at about 1pm today the queues were absolutely full (low staffing levels again I assume). There is no Fast Track for customers connecting to regional airports in T5 (BA does not give a stuff about customers outside the South East). Due to the length of the queues and 2 hour connecting flight we were asked to exit the terminal and come back in!! A joke. We then entered Terminal 5 through the south entrance and entered adjacent to the BA First Class entrance. We asked if we could cut though to the lounge given the fact that we have been sent on a tour of the airport but were refused entry… Poor show BA for the way it treats regional customers and poor show Heathrow for your (continuing) inefficiency!
19 May 2016
at 14:00
alainboy56ParticipantI have complained vociferously in another thread about the useless numpty’s in charge of our premier airport but i seem to upset a lot of liberals who told me to basically ‘lump the queues or go somewhere else’. Dont you think that this kind of mentality from people who obviously are brain dead and like t stand in a queue of 300m and also have nothing else to do !!! I was taken aback when I suggetsed that the idiot who took the e-gates out of action in T4 without having the replacemnts tested and programmed should have been fired and lose his pension! OK I am joking but certainly, as i say certain people got quite ‘uppity’ with me so …. thereby hangs the problem … some British people accept this complete incompetance and even defend it! By the way I am also British born and bread, but am what is known as a permanent expatriate,
19 May 2016
at 18:25
K1ngstonParticipantalainboy56 I 100% agree with you, I hate going back to the UK and get embarrassed that we portray ourselves as a “First World” country whereby the window to our broken country is like the black hole of Calcutta on a bad day!
And before some liberal blasts me for the comparison, I actually go through India a lot and at least they are trying to make amends and come out of the dark ages whereby Heathrow and the UK seem to be heading towards it..
I hate the attitude of everyone in the airport, you owe us does not fly with me, I am a customer treat me as such!!!!
Oh well, I will be flying later back into Changi later today whereby getting off the plane through immigration and into a taxi takes about 20 mins on a bad day…
20 May 2016
at 03:09
alainboy56ParticipantWell done Kingston! at last somebody who agrees with me – LHR is shoddy and the UK Border force are just plain incompetant. An (asian) girl asked me last time “and where have I come from today”? I answered why? Does it matter? She immediately started getting ‘uppity’ until I pointed out that her question is useless, ‘I flew from Doha, but did I start my journey in Islamabad, Istanbul, Damascus??? Your question is irelevant, so stop wasting my time with 200m queues like that behind me.This is NOT acceptable’ I said. She almost threw my passport at me, not quite, but was not handed gently, muttered something about “this is a busy airport'”as though its the only busy airport in the world, and said ‘Good Day Sir’. This is also inept and unacceptable and I blame our useless politicians for lossing control of our borders under ‘His Tonyness’ and now they dress these idiots up in black “SS” style uniforms to make them feel important and powerful, when all they are, are simple passport checkers! What happened to the nice old guy with grey hair and spectacles in his civvy clothes, who just checked that your passport is valid and that the photo matches? That is all that is needed for the vast majority of us, as our passport has already been entered in to PIN on the airline booking, it has been checked by airline staff on check in, it has been checked by Immigration on exiting the country you left, and so we do not need this 200m queue to wait for a ‘numpty’ to ask you where you came from today! — Its a joke! LHR is a joke! UK has become a joke! Did I mention the welcoming hoardings that have been in T4 for months and months “we are working to upgrade your travel experience”! I for sure I am glad I neither live in UK, nor more importantly pay any taxes to this inept government, as I sure would have far more to say on this matter! I know the airport is privately run, but Ministers and their Civil Servants have a duty to ensure professionalism and efficiency and that is not happening!
20 May 2016
at 05:42
MrMichaelParticipantStaff are only as professional as the managers managing them, and they will only be professional if it is demanded they be so to be so by those at the top. The rub is the staff behind the counter at Border Control are numptys because they are managed by numptys, and they are numptys because those we pay to manage them are too busy to manage (too darn busy worrying about how they can make ends meet when politicians think you can keep cutting budgets without any effect on front line services) . It is the culture that is wrong. A government obsessed with data and league tables, serving the public comes a poor second.
20 May 2016
at 05:49
alainboy56ParticipantYes MrMichael, but when I criticise managers/politcians in this forum,there are so many people who have a ‘right not to be outraged’ and basically tell me where to go. However budgets cut or reduced do not effect basic profesionalism and efficiency. If they are “managers’ then MANAGE the situation and find a solution, that is what they are paid their enormous salaries and big pension pots for! To do their JOB!
20 May 2016
at 06:21
K1ngstonParticipantThe truth is WE are paying their salaries with the extortionate taxes we pay on top of the fare, so as I stated earlier, we are the paying customer and therefore should be treated as such!
Common decency and manners are generally instilled into us at an early age, and if I treated my customers with the same contempt I would expect a volley of abuse these idiots get from people like me who will not put up with their banal questions and 90 minute queues in the 21st century!
20 May 2016
at 06:42
seasonedtravellerParticipantI detest coming back into the UK through Heathrow. I find the whole thing stress inducing and thoroughly unpleasant.
Off the aircraft at ‘B’ gates with a connection at ‘A’ gates – time taken to get to gate via security was 65 minutes.3 weeks ago in Chicago, off the aircraft and curbside in 20 mins – the time before was a total of just 15 mins (a record for me)
Shanghai last week, 35 mins
Bangkok last week, 25 mins
Newark 5 weeks ago, curbside in 25 mins20 May 2016
at 07:04
AllOverTheGaffParticipantalainboy56 – 20/05/2016 06:42 BST
Well done Kingston! at last somebody who agrees with meNot that I’ve conducted extensive research into it, but I suspect the majority of posters on this forum have a level of disdain towards LHR.
I try to avoid it at all costs, the best experience I’ve had there can be described as “not awful”.
Rgds.
AOTG.20 May 2016
at 07:40
alainboy56ParticipantWell said K1ngston again – Thank you for pointing that out to me – we are paying for these idiots! whether it be security check, or airport management its all in the taxes as you say. Also if I managed projects like the inept numptys who are ‘managing’, and I use the the word loosely, the modifications (‘upgrading of my travel experience\) in T4, around the world, I would have been fired and perhaps in some countries ‘arrested/Jailed’. But there is one reason why things take so much time in the UK and that is the UK Governments fault and that is PAPERWORK/PAPERWORK/PAPERWORK!!!! The Construction Industry in UK has been reduced to one huge cycle of paperwork insisted upon by somebody ‘upstairs’. Between Environmental Impact Analysis, Construction Managing Environmental plan, Method Statements, Risk Analysis, H & S E etc etc etc etc etc – In ‘my world’ the job would have been completed before they have even finished the paperworks, and the client has his project quicker and at far far less cost. This is sonething our Government is fully repsonsible for and should be ashamed of it. It is costing clients/industry millions and millions in bullshit paperwork!!!!
20 May 2016
at 07:56
JohnHarperParticipantUK borders are one of the best examples of government by Daily Mail hysteria.
Mrs May responds to it every time. As for the storm trooper uniforms, they are just ridiculous but perhaps she likes a storm trooper or two 😉
20 May 2016
at 08:46 -
AuthorPosts
