[StephenLondon]

As far as I understand, BA tried and tried to have a dedicated channel from First Check-in right into the lounge, but BAA (as Heathrow Airport Holdings used to be called) nixed any hope of it, as they wanted the footfall to pass in front of all the retail shops. Remember, BAA operate shopping malls for profit first, the fact that aeroplanes come and go from just outside the door is a secondary thought for them. I guess the “million pound door” is the nearest solution the BAA board would consider. I very much doubt BAA would take into consideration what benefits other airports / airlines offer. For them, it is all about profit from their shopping malls. It is why I make a point NOT to patronise their shops at LHR, and have not done so it the, what, six years T5 has been open?

TheAberdonian – you’ll have to follow the transit route and make your way upstairs to the lounges for access. There is no quicker way.

FirstClassWannabe – shame your experience wasn’t what you expected. I do remind friends and colleagues that it is just an airport lounge, with a heap of constraints put upon it by an intransigent operator (Heathrow Airports Limited). It is no Michelin venue, but I find it a pleasant enough place to spend a bit of time before flights. The staff are hard working and very willing, and the new caterers seem to be producing better food. The bar selection is good (not fabulous, but good). It sure beats being down in the mad crush on the terminal concourse, and compared to many lounges around the world, it is pretty darn good. Hope your next experience is better!

[ImissConcorde]

In Terminal 4 the First checkin area backed on the lounges – a matter of feet between them. BA had no joy in persuading HAL to agree a shorter route to the lounge so the “million pound door” while still not ideal is a vast improvement!

[PegasusAir]

TheAberdonian. The short answer is no. Coming in from MAN you avoid security of course and after the HAL boarding card check you go up the escalator but you then come into the Terminal at the North end so the CR is at the opposite end of the building. Go up the escalator just on your left towards the North Galleries lounge to the upper floor and then walk past both security exits to the CR door. Enjoy your trip.

[TheAberdonian]

Thanks all

[GinPerrier]

@PegasusAir Is this a quick way to the GF as well? Normally I go downstairs and back up on the South lounges escalator. The thing is, when I have flown BA F from LHR its South security that leads to the CCR. Perhaps I haven’t understood your post fully.

[PegasusAir]

Hi GinPerrier. No, its not much quicker but it is direct at the upper level into the CR whereas if you stay on the main floor you have to go past the DF shops which always seems to be a congested area and then go up the escalator to the F lounge and loop back but not much difference really – it just seems a bit shorter. This of course only applies if one has arrived on a domestic flight.

[IanFromHKG]

StephenLondon – 15/02/2014 09:14 GMT : As far as I understand, BA tried and tried to have a dedicated channel from First Check-in right into the lounge, but BAA (as Heathrow Airport Holdings used to be called) nixed any hope of it, as they wanted the footfall to pass in front of all the retail shops. Remember, BAA operate shopping malls for profit first, the fact that aeroplanes come and go from just outside the door is a secondary thought for them

If BAA really want to increase the amount of time people spend in the retail area, they should try to speed up security! The last time I transferred onto a flight in T5, it took half an hour to get through security even though I had arrived and transferred airside (from T3). The time before, it took an hour…

On my last trip I flew through Geneva. As I mentioned on some thread somewhere before they have a very sensible set-up whereby one queue feeds into several security lines. The last 100 feet or so (I am guessing about that!) of the queue has a roller conveyor (not sure how else to describe it) next to the line, so people can put all of their liquids, phones, laptops, belts and so forth into the trays while they are still in the queue. No more standing just short of the belt while the disorganised idiot in front of you suddenly realises s/he has to remove belt, PC, etc etc while the security staff (and queue) stand around twiddling their thumbs…

[TominScotland]

Ian, may I humbly disagree with you about Geneva (I travel through there frequently) which has to have the worst security queue anywhere. Yes, you can load trays in advance but these then need to be carried, along with any hand luggage, across to the scanners where rather unhelpful/ humourless individuals look for boarding passes – invariably, my phone has gone blank by then, before allowing you to place items on the belt – the process is slow, slow, slow………

[IanFromHKG]

Of course you may disagree, Tom! However, each of the last four times I have been through GVA the process has been far quicker than at T5 (where I find the staff equally unhelpful/humourless)

And for the worst security queue anywhere – many years ago I was flying from LAX back to HKG. This was a while after 9/11 but for some reason the powers-that-be decided to have a major – and I mean major – security clampdown. The protocol they devised was that once a passenger had checked in, a TSA operative had to physically take the bag from the check-in desk to a scanner, wait for it to be scanned, take it back to the check-in desk and hand it back to the airline staff. At no point in this process was the passenger allowed to even touch the bag – apparently if they did, the process had to start all over again. The backlog this created was so huge that at first I was unable to even get into the terminal building. In fact, it was only when I was spotted by a CX ground agent (while still outside the door) – she must have spotted my priority luggage stickers from my inbound flight – that I managed with her assistance to get into the building at all. There was not a single square foot of empty floor space. She managed to help me fight through the masses to the check-in desk and went off herself to find a TSA agent to deal with my bag. Even after that rigmarole, the queue for the personal security check seemed unending. The entire process took almost three hours – thank God I had arrived early, although of course just about every flight was delayed. THAT was undoubtedly the worst security process I have ever encountered!

Having said all that, the incident was clearly a one-off. But for ongoing security nightmares, try travelling out of Mumbai. Perhaps it will be better now the new terminal has just opened, but the old process was a total nightmare, including multiple checking of passports and boarding passes, and having to get tags on all your hand luggage stamped, checked, rechecked, matched with your boarding pass and passport (again), and then on more than one trip I have had them rechecked in the queue at the gate, at the gate itself, on leaving the gate, on the jetbridge and once more at the door to the aircraft! Honestly – five hand luggage checks from queueing at the gate to getting on the aircraft? Heaven knows what would happen if the tag fell off!! GVA is a joy by comparison!

[DavidGordon10]

The last two times I came through security at GVA (both in the last few weeks) there were a couple of security men scanning the queue, picking out passengers who looked as though they knew what to do – I was told “this is if you can get your boarding pass out quickly and if you are completely ready”, taken to an x-ray machine that was ready to take the bag, and through to the other side in a moment.

Why can’t airports generally have a separate security line for those who have almost too much experience of going through airport security – like most posters on this forum?

[IanFromHKG]

Well, I’d settle for the airline delivering our bags. Can you believe that on our trip to Geneva (Memsahib and Offspring travelling LGW-GVA return, and me travelling LHR-GVA return), with a certain airline – let’s call them Blasted Airlines, or BA for short – they managed to (a) deliver the Memsahib’s bag to the wrong belt on the first sector, meaning she had to wait until all bags had finished coming off, queue up for baggage service, be told to check the other belts, do so and eventually retrieve her bag, (b) lose my bag completely on the first sector, only delivering it back (after multiple phone calls – all initiated by me) on the third day, and (c) lose the Memsahib’s bag on the return sector, delivering it the following day. Three baggage problems out of four sectors!!

Since half our ski gear was in my bag, not to mention most of my clothes, I lost about a day of ski-ing as I gradually had to go out and purchase more and more stuff over the three days and – because they wouldn’t guarantee a delivery time, or even a delivery window (and only told me it was on the way when I called them yet again) – wait in for it to be delivered. And even then the courier didn’t speak English (which I suppose I can’t really complain about) and threw a wobbly when he couldn’t find the place we were staying, so we had to send our accommodating hosts into the centre of town to find him and retrieve the bag.

Oh, and the lounge in GVA was HEAVING, impossible to find proper seats for us all, and I was bumped from my reserved extra-legroom seat down to the back of the plane.

Altogether, BA didn’t cover themselves in glory on that trip

[DavidGordon10]

Well Ian, 3 bag c*ck-ups out of 4 sectors is prize-wiiningly bad. I don’t know the BA lounge at GVA, my travel there is almost al SAS or Swiss and the Star Alliance gold lounge is pleasant, and has always had a seat to spare.

[SergeantMajor]

There are some tips here to avoid lost bags:

http://www.businesstraveller.com/discussion/topic/The-Ten-Commandments-for-Avoiding-and-Managing-Lost-Luggage

Back on topic, has anyone sampled the new Concorde Room Roast offering lately?

[DavidGordon10]

Up to a point, SM. Only point 6 of your original ten-point-post relates to the avoidance of lost bags – unless your advice to “if you can, take hand baggage only” counts as a way of avoiding loss of baggage….

[SimonS1]

Bit of a shocker there Ian. Nothing worse than a short break away and the airline fails to get your gear on the plane. Even worse when they employ some pizza delivery type operator to drop it off.

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