[Anonymous]

[CharlesRhona]

I find the online T5 maps available on ba.com and BAA’s website very confusing and of insufficient detail for someone to find their way around the terminal. Does anyone know if there are more detailed maps of T5 available online?

[BusinessTraveller]

Business Traveller replies:

Thanks for your post CharlesRhona. We published a map of T5 in our special edition when the terminal opened in April last year. I can’t promise it will be any more detailed than what you have already found, as it was forwarded to us by BAA, but you can view it via the link at:

http://www.businesstraveller.com/archive/2008/april-2008/special-reports/welcome-to-t5

[CharlesRhona]

Thanks Business Traveller but they are hard to read and are not capable of being expanded to make them more legible.

You perhaps can answer what I am looking for. I fly to SFO later this year in First and as I will be flying into Heathrow on a UK domestic flight I would like to understand how I proceed through flight connections and onwards to the Concorde Room. Do I try and head for the entry door just beyond the fast bag drop at departures or is there an easier route to the main entrance at Galleries South. Also, can you tell me where BA SFO flights normally depart from – T5A or T5B.

Many thanks.

[BusinessTraveller]

Business Traveller replies:

CharlesRhona – we’ve contacted BAA with your queries, and will let you know as soon as we get a reply.

[CharlesRhona]

Thanks Business Traveller.

[VintageKrug]

There is no way to predict whether a flight will depart from T5A or T5B, other than the fact that Domestic flights almost always depart from T5A (North side), European flights mostly depart from T5A alongside some longhaul flights, and the majority of T5B flights seem to be longhaul, with some European flights as well. New York flights almost always depart T5B.

Clear as mud.

All the maps of T5 seem to be rather small and difficult to read. Though the Maps available on BA’s T5 site seem to be most relevant to your situation, giving a specific option to search for Connections routes:

http://www.terminal5.ba.com/us/map/

Having said that, T5 is extremely well singposted, so if you follow the purple Flights Connections signs you should have no problems.

There is also an excellent video advising on Flight Connnections shown on board prior to landing into LHR, and if your aircraft has drop down screens you should make a point of asking thee crew to show this as it does not always seem to be played.

You should ask BA in your initial departure airport to through check your bags to your final destination, and also to print your Boarding Pass for your onward connection in F, as you will need this to progress through Connections.

If you can get your Boarding Pass at your initial departure airport, then you just progress up the escalators at Flight Connections and into the main terminal shopping level.

If this happens it is probably worth progressing up to the Departures level, if only to avoid the crowds and have the experience of walking through the “exclusive” White Door to CCR.

Otherwise you may have to re-clear security, which is a real pain.

Remember to contact You First if you need a Cabana to rest in and to pre-book an Elemis treatment!

[CharlesRhona]

Thanks VintageKrug. Have already booked a Cabana for my return flight. YouFirst will not take bookings for the Elemis Spa and it appears to be on a first come first served basis. However have 5 hours before heading to SFO so should manage something. Boarding passes are always issued at my local airport for connecting flights so this should not be a problem. Am I correct in assuming that when I take the escalator up from Flight Connections that this is into the departure area and therefore all I do to find the “white door” is head towards the security area (but not going throught it) where passengers booking in at T5 come through?

[BusinessTraveller]

Business Traveller replies:

Hi CharlesRhona. We’ve just spoken to BA, and the response to your two queries is as follows:

The majority of departures to SFO will depart from T5B, although this cannot be absolutely guaranteed, so you’ll need to check the departure boards when you are in the terminal building to be sure of this.

As a connecting passenger, you will be using the northern security section. Once you have passed through here, you will be on the right level for the Concorde Room, so walk down towards the southern end of the terminal, past Gordon Ramsey’s Plane Food outlet, and you’ll see a door in front of you which as a first-class passenger you can use to access the Concorde Room.

Hope this helps.

[CharlesRhona]

Thanks for all your help Business Traveller.

[Bunnahabhain]

Slight digression but a topical place to voice my liking for T5a (I’ve never used 5b yet) compared with other terminals and airports in that it has no nasty mile-long piers to the gates with no facilities and no going back to the departures area – ok it is new. At LGW south last week my slightly delayed flight’s status went straight from Please wait to Flight closing – missing the Go to gate, Will Board, Boarding (which often just means will board anyway) stages. So I duly abandoned contributing any further to BAA & its retailers’ income and headed for the gate [fortunately not too far at 12] to predictably find a long queue to enter the gate area – passport checking had not even started, let alone boarding. Surely stretching the Trades Descriptions Act, if not the English language, slightly far to describe this situation as Flight closing. Airport operators especially BAA are often accused of going over the score with airside retail space / outlets – that may well be the case, but they then seem to commit financial suicide by forcing passengers to the dereliction of the gate area some time before necessary. Obviously there is a balance to be struck between too much holding time at the gate area and delayed pushback due to late passengers still in the retail area. This is where T5a gets my vote every time, with the gates surrounding the retail area – on the domestic departures you can decide for yourself when boarding is actually happening from the sanctuary of Mr Wetherspoon’s free wifi.

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