Terminal 5 was a breeze (BA Terminal 5)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	BA Terminal 5
Date:	10/12/08 (227 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, easy

Disadvantages: None

Terminal 5 was a Breeze

On my recent trip to New York last month I actually chose to fly out of Terminal 5, Heathrow as, apart for the initial diabolical opening, I had heard that it was a great terminal to fly from so I decided to try it out.

London Terminal 5 is located at Heathrow Airport. It was opened by the Queen on 14 March 2008 with the first flights departing on the 27th March. The terminal is being used exclusively by British Airways. I will get onto the opening fiasco in a moment but I think this exclusive use is a good thing for BA. I think in the last couple of years their image has suffered a bit but I really believe this project will bring them back into the forefront of British Aviation.

The first change I noticed when I walked into the terminal was how friendly the BA staff were. Perhaps they are really working on their customer service to bring it up a bit but they were very helpful and very nice. They asked if we needed help checking in which we didn't but then we had a nice chat about where we were going, wished us a good flight etc which I thought was really nice. Then, throughout the whole terminal, from the security staff to employees in the shops, we were treated very very well, a nice and very welcome change.

Terminal 5 is extremely easy to get too and offers travellers a number of ways to reach it. We drove and gained access to Terminal 5 from the M25 motorway. They have actually build a dedicated road between junctions 14 and 15 in order for drivers to reach the terminal. From this we were able to find the long stay car park at Terminal 5 which is where we parked. The parking was extremely easy. We booked on line before hand so when you enter the car park you take a ticket and then on exit the machines read your ticket and know you have paid in advance and let you out of the barriers. You can also pay after you leave but we just found it easier to make a reservation. After you park there is a shuttle bus that you have to board which takes you to the front of the terminal. I believe the buses run every 10 minutes so it's very quick and easy.

There are other ways to get to terminal 5 apart from driving. It has a Heathrow Terminal 5 Station which is accessible by London Underground and the Heathrow Express from Paddington Station. There are also RailAir express buses, which go to and from Reading and Woking stations so all of the south and west of the country is covered too.

Once inside the building I was really hit with how vast it is. To me it looks like a huge airline hangar, which it basically is, with huge high ceiling and big open spaces. There are lots of floor to ceiling windows which make the building very light and open and lots of exposed metal beams and fixings to show how the structure was fabricated.

According to an article I read here are the dimensions of the buildings just to show you how big it actually is:

"The main terminal building is 396 metres (1,300 ft) long, 176 metres (580 ft) wide and 40 metres (130 ft) tall. It is the largest building in the Terminal 5 complex and is the biggest free standing building in the United Kingdom. Its four storeys are covered by a single-span undulating steel frame roof, with glass facades angled at 6.5 degrees to the vertical. The area covered by the roof is the size of five football (soccer) fields, and each section weighs 2,200 tonnes."

The building has been designed to streamline passengers and I must say I found the whole checking in experience extremely quick and painless. Once we printed our tickets using the automated machines (no waiting) we then went through the scanners. We maybe had to wait 2-5 minutes as there were a few people going through but there were quite a few lanes to choose from. Of course we had to take our coats and shoes off but it really was very fast.

Of course, there were some major problems when it first opened, I think down to lack of preparation and training but there was no of this when we were there. On the day it opened, BA actually had to cancel 34 flights and over the next 10 days over 28,000 bags were separated from their owners. In the end BA cancelled over 500 flights in that time period!

One of the main reasons why I wanted to fly out of Terminal 5 was that I had heard it had great shops and restaurants and I was not disappointed. It had the usual airport shops such as a Boots, Accessorize, etc, but then it also boats a whole host of designer shops such as Coach, Gucci, Dior, Mulberry, Prada, the list goes on!! They were very easy to browse around and the staff actually welcomed you coming in the store. There are shops upstairs and downstairs and can be accessed by a number of different escalators.

The restaurants were equally impressive. If you wanted something quick and easy there is a Pret and Starbucks and sushi restaurants but they also have a very upper class restaurants such as a caviar bar and seafood house and the Gordon Ramsay restaurant, Plane Food. I had a quick look at the menu which is based on the famous Boxwood Café and the prices were quite reasonable, I think £25 for a three course, quick half an hour three course meal. Obviously you can't take your time as your flight might be leaving soon so I thought this was a great benefit of this restaurant.

Overall the complex has over 100 shops and restaurants to count down the time until your flight! I was impressed by Terminal 5 on pretty much all aspects and would definitely fly out of here again.

Summary: Heathrow Terminal 5