It was a friends birthday last week, so we decided for his birthday we would head to london, thereby giving us a chance to experience T5. Normally I would fly BD and avoid BA at all costs, but decided to give them a chance and check out their new home.

After hearing about the shambles of the opening on thursday, we began to wonder if it was such a good idea. Alex headed down on the Thursday, and was one of the first flights into LHR. Despite leaving on time he ended up spending an hour sat on stand waiting for a member of staff to appear and connect the jet bridge!

I was due to head down on the friday, and was booked on the 17.15 flight down. I spent the day at work checking on BAA flight departures to make sure the flight wasnt cancelled - thankfully mine wasnt. Shortly before I left work for the airport, I noticed a BA airbus going past the window - it was the previous flight to mine, and had arrived an hour late!

I headed to the airport expecting the worst, dropped the car off and went straight to security - I had already checked in. Once again no queue at ABZ security, so straight through. I checked the departures board, and my flight was showing a 45 minute delay - great! I headed to the pub and got myself a pint to help pass the wait.

The flight was listed as departing at 18.00, so shortly before I headed to the gate, and found everyone else was already queueing up for the flight. I instead took a seat and just laughed at everyone queueing up. About 18.15 they finally called for boarding, so I stood up and proceeded straight to the gate, skipping the queue, and was about the 10th person onto the plane!

I took my seat, 22A and had a flick through the BA magazines. Boarding was complete by 18.30, and the doors were closed. The captain then came on and told us that ATC had informed them that there were slot restrictions - and our departure slot was now 20 minutes past the hour - 19.20 - 2 hours after the flight was supposed to depart!

So we sat for a further half hour, then about 19.10 the pilot informed us that we had been cleared and could now depart. Usual powerful takeoff from ABZ, and we climbed out over the now light up city as the sun set. We were served a meal of Chicken Salad, followed by a beer. Fairly uneventful flight, about an hour later we reached the holding patern for LHR, and began to hold for 15 minutes. Eventually we were on approach, and landed on 27R at heathrow, and we got our first glimpses of T5.

We pulled onto a stand on the main terminal, and waited about 15 minutes again for the jetbridge to be connected. Finally it was connected and we proceeded into the new terminal. Once inside, we were confronted with some rather confusing signs, the signs for baggage reclaim and transfers point in both directions, but with one side slightly grayed out! We headed in the the direction of the non greyed out arrows. Slightly along the corridor there was a BA info desk - a few people stopped here to ask about their connections, and were told they were heading the wrong direction, they had to double back and go back where they came! somewhat confusing.

I had no baggage to collect, so headed straight for the exit of the rather dingy and cramped looking domestic reclaim area, and headed outside to meet my friends. We had a quick walk around the terminal, there are lots of unfinished areas, with bare concrete showing. Most of the lifts have temporary covers around the walls, which doesnt look too safe.

All in all the temrinal looks pretty nice, but there are still plenty of areas that need finished off cosmetically. Im back to the airport on Sunday morning, so ill have another look round and try and grab some photos.

gav was last heard of on Sunday morning, frantically trying to raise the number of a meeja contact, so it sounds like the return leg was almost as much fun as the outbound.

I had originally planned to go to T5 on Friday for a looky, but sanity prevailed and I cancelled some time ago. I think I'll wait until things bed down, which at the current rate will be sometime after the Olympics in 2013.

The return was even more fun! Trip report + pics will be uploaded tonight. I havent heard back from my media contact, so looks like a TWA exclusive instead

Interesting read.

I've been watching the news about the problems at T5, so I was a little worried about heading into Beijing's new Terminal 3 last weekend for a return (domestic) trip to Jinan. In the end I had no problems at all either way at Beijing, though security was slow in Jinan on the way back. It's a really beautiful terminal, designed by Foster + Partners.

Thanks andrew, you should probably check out part two as well though, its a bit more interesting

Were there any problems with the move in Beijing? I passed through the new terminal at Bangkok last month, it was quite impressive. there seem to be a lot of new terminals and airports opening in that part of the world.

Well I read part two first, then part one. I was meaning it was interesting as a whole

In Beijing, the only complaint I have heard was of a big shortage of taxis at the new terminal. Judging by the grumbles of my driver about having to wait 2 hours for a fare, that had been fixed by the time I was there.

There are an amazing array of terminals under construction or recently completed in China right now, though a lot of them are pretty soulless, though modern and functional places. Beijing is a cut above any of the others I have been to around here, though I haven't been to the new one in Bangkok yet.