Heathrow's New Panacea, er, Terminal
London Heathrow's $8.6 billion Terminal 5 is set to be unveiled March 27. Talk about much-anticipated! Heathrow, of course, is legendary for its sprawling layout, excessive delays and security problems, and the luggage fiasco of last summer -- when 6,000 bags were lost in one weekend -- left many travelers angrily vowing to avoid the airport entirely. No surprise that it was recently voted the world's least favorite airport by TripAdvisor readers.
Whenever officials addressed these issues, they said the same thing: Wait for Terminal 5, which will handle all of British Airways' flights and relieve congestion at the other four terminals. That'll solve everything.
It's going to be hard to live up to the hype. "Gone are the queues, the crowds, the stress," gushes British Airways' Web site. "In their place find space, light and calm.... to fly from or to Terminal 5, is to change the way you fly forever."
We'll see soon enough. In the meantime, the blog Jaunted has a photo gallery of the highly touted facility, pointing out that "the seating certainly doesn't look that comfortable." It doesn't. Just the thing you want for a long delay, right?
By K.C. Summers |
March 13, 2008; 3:22 PM ET
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Airports
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Europe
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K.C. Summers
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Posted by: sjcpeach | March 13, 2008 10:54 AM
You are hilarious.
Posted by: chocolatetiara | March 13, 2008 11:13 AM
Why do I get the feeling that the comments system had a switcheroo with Celebritology?
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Posted by: KC | March 13, 2008 5:52 PM
I need advice about the best way to save on the cost of air fare for a sort of out of the ordinary situation, because of how my lifestyle/situation is. I'm a U.S. citizen but because of my work I'm living in Poland. I want to come to the United States later this year, to be there for about seven weeks. It seems like that's probably longer than an average stay (between an outbound and return flight) I need to know the best way of getting a good price for this kind of ticket. Can I get advice about this from one of your travel experts at The Washington Post? Thanks very much for any help or advice you can give to me about this!
From Ken
Posted by: Ken | March 13, 2008 7:13 PM
Just to add to the comment I posted a few minutes ago. If anyone who reads my comment/question has experience or knows about the best way to save on an airfare when there is several weeks between the outbound and return flights, thanks very much for any good advice about this. Sincerely, from Ken
Posted by: Ken | March 13, 2008 7:38 PM
Commenting on the new Heathrow terminal, judging by the pix, it looks like a bad mashup of LaGuardia and the dining concourse at Grand Central Terminal (albeit with more seating). But hey, if it's an improvement on what went before, who am I to be a naysayer?
Posted by: northgs | March 14, 2008 9:35 AM
Comfortable seating? The idea is that you'll pay the extra money to fly Club World, which gets you into the Terraces lounge. The European carriers are pretty good at rewarding the people who pay more!
But "change the way you fly forever"? I experienced that already. It was called Concorde. But they took her out of service in favor of the slow planes.
Posted by: Rich | March 14, 2008 5:00 PM
Two comments, I have seen inside Terminal 5 at Heathrow, it is too big, on too many levels,check in level 5, wait on level 4, board on level 3 and the seats are really uncomfortable, to encourage you to go shopping of course! If you need to connect to any of the other terminals, allow at least 2 hours, they are a long, long way from the new T5.
For Ken, looking to travel from Poland, the cheapest way may not be direct but there are lots of low cost flights from Poland to London, look at easyjet, ryanair and wizzair. Book flights to Gatwick rather than Luton and definately not Stansted due to the distances. There are still some flights direct from Gatwick to the US but most are moving to Heathrow, a one hour coach ride away from Gatwick. This summer fares from the UK to the States have not risen due to the extra number of flights starting this year under the 'Open Skies' policy. Continental, Northwest, Delta and even Air France will be offering direct flights from Heathrow to the US for the first time, bookimg ahead and avoiding peak periods should ensure a good deal
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That really is an atrocious outfit. Except the purse, I'd love to have that purse.
Remember when there was a countdown to when the Olsen twins were 18 because they were so attractive in their teens? Amazing how things can change in a couple years.