Her Majesty, the Queen, opened London Heathrow's new Terminal 5 last week but the public won't get to experience its glory for another two weeks. Let's hope that the Economist is wrong in its rather gloomy view of the airport's future:
Heathrow airport is a torture-chamber, and the opening of its new Terminal 5 is unlikely to make much difference.I had to get up at about 4am in order to get to the airport in order to catch Icelandair's flight to Heathrow. Reykjavik's Leifur Eiriksson terminal in Keflavik continues to impress. When I saw the line to check-in with Icelandair, I figured it would take about an hour to check in based on the length of the line and my past experiences with United and Delta.
It took about 10 minutes tops. I similarly whizzed through the equally long security line, leaving me plenty of time to gape at the prices in the duty-free shops. I couldn't help but notice that Icelanders had grabbed all of the vodka on sale due to the staggering price of drinks on their island.
While "torture chamber" is a bit strong (no need to call Amnesty International), I did feel rather like a gerbil in a set of yellow tubes as I passed through London's Heathrow Airport. When I arrived, the signs clearly indicated that I should go to Terminal 1 but no no flight to Geneva was posted once I passed through security and walked there.
I learned my flight was in Terminal 4 and, after much marching through more gerbil tubes and a bus ride, I was there. Terminal 4 is like Montgomery Mall on steroids. Airports in Britain have been privatized and the shopping mall approach to airports has been fully embraced.
I had hoped to pick up a paperback in the UK that is still in hardcover in the US. However, the value of the American peso being what it is these days, I discovered that it would probably be cheaper for me to just buy the hardcovers in the US when I get home.
Perhaps its for the best that I got to miss out on Terminal 5 when I changed planes in Heathrow--the advert, I mean article, trumpeting its opening in the British Airways in-flight rag "Highlife" seemed to indicate that you needed to wear or to buy about $10,000 worth of clothing or luggage to pass through it.
Oh, and British Airways managed to get only one of my bags to Geneva with me despite the long layover and flight delay of around 30 minutes. Until recently, I've always had pretty good luck with luggage but I'm now 0-3 on the last three trips so the law of averages must be catching up with me.
