Outbound on BA from Heathrow Terminal 5
 

We are US citizens visiting England, and are outbound on British Airways from Heathrow's Terminal 5 on Wednesday 26 June at 9:20 to Milan, Italy. We plan to have Blackberrycars pick us up from our hotel near Kensington Garden (London House Hotel) at 6:30. We understand the trip should be 45 minutes to an hour, so we'll be at the airport just about 2 hours prior. We only use carry-on luggage and backpack, so nothing to check, and I'll have our boarding passes on our phones.

Do you think this is sufficient time to get through security and to the gate? I want to schedule both our transfers from and to the airport at the same time.

Thank you.

Your hotel is in Bayswater -- This is one of the few times I'd recommend the Heathrow Express over a car service since you are so close to Paddington. One never knows what the traffic will be in west London.

You could take a vey short cab ride to Paddington, or even walk it -- walking would probably take a little over 10 mins. a cab -- maybe 5 mins.

I would guess so although I haven't had to drive out at that time of day... our flights are usually later but I always plan for the drive to take an hour. There's always the unexpected traffic tangle you can't really plan for. Hopefully someone with that experience will see your thread and respond.

You would certainly get some concrete answers on the BA Executive Club forum on Flyer Talk if you don't see what you are looking for here.

Well, perhaps I'll wait on the return portion of the reservation, and see how comfortable we are after 5 days navigating and using the tubes. We opted for car service from Heathrow given the overnight flight, and simply wanting the convenience of a private car.

Any comment on the time it may take to get through security?

And, as always, thank you for your time.

>>Hopefully someone with that experience will see your thread and respond.<<

I have a good deal of experience :)

And I never ever (almost never ever) recommend the HEX, but staying in that part of town it is really a no brainer. No traffic considerations at all except for the less than three quarters of a mile to Paddington.

Thank you for your comments. I'll be certain to check out the group you recommend.

Our posts crossed. >> . . . and see how comfortable we are after 5 days navigating and using the tubes<<

To clarify -- the HEX is not the tube. It is a regular above ground train and could not be easier.

>>Any comment on the time it may take to get through security?<<

Absolutely NO way to tell until that morning. Lines could be short and fully staffed - or the queue could be forever. By any chance are you flying business? If so, you do get expedited security.

I see what your describing, looks like a good idea. It'll be an interesting walk that early in the morning, but I prefer to make my connections as certain as possible, and an express train in that respect make much more sense than a car. We're flying "World Travelor Plus" BA's premium economy (an oxymoron?) on the two transatlantic flights, but simply "Euro Traveler" economy from London to Milan.
Thank you.


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That's right. . . . except your map takes you around to the front entrance of the station. You can enter on the Eastbourne Terrace side which is 4 or 5 minutes shorter.

I know you do but your post wasn't up when I began posting.

Two hours is the usually recommended time to check in for an intra-European flight. I can't say I'm a frequent flyer, but the flights I do take are that early, and two hours is comfortably plenty.

I fly out of LHR T5 regularly and it's probably the slickest and fasted experience anywhere. There are loads of security queues that they open up when it's busy. BA bag drop is very fast.

The only delay that I really ever encountered since T5 operations bedded in was once when my phone boarding pass did not register in the automatic gates just before security and I was put over into the manual checking queue (singular - a single queue) where families are sent. Surprisingly bad experience for an otherwise very well run experience. But that was once in dozens of journeys.

I plan to arrive at the airport 1 hour to 1 hour 15 mins before my flight. I put contingency time on top of this, depending on how i'm traveling to the airport. For example, if I'm 30 mins by car, I leave 1 hour for the journey which if there are no delays, would get me at T5 1.5 hours ahead of my flight. with delays doubling the journey time, I still would get there 1 hour ahead. Always works for me.

I usually plan 1,5 hours in advance for a European flight too; 2 hours is fine, especially with just handluggage. And agree with using the HEX; easy and comfortable.

Your hotel is in a nice location, but the large Whiteley's shopping centre at the back of the hotel is under redevelopment at the moment and closed. Hope it's not too noisy.
Check out the restaurants on Hereford Road nearby. Hereford Road restaurant is a reliable place for good British food. Their lunch menu (not available every day) is really great value.
And nice local pub on the corner, the Prince Edward.

I can tell stories but they are in the PAST:

the time that "traffic" caused a taxi to take a lot longer to LHR than anyone "said" it would

the time the printed out on the computer boarding pass refused to activate one of those automatic gates and I had to go back to the airline counter and have the airline print one out

the time one of those car services showed up at our hotel late

the time I wished we had simply walked to the Tube stop taken a train from Embankment and changed along the way

STUFF happens and IMO the earlier you get out to Terminal 5 the better.

OP has carry-on luggage only; 2 hours is fine.

I know, but one poster says that BA bag drop is very fast. I have not always found that to be the case. Unless you've been recently, you'll not know that most BA bag drop is self service now, very few desks with an agent. At least they don't call it Fast Bag Drop anymore.

This is a key point for security at T5. IME they are more exacting. There especially we are extra careful about the liquids regulations, as well as removing all electronics, etc. except phones. We have a lot of cords that we also remove so they can be easily seen. Anything that might appear confusing on the scan we separate out as to avoid the dreaded secondary search... and then sometimes you will be chosen at random!

If south security looks too impacted you might check out north security.

This information is great to know. I'm getting ready to make a booking that goes through T5. Can explain the north/south security? I've flown out of T5 but didn't realize that there are two security zones.