Heathrow Airport Chaos

[Frostytiger87]

Hi , we’re travelling short haul via Heathrow next week , I’m panicking as it could be cancelled or our luggage lost 🙈
Anyone else travelling via Heathrow ?

Is there anyway you can take hand luggage only ?
We did this by buying toiletries , a couple of cheap towels and a few bits once we were at our destination .

Went out and back from Terminal 3 last week and no problems at all. Late afternoon flight out so plenty of times for queues to form. Baggage off loaded quickly on way back - arrived 10.30pm. It was a BA flight.

Thankyou for your replies , yes we’ve discussed hand luggage , I think the situation is set to get a lot worse as schools break up and families hope to jet off . We’ve also got another trip booked towards the end of July which should have happened before covid 🙈

We just came through Heathrow 2 days ago after a long haul flight with BA, terminal 5. Only issue we had was that there were no free gates for the plane to park in so we had to sit on the plane for half hour while waiting for a spot. Otherwise, passport control was fine, got through straight away and we waited maybe 10-15 mins for our suitcases. Not sure how that compares to the other terminals and with regards to short haul, but we found it all to be pretty smooth.

I was about to create a new thread asking for folks Heathrow recent experience! We’re due to fly Wed early evening long haul from T5 on BA.

Dreading delays, long queues, lost luggage etc with DC.

howoriginal experience is somewhat reassuring but when do Heathrow BA staff intend to strike??

I flew long haul from T5 on the 15th, back in on the 20th. We were a bit late leaving due to a lack of push back vehicle, then air traffic control delays, but apart from a slightly longer than usual security queue (but not horrific) that was it. Collecting bags was no problem

Fingers and toes crossed for next week 🤞

We flew long haul from/into Heathrow T5 during half term three weeks ago, with no issues. Check in was very quick with a short queue, as was security.

Due to the media (and a long delay at check in with Tui in Manchester in February) we'd allowed lots of time abd ended up with ages once we'd gone through - lots of time to enjoy food and a bottle of wine so made the most of it :)

When we landed in the U.K. again it was very smooth. Little queue for passport control and the first bags were coming onto the conveyor as we arrived at it.

DH is a frequent flyer in and out of Heathrow and his experiences over the last 2 months have been really mixed. Overall he has been okay getting through passport control and security on outbound flights, it's the coming back where he has encountered huge queues, long waits or luggage and one occasion of his luggage not making the same plane as him.

My (completely uneducated guess) is that the strikes will be either 1st or last week of the school holidays, around the August Bank Holiday, as I think those are likely to cause max disruption which is what the staff are aiming for.