Ask your questions about airport facilities or security to Heathrow airport - £150 voucher to be won ANSWERS BACK

[JustineBMumsnet]

Answers are now back, you can find these here .

Being in an airport can be a challenging experience, especially if you’re with small children who just can’t wait to get to their destination. Ahead of the Easter break, when more families than ever are expected to fly abroad, Heathrow would like you to ask your most pressing questions for making a journey smoother for you and your family. Whether you have questions about airport facilities or activities, or you’d like to better understand security measures, Heathrow’s experts - Amanda and Nicola - would like to help answer your questions.

Here’s what Heathrow have to say: “We know travelling with children can come with its own challenges for busy parents, so we are dedicated to doing all we can to helping you plan and prepare for your journey. We have services like complimentary kids’ eat free meals and dedicated play areas to ensure both parents and children feel as excited as possible when they come through Heathrow.”

So, ask Amanda and Nicola your questions about airport facilities or security by posting them below by the 3rd April. We’ll then choose 20 questions for them to answer and post a link to their responses as soon as possible. All who post a question below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £150 voucher (whether their question is chosen or not).

Here’s some more information on Amanda and Nicola:

Amanda West – Customer Operations Manager
“As part of her job , Amanda develops family-friendly services at Heathrow – including baby changing facilities, and dedicated play areas to keep your children busy ahead of boarding.”

Nicola Tibbles – Security Assurance Manager
“Nicola helps to manage the flow of passengers to ensure family journeys are as smooth as possible.”

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

What age are your soft play areas suitable up until, please?

Free water dispensers would so helpful esp with long delays

I was travelling alone last month with a baby in a sling and another child. I couldn't go through the xray machine as I was carrying a baby. I had to take the sling off, it went through the baggage xray and I had to have a body search. While holding the baby, at times above my head, and keeping an eye on another child. A stranger then held my baby while I put the sling back on. Is this really the best procedure? Isn't there another way?

If your travelling with children between the age of 3 months to 5 years do they require special seats (like in cars) ? Does a baby need a seat booking ? Are there any type of crib seats or can you hold them ?

What is the best way to keep ,my kids entertained while experiencing flight delays or just generally waiting, is there any facilities

I have 9 year old twins both with profound autism. We normally fly via Manchester airport that have an excellent scheme in place for children with autism. Next year, we're traveling to South Africa via heathrow so I'm really keen to know what things heathrow have in place for children on the spectrum; children's activity pamphlets explaining the various different people they'll see/noises they'll hear/ things they'll have to do. We found this really helpful at Manchester. Do you also have a "fast pass" system whereby families of children with autism can avoid the lengthy queues? I know my son especially can become very frigidly, hot & frustrated when he's waiting somewhere too long. This can very easily escalate into a full on meltdown which is really hard on everyone.

Oh wow I never knew children ate free at Heathrow is this at selected eatery's? I am yet to take my son on a plane but he just loves watching them isntherew a place near by we can do this? Thanks x

What do you recommend to keep a 2 year old occupied during long queues?

What is the procedure for lone parents traveling with children that have a different surname? Would I have to bring birth certificates etc?

Our biggest issue is the queuing. I often pay for express security but can't do this as a standalone, it's usually tagged on to something like parking I think.

If you could book a time to go through when you check in on line that would be fab. Like a half hour slot.

I find returning to Heathrow awful, no matter what the time the queues are dreadful, mainly because nobody can be bothered in my experience to explain the e passport gates and there are barely any real immigration officers on. There's nothing worse than a tired child in a queue (who inevitably wants the toilet, is hungry or just wants to go to bed) so I'd like to know when you will get sufficient real border control officers on (I hate machines taking human jobs) and when you'll train the staff that stand around talking to each other to acknowledge and help passengers as currently I see no point to them (watch them one day and you'll see).
Also last time we were there I was unhappy with the site security, we were waiting for a bus back to a T5 hotel and a drunk man was walking around hassling people for money, by the look and state of him he clearly wasn't a traveller and had just wandered on to site. My child was terrified as he was aggressive and frightened her and he harassed a family that had arrived from Qatar very badly - what a first impression of London! He then went off into the terminal building. I want to know how he got there and where the site security is as let's be honest he could easily have had a weapon and in this day and age the external security needs to be better

Looking forward to reading the replies to some of these questions

Me too! It's less than a month until we fly from T2 & I'd really like to know about any ASD provision. We tried calling the airline but could only get through to their general booking line who didn't seem to know anything.

MNHQ have questions been selected & sent yet? Even if mine isn't one of them I hope one of the others about ASD provision gets answered!

Hi all,

Answers to some of your questions are now back - you can see them here

Thanks Justine. Is there any reason none of the questions about travelling with children with ASD were selected? Would've been nice to know if there's any support available, given that my airline didn't seem to have a clue!

Can I take an empty sippy cup through security and fill it with water later for my toddler? Worried about the 100ml fluid restrictions

Is there an official policy on children flying alone (without an adult)? And if this is allowed, how do you ensure their safety and security?

Do you have any advice for teens travelling alone for the first time?

is not my question i see here in coments but i'm interested in the answer ...those new style body scanners..what kind of research has been done to show how safe they are on children?

Do you have any plans regarding being able to re-use water bottles, for environmental and financial reasons? Two things I would love to see in airports (they go together)
a - places to refill water bottles after security
b - information BEFORE security (and ideally on your website) telling me that these exist, and where to find them.

When traveling alone with a baby it is very hard to hold baby and lift the pushchair onto the scanner at security. I have traveled through most UK airports and never had a staff member offer assistance. Could low level scanners be used?

As a mum with an infant still on formula, what are the rules on taking baby milk through security and what sorts of problems would I have with that? Are there facilities for making formula up from powder once you're through security and things like bottle warmers?