Hello there from Terminal 4 Airside Wetherspoons! I’d been told a number of horror stories regarding Heathrow in general, and particularly T4 (and not T5, even though its opening was a failure on a purely biblical scale). Thus-far, I believe them all to be completely unfounded.
I stepped off the tube at the T4 station (though in my eagerness at Kings Cross/St Pancras, I have to confess that I may have accidentally boarded a Piccadilly train bound for Uxbridge, and it wasn’t until Holborn until I realised my faux-pas) and no more than 3 minutes later, I was airside, thru security and in a largely deserted departure lounge.
I realise I must be epically late to the game on this whole ‘online check-in’ malarky, but, jesus h christ, it doesn’t half save some fucking around. Print off your boarding pass. Walk to security. Hand over pass and passport, nice man scans boarding pass, says “Thankyou very much Mr Sheridan, have a good flight” and you walk through to the X-ray scanners. No queueing, no fannying, no fuss.
Once at security control, there are signs to instruct you to put all of your small items in your hand luggage, and to remove shoes and belts, and to have your liquids ready to inspect in the essential sealable bag. There is a small, 3-4 person queue, which is just enough time to remove your shoes, belt and to retrieve your bag of explosive potions from your hand luggage. Once at the head of the queue, you offload the lot into a tray, and it goes through the X-ray machine.
I always go ‘bing!’ when I walk through a metal detector. It’s happened for so long that I’ve convinced the security people at work that I have a metal plate in my head. So, I go through the scanner and fully expect it to ‘bing!’ and for me to get a pat-down from a surly BAA security guy. There is no ‘bing!’ – crikey! I collect up my stuff and wander into the departure lounge. I look at my watch – 3 minutes since I got off the tube. Amazing.
The lounge is very quiet, with a few people milling around, but not the vast throngs of people you sometimes see at airports. I’m so pleased with my security experience that I spot the airside Wetherspoons and have a pint of Bishops Finger, the only ale they’ve got on. So far, so good.
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