(Written yesterday - Friday - during my layover on my way from Phoenix to Stockholm while I was offline. Edit: I just noticed that the post appears as a Friday post. Well, it's 5 AM Saturday here in Sweden and still Friday in the US. I'm jetlagged and awake early at my good friends Alexandra and Erik's house, where I found an open WiFi connection.)
It’s 3:30 PM local time, and I’m at Heathrow Airport’s new Terminal 5. It’s a highly modern structure – lots of glass and exposed white beams everywhere. Lots of people hustling and bustling about between the duty free shops and the large, open waiting area with a strategically placed Starbucks in the middle, but it doesn’t feel crowded or stressful. Someone did a good job with the design.
On the other hand, they seem to be sticking to the annoying Heathrow system of not announcing your gate until the last minute and then you have to rush to your gate to make it. I don’t get it. On the brighter side, I no longer have to transfer between terminals 1 and 4, which used to be a time consuming ordeal with the transit bus and the ridiculously long lines to get through security. My last time here was on my way back from Mumbai to Phoenix and I had a 6-hour layover, but three of those were consumed by getting to the right terminal. Now I got to the waiting area in about 30 minutes after a short hop on an intra-terminal transit train and then a very short security line.
The flight here wasn’t bad – except that we sat on the tarmac for an extra hour before takeoff because they had two bags too many on the plan and had to sort that out. But, I bought one of those around-the-neck-pillows at the airport in Phoenix, and it really helped me get in a few hours of shuteye on the way over. Also, BA has upgraded the in-flight entertainment system so now you have your personal DVR and can start and stop any movie or TV-show as you please. They had also expanded the offering: 25 recent release movies and library of another ~25 older movies, plus 50+ TV-shows and a good number of music albums to listen to. Very nice, indeed.
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