Warning re airport security

[ger_77]

I agree with Lizzie68 - a great attitude!

 

If you come across the situation again, you might want to bear this in mind: I would have suggested that you redeemed only as far as Heathrow, and bought a separate cash ticket for a Heathrow-Barcelona flight. If this had been BA-BA, you wouldn't have incurred any real disadvantage from this being two tickets; you could probably then have got the separate cash tickets for relatively little money; and you would have saved yourself the inter-airport transfer.

 

Thank you for the information - I will certainly keep this in mind; there's a good chance we will do another trans-Atlantic cruise in the future, and I will go into that one prepared!

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[chrispb]

Glad to hear you have extra time and like someone else said Saturdays should be fine without people heading to work.

 

Not sure why people dislike Heathrow so much, I really like terminals 4 & 5 :)

But you do need to allow an hour from landing to exit.

[cb at sea]

I would like to know how being able to "turn on" a laptop or iPad, etc...means that it's not also a bomb? b I'm assuming that's why they want things to be able to turn on....

[Lizzie68]

Glad to hear you have extra time and like someone else said Saturdays should be fine without people heading to work.

 

Not sure why people dislike Heathrow so much, I really like terminals 4 & 5 :)

But you do need to allow an hour from landing to exit.

 

I have to agree - Heathrow is a great airport - however, I was unfortunate enough to land at Terminal 5 on the day it opened. That experience is burned in my memory.:eek::D Terminal 4 is great though.;)

[Fouremco]

I would like to know how being able to "turn on" a laptop or iPad, etc...means that it's not also a bomb? b I'm assuming that's why they want things to be able to turn on....

The initial intelligence indicated that one of the terrorist factions had devoted an explosive device small enough to fit in a smart phone, but not with the phones working components. So if you can turn it on, they believe it to be safe. Whether or not this margin of safety applies to larger devices we'll have to see.

[Copper10-8]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="3"][COLOR="Navy"]Gerry; I just went through Heathrow twice in three days. It was a piece of cake! Arrival involved having your passport and landing card checked by a UK Border Force officer at UK Border Control. There was not much of a line and the check by a very friendly officer took about 30-45 seconds. Picked up my bag from the carousel, went through the "Noting to declare" door and done.

The return was a similar pleasant experience! No list of electronic items required and no need to turn anything electronic on. Just required to take your laptop out of your bag and place it in a bin similar to U.S. airports. I had two iPods (not iPads) in my bag and asked the private security individual if they needed to be out of the bag to which he replied negative. The body check at LHR involved a regular metal detector, not a full body scan. The entire procedure was painless and very positive[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]