In Praise Of Terminal 5

We had a good flight back to Britain, landing early Sunday (although we were delayed at JFK Saturday evening owing to a thunderstorm).

If you’ve never been, if you ever do, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is a great place to commence a trip here. The reporters have gone, and — thankfully — so has all the whinging. As we know, it’s always a lot more fun to cover the almost inevitable rocky start (because almost nothing “big” ever starts off entirely smoothly) than the daily, mundane successful flow.

After disembarking, you go up a few short escalators (or use elevators), then onto a transit (at least, based on where we landed, we had to), then up at least one other escalator before passport control (through IRIS if you live here, and have registered), and then your bags come through quicker on one of the many carousels. (A BA employee even said “good morning” to us, as we walked towards our flight’s.)

The parking garage (at £2.30 for a short stay, it’s cheaper than parking at some hospitals) just outside is brightly painted and well-laid out (the spaces even seem “longer”). Upon driving out (we were met by the in-laws), it seems that within just a few moments you are on the M25. All told, it was probably the quickest Heathrow exit we’ve ever made.

Anyway, that’s that for another trip. Posting will return to normal in coming days. Whatever “normal” might be defined as, of course.