I had heard much of the opening woes of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 back in March, when planes were leaving without any baggage and passengers were being delayed. But it has been a while since any complaints of the British Airways home base surfaced and so it was with a certain amount of confidence that I faced my change of planes last week.

One should not celebrate too soon though. The entire morning turned into something of a disaster story, but – at the risk of giving away the ending – one in which Terminal 5 came through as a champion.

Heathrow Terminal 5 Arrivals by moaksey

The opening scene was, of course, the fire in Berlin’s Tegel airport. This delayed a few flights (it was only in the military section, not the commercial one so a disaster of truly epic proportions was avoided) however mine managed to take off only about twenty minutes behind schedule. This sounded fine until I realised that the travel agent had given me only an hour’s time to change at Heathrow. We arrived twenty-five minutes before my connecting flight was due to depart, with me at the back of the plane, the disembarkation dock unable to connect, and the security re-screen ahead of me. To make things even more fun, the air hostesses were fairly convinced there was only one flight to Japan per day.

The push through the plane! The mad dash down the stairs! The mad dash up the stairs! The full speed sprint down the endless hallways to… wait a minute. I was at flight connections already! Only a minute off the plane and I was being ushered, without a wait, to a charming woman who checked me onto the next flight. Only two hours later. And with a five pound gift certificate to spend on food while I waited.

A great British sandwich, salt and vinegar chips and a comfortable chair positioned to watch the tarmac through giant windows. There were more boards displaying flight information than I’ve seen in any airport meaning there was no jumping up to check somewhere else and risk losing your chair or your carry-on. A thirty second train ride and I was at the second part of the terminal that my departure was in. The whole experience was lovely.

To finish the story on an even better note I wound up with a full middle row all the way to Tokyo and was able to stretch out and nap well.　My luggage? Well that was already waiting for me when I got through customs.

Heathrow – Terminal 5 by ~Temjin