Heathrow Airport Reviews 

Came back from the US yesterday, spent 45 mins sat on tarmac waiting for a parking slot then found that we were to be parked off terminal with a bus trip in to goodness knows where then a long walk to the arrivals hall, which was snaked back and had only 50% of automatic booths operating, to then proceed to get our bags and wait a further 45 mins for the bags to be delivered.
How in heaven's name Heathrow can ever hope to cope with a 3rd runway and more traffic boggles the mind!!!!!

Walking through terminal 5, I felt a massive burning sensation on the back of my legs. I was being bitten by fleas. I emailed Heathrow regarding health and safety and got the standard we take hygiene very seriously email. No apology.

I am writing this review with genuine sadness and frustration following two distressing experiences at Heathrow Terminal 5 — on 7 June and again on 25 June 2025.

As a registered disabled person, I was taken to a private room for wearing a cloth knee support. I was not allowed to take my wallet, passport, or even my glasses, despite needing them to read and sign a document. My belongings were left unattended in public view. On one occasion, when I returned, my belt was missing, leaving me uncomfortable and embarrassed for the rest of my trip.

What hurt me the most was the clear two-tier system I witnessed. On 25 June, two other passengers — who appeared to be of European background — were also taken aside, but unlike me, they were allowed to keep their suitcases with them. Why this inconsistency? Why was I denied the same basic dignity and control over my belongings?

Despite informing the staff of my disability, I was met with antagonistic behaviour, a lack of empathy, and no reasonable concession. The treatment I received felt not only unjust but discriminatory, and left me feeling singled out and deeply disrespected.

I truly hope Heathrow takes this seriously. No one, especially a disabled passenger, should be made to feel second-class or unsafe in such a public and vulnerable situation.

They place your gate last minute so you have to run to find your gate, the cherry on the cake, is they have security door that close to let all passengers from flights to get out while you have to wait to go to your gate and that's how I miss my flight I had to wait 3 doors to open. Being on time and lose my flight on British Airlines because they have this
Unprecedented horrible system

The assistance for my outward British Airways flight from Heathrow terminal 3 was good. The assistance following my return flight was very poor.

I was met from the plane and transported a short distance by wheelchair to one of the carts, which we shared with other passengers. This only again travelled a short distance to a waiting area where there were several passengers requiring assistance. We were informed that we were to wait for 30 minutes, ( I waited for 45 minutes) for another wheelchair that would take me to passport control. My companion was able to walk the distance so she left me at the waiting area.

The staff pushing the wheelchairs were visibly tired and were not able to hide their discomfort and reluctance to undertake the task of taking passengers for the trip to passport control and to collect the luggage. I suffer from parkinsons disease, and am unable to walk long distances duevto constant back pain and stiff muscles and joints and poor balance, especially when I'm tired.

On the way to collect the luggage I I
informed my helper that I would need assistance to the train station. I was informed that it was not a long distance and that he would not be able to help me, and that would have to be provided by someone else.
By the time we arrived at the luggage carousel, my suitcase had been removed from the belt and was the last case to be collected. The person providing my wheelchair assistance put my luggage and bags onto a trolley, took the wheelchair and left me.

There were two members of staff chatting with each other at the top of the first steep ramp towards the station. I politely asked if there was a lift down to the station. I was swiftly told no, and they then ignored me and continued their conversation. I was tired and just wanted to get to the station to continue my journey home. I struggled down the two ramps to the Elizabeth line to catch the train to Faringdon.

Inadequate transportation in Terminal 3.
Poor customer service. Detached and visibly fatigued and uncaring staff, brought the assistance service down to below basic level, that is why my rating is one star.

Gatwick Airport is 100% better with the assistance they provide to disabled passengers. The staff at Gatwick are supportive, polite, and caring.

It would be very sensible if you can pay once you exit drop off with ramp, than having to remember to pay online. But then they would not be able to charge fines if someone just forgets to pay.

Just returned from a trip to Scotland and London for vacation. Both coming and going, we experienced air travel delays which was to be expected these days. What was unexpected (and very disappointing) were both times (connecting flights to Scotland and return flight back to the US) we had to wait for coaches to take us to the airplanes. This resulted in further delays. I'm not sure why the coaches were not waiting for us at the time of boarding but we must have waited at least 20-30 minutes each time for them to arrive then it took another 15-20 minutes of travel time to the plane and to be let off from the coach to board the plane. Communication was also poor. While we were waiting for the coaches, it should have been announced that we would be boarding the coaches as we would a plane which is by group number. As this was not understood, everyone just tried to be ready to get on the coach and the delay in this announcement led to frustration in the process and the fact that we were already delayed in leaving. Again, the fact that this occurred twice during my trip indicates a fracture in airport operations.

I'll be fair here. We expected it to be rubbish but even we were surprised at the complete embarasment that T5 was... we were flying in BA from usa then owards with BA to Newcastle... no issues with the flights or flight staff. But .. OMG ... terminal 5.. we walked for ages along unfinished and grubby corridors.. where floors and walls had been finished they were dirty.. then we met security who seemed to excell at being curt and officious with the people skills of a ..locust .. seriously some of those people must have been on courses to be so rubbish at their job... we found a toilet down a small corridor that had a drinking fountain in it packed with people trying to fill water bottles. Into the urine soaked cubicle... spent some time cleaning it and making it useable only to come out to find a cleaner who was more of a trip hazard than a cleaner and seemed only capable of moving a squeegee type mop backwards and forwards with one hand... it was generally crowded and dirty with groups of staff hanging around having a good old chat. Im sure there are good staff here but they are overshadowed by the awfull place and the obviously poor staff.. and whats more the "state of the art" passport scanning boarding pass checking baggage checking procedures is lengthy .. doesnt fill me with confidence and takes ages.. compared to customer services in the USA we are a total embarassent...

Im still sitting here A gates T5 ... the same cleaner has now pushed the same cleaning trolley past me twice in last few mins (same direction like she's done a circle).. completely ignored the litter, pieces of food and dirty stains on the floor ..

Terminal 5 North end Fast Track security

3 of the 5 lanes were closed. Naturally, no one warned us before we entered through the gates that normal security could be quicker. The queue moved at a snail’s space, often stopping for minutes.

Staff did not say what had to be taken out of the luggage, so lots of luggages were set aside for manual checks. At lots of airports nothing needs to be taken out nowadays so yes, security staff needs to say something. Then of course luggages were not checked in order, so we ended up spending more than 40 minutes at “fast” track security.

I raised a complaint with Heathrow, was told that that they were very sorry to hear that we had “experienced longer than usual wait times in security screening” and the delay “ must have been frustrating for” us. They ignored most of the points I raised, admitted no mistake, suggested no ways to improve.

Tl;dr Fast Track at Heathrow is not worth it, DO NOT ever pay for it, just use normal security.

security was horrendous. as a type 1 diabetic frequent flier, i can safely say ive never had as much hassle as i did today at heathrow. every bag pulled - which i get is process, but the customer service is vile. A chinese member of staff snatched a bottle of water out my partners hands after telling him he had to finish it instead of pouring away (?), they withheld my essential devices to check my blood sugars, and made us feel like complete criminals for having diabetes! Vile treatment

Their security has mixed policies, very inconsistent. I went through with duck tape in my luggage. They detected it, checked and verified to see what it is then let me through.
The following week I went through again, same thing. They detected it, checked and verified it was duck tape, but this time it was confiscated. The guy said it wasn't allowed.

Absolutely shit hole of an airport , place looks stinking , more people in there than the centre of London and BA are completely useless , don’t come here if you can avoid it

Some Indian-Arabs working at the checkpoint harassed my wife by making signs to her to take off her dress. Then they took my 4 year old son's water cup and scanned it for drugs. Then, laughing and joking, they let us go.

Terminal 5 - newest terminal at one of the world's largest airports. Dedicated to BA which may explain why the facilities are so bad. Air side departures - charging points are a disaster area - most don't work, some not even connected to anything. Wifi is a joke. 20 minutes to get my laptop hooked on to the wifi and even then the speed was 0.1MB! Utterly useless and treat you like as if you are not a paying customer. Only interested in building more runways

This airport is now just for the rich, £17.50 ULEZ charge £6 drop charge. Be careful it is not obvious it’s in the ULEZ zone and their is no flexibility. Also rules out Aegean airlines now aswell. The new security machines actual increase the security process with far more bits to it now than before.

If I could give it zero, I would. The manager and his manager says that Heathrow security has old machines hence they can’t allow 75 mL liquid (less than that for sure) in a 150 mL bottle cuz it’s not the actual quantity of liquid but the quantity written in the bottle that matters! How dumb is that!!!

And to top that, they say “if we had the new machine as gatwick” we would have allowed that but since the label in the bottle says 150 ml they can’t let it be taken in the plane even if it was visibly less than half. Their logic is to get the 100 ml bottles in the plane and that’s it. Bottles shouldn’t be bigger than 100 ml??? No that’s fine! You can take the bottle but after emptying it!!! I will empty it and litrally refill it again with water. So what’s the concern??? Why the liquid issue soaring this high???
Are all Heathrow security personnel and their managers and THEIR managers this dumb????
Saying whatever they want to suit their narrative??? No wonder these guys are depressed about others taking their job!!

Too small, badly laid out, not enough toilets… just like a overcrowded market. Laptop checks unnecessary and making the whole experience a nightmare

We arrived a little late, walked off the plane down stairs onto the tarmac to the bus to the terminal. Helpful staff, and they are definitely making improvements on their processes. We received our luggage quickly upon arrival to transfer to our next terminal. Carts very readily available as we had several pieces of luggage. The instructions to transfer via train were a bit vague, but a staff member helped us make sure we were on the right track. Got to the next terminal via lifts and long halls. If we had had a tight connection, we might not have made it. Security was much improved. All in all, an incredibly busy airport doing the best they can, considering. Patience and flexibility are required and please be friendly to the hard working teams.

I would rate this airport a 0 if I could. We were traveling to Rome to board a cruise. And Security Check was a disaster. They have ineptitude idiots working there. They flagged my carry on for too many liquids. When I explained that some of those liquids were prescribed medication I had to show them proof on my phone. They forced me to throw out half of my toiletries. Over $200 worth. I have never had this issue come up in any other airport. Their Supervisor was as clueless as these men. The stupidity that they displayed shows how dumb these employees in Security are. They are all stupid bullies.

I've traveled through this airport for 3 decades. In the old days it was great, before they introduced laptop checks. Then came stricter controls greater costs on your ticket and bigger queues. Today T5 was around 25'C. So, to all the inconvenience and treating passengers like cattle (not all the time), are the engineers treingnto save money on the HVAC. Also, couldn't redeem my heathrow rewards card. Does anyone care that much in this airport these days? Seeing Schipol runs like a dream, I thought the CEO would have his finger more on pulse.