Hi
Flying internationally with BA out of Terminal 5 tomorrow and have bags to check in. Haven't flown from Heathrow in years, if at all.
The public transport option for getting there is to take the first Liz line train and arrive 2.5 hours before take off, however the BA app is telling me to arrive at the airport 3 hours before. 3 hours is madness right?
I'm sure I've been advised to be 3 hours early before only find that leaves me with 90 mins to 2 hours to kill. Is there anything special about Terminal 5 that means I actually need to be there that early?
Used to fly out of T5 weekly. It's pretty slick even at the busiest of times. Check in is quick and mostly self service. If you can buy priority security that's worth if if you want to save maybe 10 minutes.
3 hours is madness right?
Right.
In my experience 2hours is fine for short haul with bag drop and 2.5 is generous for long haul.
Just remember: once your bag is checked in, they will do whatever they can possibly to get you on board, because they don’t want to take your luggage off the plane. I’m not advocating that is a good thing to do, but if you ever get caught up in a giant security queue it’s good to know.
Always found T5 to be very slick to move through. 2 hours is more than enough so 2.5 hours gives you a little slack
You have to check your own bags in. There are loads of machines so never seen a queue. If you've not done it before read and follow the instructions carefully. Wife messed up with her first tag
Also a semi regular user of T5, 2.5 would be plenty in my long haul experience, thou check that you are basing on the boarding time rather than the flight time. I've had 2pm flight, but with boarding listed as ending 40 mins before that and then the little underground train to the C gates eating another few mins i ran short of a cheeky G&T on the company dime
2hrs before I may have finished packing my bag! I live 10 min from T5. You'll be fine with online check-in and a bag drop. If it's Gate C, there will be a longer train ride so less time for shopping/lounge.
