Mike Southby

Heathrow Terminal 5

A few days ago I took my first visit to Heathrow’s new Terminal 5; British Airways new international hub. I have used all of the other terminals at Heathrow previously both as a passenger and whilst dropping off or picking up friends and family so was eager to see how different the new terminal is and how it compares to its siblings, especially after all the press hype during the build up to the new terminal opening, and the coverage of the problems it faced during its initial months of operation.

Sadly, my visit to Terminal 5 was not as a passenger, I would love to say that I was jetting off somewhere exotic but unfortunately not this time (although actually I could do with a holiday…). No, I went to Terminal 5 to drop off some of my family who were flying off to Houston and then again a few days later to pick them up on their return.

We’ve all read the stories about the complete disaster affecting traveller’s luggage amongst other things when the terminal first opened. Being fair to BAA, when any large scale engineering project takes place I think it’s fair to assume that there will always be some teething problems. Unfortunately, this project was always going to be in the public eye and as such, the teething problems were plastered all over the tabloids and news screens, a shame really. Yes it was a huge problem at the time but in hindsight, I don’t recall any of the stories covering the good points, the efficiency of the terminal itself and huge steps forward compared to the other terminals at Heathrow.

So what is it like today? Well, on entering the new terminal I have to say I was impressed. All of the other terminals at Heathrow are in my experience crowded, not very well laid out and hectic to say the least. Whilst I would never say the experience was traumatic, I have always made sure I left in plenty of time to allow for the airport ‘process’ itself when flying from Heathrow (or any other major international airport for that matter). When we arrived at Terminal 5, I’d waved goodbye to my family through the security gates within around 5 minutes. No queues. No fuss. No crowd. Now in case you were wondering, this was around 11am during a weekday so stereotypically a busy time at the airport. I thought perhaps this was just down to ‘luck’ on the day, I mean surely Terminal 5 cannot be this efficient compared to the other 4 terminals? Now that would be something.

A few days later I head back to the airport to pick up. I arrive early as the flight is due in at 7:30 in the morning, which of course is a very busy time for arriving international flights. I was expecting to find the usual hustle and bustle in the arrivals lounge but again, it was peaceful, none of the stress I was used to after experiencing the other terminals. Looking at the arrivals board there were major international flights arriving every few minutes, each with hundreds of people on board and yet people were coming through from customs a few at a time, orderly, and without the rush that I was expecting. In the arrivals lounge itself the people waiting for loved ones and the line of executive car drivers standing with their name boards never looked large enough to even call a crowd. No queue at Costa Coffee (which I made use of, needless to say…). No stress. I have to say I was impressed, it was just as calm and stress free as it had been a few days previously. Even the new arrivals information boards were super efficient informing you when a plane had landed, when it had arrived at its allocated gate, when passenger bags were arriving in the collection lounge and then again, when all bags had been delivered. It made waiting for people super easy. There was no need to stand endlessly waiting as you knew quite accurately when people would be walking out into the lounge.

It seems to me that behind the scenes, behind the embarrassing bag fiasco that once was, Terminal 5 is the definition of engineering efficiency. The building itself is impressive; a vast open plan space, modern and fresh. Terminal 5 is nothing like any of the other terminals at Heathrow. It has a modern and welcoming presence that I have only ever felt at airports such as Dubai or Kuala Lumpur before. I think the designers should be proud of what they have achieved. I’m sure some people will have had different experiences, and I’m sure even more awaits airside; both positive and negative. But for me, my first experience of the new terminal is definitely a good one.

My closing sentence was going to be something along the lines of ‘I look forward to travelling through Terminal 5 as a passenger soon’, but given that I do not rate British Airways as a long haul airline (in fact, I think they are pretty poor), I doubt I’ll be air side in Terminal 5 anytime soon. Ah well…

I was amused this morning to read that staff at some shops owned by the DSG group of stores (Dixons Stores Group, i.e. PC World) have been caught insulting customers on Facebook. A group setup for staff of DSG features comments from existing and former staff. The comments accuse customers of being “stupid” and recount alleged incidents that have happened during the employees working time at the stores.

Are they for real?

I remember a few instances over the last few years, such as the time I was told I would not be able to buy a Serial-USB converter because “they do not exist Sir, what you need is a Serial-Parallel converter”, urm yes they do actually. Then there was the time more recently when I overheard an alleged technician giving advice at the PC Repair Helpdesk, “no sir, it’s not possible to put the original software back on the machine, you’ll need to replace the machine with a new one, can I recommend…”, great advice, not.

Stores such as PC World are a convenience; they stock a fairly good range of general IT peripherals although at an extortionate price. I try not to use them if I can as I get much better pricing from on-line retailers, but they do have a place when you need a particular component straight away. My gripe is the lack of knowledge available at the stores, the general public are fooled into believing that they are going to receive excellent knowledge and advice from the staff at a competitive cost when in fact, they are often simply mislead because the staff member in question does not know the answer.  Perhaps it’s about time we revolted and created a new group on Facebook and shared some of our experiences with the staff of DSG, now that would make interesting reading!

So yesterday, after taking Vicki to the Bristol TGI Friday’s at Cribb’s Causeway not too long ago and both having a really nice meal, we decided to head up to TGI in Cheltenham for a spot of lunch.  Expectations were high, especially as we were both rather hungry!

I have to say, what a complete let down it was; worlds apart from our recent experience at Bristol, and nowhere near the level of food quality or service that I have been accustomed to previously.

First off, the restaurant wasn’t at all busy.  We arrived at around 1:45pm and I was quite pleased to notice that only about 20% of the tables were being used.  Whilst I don’t mind busy places and people, obviously, I always find really busy restaurants where you have to shout to make conversation a little frustrating after all, that’s one of the reasons for going out for a meal in the first place.  Anyway, we were shown to our seat and introduced to our server.  Things started off OK and we placed our orders without too much fuss.  Vicki ordered a’ New York Strip’ and I went for the good old faithful, the ‘Jack Daniels Monterey Burger’.  We weren’t kept waiting too long before the food was bought out to the table and things started to go wrong.

I hadn’t been eating more than a minute or so before I noticed a hair in my fries, not the end of the world perhaps and these things do happen, but it was enough to start tainting the experience.  On top of that, I soon also realised that the famous Jack Daniels sauce, one of the main reasons I love TGI’s food, had actually been substituted for some other BBQ type sauce which was pretty hot on the taste buds to say the least!  Whilst the sauce was not what I was expecting, it was tasty enough so I decided to carry on eating it without complaining, although I did intend on mentioning it to our server when she came back to check on things; which brings me onto my next point.

The service, let’s just say it wasn’t exactly overwhelming.  One of the other things I like generally about TGI is the ‘bottomless glass’ idea, you know you pay over the odds for a glass of coke which costs next to nothing to produce and in return they kindly refill it for you at no extra charge when they see you are starting to run low, I guess the idea is that you never actually get to the ‘bottom’ of the glass.  Normally this works very well, especially for me as I do drink a lot so would normally have at least a couple of glasses with my meal.  Today it didn’t however, there was no offer to refill even when my glass actually did reach the bottom.   I couldn’t even ask for a refill as the server was generally nowhere to be seen, in fact what made it even worse in my eyes was that the adjacent servers in the areas of the restaurant where there were no diners were simply stood around talking to one another, I’m not sure what they were talking about but based on their lack of interest in all that was going on around them, it must have been really interesting and important.

Meals finally finished, we waited just under 15 minutes before someone came over to clear the table and offer the desert menu.  Needless to say my patience was just about tested to the limit at that point so I simply declined the offer and asked for the bill.  I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that no tip was left on this occasion!

So has it spoiled my outlook of TGI? No, not really.  This is the first negative experience I’ve had of the chain and I have eaten in many, including not only 5 or 6 different ones in the UK but also in the US, Malaysia and India.  Generally the experience is always good which is why I return.  But this visit has certainly made me think twice about going back to the Cheltenham restaurant, in these difficult times, money is more valuable and scarce than ever.  For the bill price of £29.95 I expected better, especially when you factor in the cost of the 35 mile round trip…

TGI Friday, send some mystery diners to Cheltenham, they need to spruce up their act or else if my experience is anything to go by, you will lose business.

Rant over.

I see in the news today that official research has shown that over the last 2 years, congestion in the UK has dropped by almost a third, research into this by Trafficmaster and AA/Populus has cited this to be because of the recession that we are currently in.  Makes sense, what with the unemployment level and more and more people working from home in a bid to save money.  The research goes on to say that this is the first tangible decrease in congestion in over 20 years.

So my question is why has the London Congestion Charge not been reduced accordingly?  According to the official website, the charge was bought about to tackle congestion and is not some hidden tax, all net profit has to be reabsorbed into improving the transport infrastructure in London.  Now surely if congestion has decreased then this decrease should also be carried across to the charge we have to pay?   After all, we are in recession so every penny we as tax payers can save is going to help where it matters.

Those of us who have need to travel into London on a regular basis will know that no amount of spiel will convince us that this is not a money making scheme, have the roads been improved? Not really.  Has the charge made a huge difference to congestion and thus the amount of time it takes to get from A to B? Not really.  So what do we actually gain from paying this charge? Come on Boris, sort it out.

The London Congestion Charge, just another stealth tax.