Thursday 3 April 2008

T5 is that T for Terrible or T for Terrific?

A lot has been written about Heathrow's Terminal 5's problems over the last week. I was very curious to find out what it is really like. Before all the baggage bodging I was looking forward to seeing the new terminal and Jase was really excited about exploring all the new facilities there. Then the terminal opened and the problems began, which meant I was more nervous than anything else about flying via the notorious T5.

Well to get this out of the way first we are in Tokyo now and we have all of our bags. Moreover our bags were the first to arrive on the converyer at Narita Airport!

T5 it's self is rather impressive. It looks clean and futuristic but it is also quite accessible for me as well. There are escalators everywhere, up from the train station there are about 4 escalators, in between these escalators are glass floors which were scary but in a good way. Once we got through baggage drop and security (all fine, speedy and efficient) there are more escalators, up to the lounges down to more shops and then the slowest elscalators in the world when you transfer over to Terminal 5B.

My only complaint is that one of the business class lounges was closed because the toilets were blocked and had flooded. This meant that the other business lounge was incredibly busy and it was difficult for Jase and I to get a seat.

My personal highlight of T5 was the Chinese modern art light sculpture in the check in lounge. The lights are purple like dairy milk foil and they glow like ultra violet light. Very modern but also quite clearly Chinese by design.

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