Terminal 5

[Luci]

What a royal fuck up this turned out to be!

Poor people this morning turning up to check in at 4am for a 06.45 flight ended up missing their flight cause staff didn't know what they were doing!  (I don't blame the staff btw as its clear they havent had sufficient training).

I have no idea how they can possibly comprehend planning Terminal 6 when this has been so chaotic.

Why do we overspend on things that never live up to expectations!

[Sippo]

A teacher here was sat on the plane ready to unboard for 2 hours!! Shocking! Crazy since so much money was spent and tested. BA will lose loads of customers because of this.

[Jamiesfuturewife]

apprently every time someone trys to vent there anger to staff or even find out whats going on they are told to calm down or the police will be called!

[Batch]

Some people had to wait 4 hours for their luggage. 4 fricken hours. Clearly the training, testing and contingency plan was far from adequate.

I pity anyone who has to deal with BA's customer service. Worst CS department ever. Even worse the NTL (of old). That bad.

I'm flying to Toronto in 3 weeks. Initially I was a bit disappointed to be going from terminal 4, but we are coming back to terminal 5.  I'm sure it'll all be sorted by then tough.

[Ralphy]

My sister is due to fly back from the Caribbean tomorrow  

[RobertT]

How exactly do you think it's possible to have tested the place (infrastructure & systems) to the level of normal daily use?  It's impossible, hence why so many large projects spend the first few days/weeks/months even looking like this.

It's impossible to recreate the real world when testing, so it's not until it's launched that most of the bugs come to the fore.

Unrelated, other than planes, but the Manchester plane disaster back in the 80's puzzled the industry because all tests had shown you could vacate a full plane in plenty of time so nobody should have burned to death.  It wasn't until some bright spark suggested turning the test into a competition where people getting off quickly were rewaded with lots of cash did they find out the answer.  In that real situation people forgot to act calmcy and take instruction, it was every person for themselves.

[Jamiesfuturewife]

what happened at the Manchester plane disaster??  :shock:

[flammableBen]

How exactly do you think it's possible to have tested the place (infrastructure & systems) to the level of normal daily use?  It's impossible, hence why so many large projects spend the first few days/weeks/months even looking like this.

It's impossible to recreate the real world when testing, so it's not until it's launched that most of the bugs come to the fore.

Unrelated, other than planes, but the Manchester plane disaster back in the 80's puzzled the industry because all tests had shown you could vacate a full plane in plenty of time so nobody should have burned to death.  It wasn't until some bright spark suggested turning the test into a competition where people getting off quickly were rewaded with lots of cash did they find out the answer.  In that real situation people forgot to act calmcy and take instruction, it was every person for themselves.

I was going to post something like this. I'm suprised they don't open slowly, gradually building up to full capacity over a few weeks. I guess it would cost more money.

[Luci]

I think the fact that the parties in question BAA/BA are supposed to be well established and the fact that Heathrow has 4 other terminals would have really made operations run smoother.  Teething problems are acceptable but theres no excuse for the chaos that this has caused.

They had apparently practised procedures for 6 months prior to this and years of planning for the fingerprint security system which was withdrawn a few days before the opening.

[ghanimah]

I'm flying out from T5 in 5 weeks time so hopefully most of the problems will be ironed out by then. Have to say I've been keeping an eye on the completion of this project because as is the way with most of these things I thought that it would significantly overrun, and it wouldn't be open until close to the date of my departure.

Considering BA & BAA's rather poor record at Heathrow, and the nature of big project contracts with the countless firms involved, who then sub-contract and sub-sub-contract out, and the fact that a 'big-bang' start should be avoided at all costs wherever possible, I suppose the 1st day shambles shouldn't really be a surprise.

[RobertT]

point is, it's impossible almost to get the testing to match reality.  People behave differently in real life when thinking of themselves, combine in the need to load test at the same time and you find reality is often completely different to the testing process.  They could have been testing for 12 months and still not spotted most of the stuff, or launched slowly and still had the same problems months down the line when full capacity was hit.

If you are sensible, you'd have avoided Heathrow on BA flights for a good few months after Terminal 5 launched.

[ghanimah]

If you are sensible, you'd have avoided Heathrow on BA flights for a good few months after Terminal 5 launched.

You're right, but unfortunately in my case this is not possible. Crossed fingers then!

[Batch]

You can't recreate real life.

But when excuses include stuff like:
-staff being unable to log on to the checkin machines,
-staff unable to park and get through security checks
- staff are unable to get the baggage of the belt quick enough

Clearly something has gone very wrong with their modelling/simulations if these things are outside 'normal operation' boundaries.

Oh, and BA changed my flight back from T4 to T5 after booking.

[Bushey Boy]

Its a huge operation, give it a few weeks and all will be sorted

[redbullzeye]

Somebody will be blaming Malpas in a minute.....