V-Flyer

"What's this" you say?

A flight from Heathrow to Heathrow in a non existent class?

Well, kind of.

I was part of the Terminal 2 trials along with some other V-Flyers. It was great to meet up with RoxyPopsy and see CHill710 again.

Here's a little photo montage of the day, and a sneak preview of the airport!

I travelled to Heathrow on the tried and tested Piccadilly Line. It was a little late so I was playing catch up with RoxyPopsy and CHill710 for most of the morning!

I always prefer to change at Baron's Court as it's quieter.



At Heathrow, I followed the signs to Heathrow Terminal 2.



Then joined the queue for registration. If only my name began with Q!



To get my passes that would give me the freedom of the airport!



Next thing was a safety briefing and a chance to look around at the building itself.



Then up the escalators...





Then we collected our scripts, which was a bit disorganized to be honest as they were offering people 'destinations' - which for fake flights - was odd seeing people wanting exotic destinations!

Some passengers would be business class customers but unfortunately their instructions were to go to the entrance of the lounge only, and no further!

The scripts were basically

- Your Name
- Your Airline and Destination
- How you were to check in
- How much luggage you had
- A 'passport' to scan

I was Juliette White, a middle aged businesswoman from London. Recently divorced, but enjoying a sense of freedom she hasn't had in years since she dumped 'him'. Found a job she loves and enjoys the travelling.

They then told me I didn't have to do a back story.

Anyway, I had a suitcase to collect, and Heathrow had a huge selection of 'dummy' suitcases - from tiny to huge!

Then it was through to start the experience, making mental notes of any snags and misinformation etc. for feedback later.

There were over 3000 people going through the airport and there was a real buzz, helped by the incredibly friendly volunteers.

So, having gone to the first free desk to get my script - where was I going to...? Singapore, Taipei, Washington...?

Little Red to Manchester. The co-incidence of getting a VS flight was mildly amusing for 0.3 seconds.

I had to check in at one of the little machines - which was incredibly slow. It was strange using it as it let me select seats and spat out a boarding pass etc. Fully working except that the flight was non-existent!



The kiosks were located at an odd angle and actually when you collected your boarding pass ended up standing at Upper Class check-in - I noted this on my feedback and wonder if that will annoy people?

Through security - and it was treated like a real airport. Liquids over 100ml etc. were removed. This was rather slow and I am curious as to how security will cope as it was very slow moving today.

No photographs permitted at this point.

We then stopped to give feedback, via Samsung Tablets.

Then it was through to the central concourse of the terminal where entertainment, tea, coffee, muffins etc. was provided.



This was not as naff as it looks - in fact it was great fun and where is where I heard the phrase 'sweating like Wayne Rooney in the Mastermind chair' for the first time!

Finally met up with RoxyPopsy and CHill710!

Always lovely to put faces to names.
COUGH!.

Then to follow the signs for my flight. Very happy to see free charging points throughout the terminal.


This isn't a free charging point. This is art.







The ghost of WHSmith






Yes - dot matrix printers are still alive and well in the worlds newest terminal!

Then time to view the facilities.



I wonder if I was the first... no, let's not go there. Unless you need to and then you definitely should 'go' there.







Then off to get my 'flight'!




This sign made one of the fake passengers very irate. Wasn't sure why.



Followed the signs to the 'plane'. And waited for our instructions...



Yes. That's a laminated sheet.

Was it Walsh or White? If Walsh, then your boarding pass was wrong

Good idea to post a TR for this Ms Walsh, a nice little insight for those of us not able to make the trials.

Perhaps she was irate because UC, FC AU and Delta Priority appear to head straight for the plane, whereas economy snakes round to the left Good to see people taking it seriously to put the staff through their paces.... any Oscar worthy performances witnessed?

EDITED!

I didn't see any Oscar performances just some odd behaviour considering there wasn't a real flight and there were ample opportunities to provide feedback!

Ah that's a shame Ms Walsh, lets just hope that those 'acting out' were doing just that and ACTING to give the staff an experience into what could come their way.

I have seen all kinds of tantrums and stress fights between pax and staff over my years going through airports. Flying is very stressful and fatiguing for some

Like the new avatar btw.

Thanks for the 'TR'

Guess we'll see if anything works on Wednesday when T2 opens. I hope they have leaned something from the T5 opening disaster!!

I have some concerns!

mitchja wrote:Thanks for the 'TR'

Guess we'll see if anything works on Wednesday when T2 opens. I hope they have leaned something from the T5 opening disaster!!

Opening on Wednesday? Nooooooooo! I'm flying in and out of LHR on Tuesday on Aer Lingus. Well, at least I shall be on one of the last flights out of T1 as I hope to be on the last flight to Cork.

honey lamb wrote:

mitchja wrote:Thanks for the 'TR'

Guess we'll see if anything works on Wednesday when T2 opens. I hope they have leaned something from the T5 opening disaster!!

Opening on Wednesday? Nooooooooo! I'm flying in and out of LHR on Tuesday on Aer Lingus. Well, at least I shall be on one of the last flights out of T1 as I hope to be on the last flight to Cork.

Aer Lingus don't move until 9th July.

Wow! looks like it was a really interesting day.

Sealink wrote:Aer Lingus don't move until 9th July.

Ooooh, and I'm flying into LHR on the 10th! YAY!!

I think only UA are moving in on Wednesday to start with.

All the T2 moving in dates can be found here

Um, was there a reason your fake boarding card says you are leaving from T1, not T2?

The "BAA Heathrow" logo annoyed me because they're not called that anymore. Trust it was an employee making that up by themselves.

Pleased Margaret Calvert's transport typeface used in all the signs, it's a design classic and sadly too many transportation providers have been moving away from it in a bid to have a brand identity.

Very interesting trip report thanks for taking the time and photos.

I'd love to do this but typically have never managed to sign up! A great "non existent" TR, really enjoyed the detail and pics. Now to see if they will learn anything from the feedback !

This has entertained us very much, thank you. How fascinating that airports do secret shopping....of course they do, but I had never thought about it, great little insight.

Great stuff Sealink! I also took some pictures during my two trials - many of similar views to yours but here's a few different ones:



This map shows the upper level of the main departure lounge, which you enter on leaving security. Very similar in layout to T5 in that you then proceed downstairs to the gates (via more shops, obviously). The Aer Lingus/VS Little Red lounge is on the right, more or less en route to the gate so much more convenient than the Servisair lounge in T1.



A guide to the lounges. This was taken on my first trial in April and I think has now changed in that A1 & A2 have switched (leaving Lufthansa/Star Alliance with the much larger A2 and EI/VS with the smaller A1). The Plaza Premium pay-as-you-enter lounge is downstairs, hidden away in a corner in the entrance from Flight Connections. The three B lounges are in the B satellite, where most long-haul flights will leave from (like T5).



Not much to see here, sadly, but this will apparently be the Aer Lingus/VS Little Red lounge. It overlooks the airfield and one of the runways although it looks like there's a kind of screen on the outside of the building that'll spoil the view a bit.



Over in the B satellite, this will be either the Singapore or Air Canada lounge. If you don't have access to one of the lounges (there's a United one as well), the B satellite isn't really somewhere you'd want to hang around - there's a Caffe Nero, a small Boots, WHSmith & duty free and that's it. Like T5, the aim is clearly to keep everyone in the main terminal as long as possible. (Sorry it's on its side, can't seem to rotate it)

Hi Sealink

Great to meet you & Chill710. Fab photos. I note you didn't post the ones of you holding your copies of 'OK' & 'Hello' mags with a sculpture coming put of the top of your head. I could.............

TTFN

Roxy popsy

Fuzzy14 wrote:Pleased Margaret Calvert's transport typeface used in all the signs, it's a design classic and sadly too many transportation providers have been moving away from it in a bid to have a brand identity.

If you are referring to the black on yellow, I recall that on the Sky "Inside Gatwick" programme, it referred that as having been copywrited by Ican'trememberwho and can only be used in LHR

gumshoe wrote:Not much to see here, sadly, but this will apparently be the Aer Lingus/VS Little Red lounge. It overlooks the airfield and one of the runways although it looks like there's a kind of screen on the outside of the building that'll spoil the view a bit.

It's an exterior horizontal baffle type thing, that extends across much of the glass on the top level on that side of the terminal.
It's to prevent ILS reflections from the runway confusing planes on final approach. Something about the height and location of that part of the building puts it in the sweet spot for erroneous reflections.

I had a good look at it last year when I was shown around T2. It does affect the 'view' quite a bit. You can still see outside quite easily, but it's not as a good as for example the T8 gate area of T1 where we can watch the 27R activity.

Fuzzy14 wrote:The "BAA Heathrow" logo annoyed me because they're not called that anymore. Trust it was an employee making that up by themselves

I saw that too! veer annoying to see the old logo!

Thanks so much for this! I found this fascinating! Really enjoyed your 'trip report' and photos.

Sarastro wrote:Um, was there a reason your fake boarding card says you are leaving from T1, not T2?

Well spotted!
I think because we were playing with real check-in kiosks etc. it's all based on current operations.

Probably not - having done this sort of testing, it's better to keep it as remote from 'real' ops as possible, to avoid confusion. I've managed reservation system implementations, and for test purposes we load things like Cardiff-Ulan Bator, or Westray-JFK.....

Dot matrix printers ! Blooming heck !