LHR Terminal 2 trials

Hi all,

Have anyone of you taken part in the Terminal 2 trials that are coming to an end this weekend ?
My partner and I are registered for this Saturday. I'm really excited and curious to discover the new T2 ... If anyone is registered for Saturday, let me know !

Yes, done one last month and also doing the one this Sat.

You're given a brief telling you who you are, what "flight" you're catching, how much luggage you've got and whether you need to do anything extra before departure eg pick up travel money, claim a VAT refund or visit a lounge. You then follow the normal departures process, sadly stopping just short of actually getting on the plane!

It's an impressive building, very similar in design and layout to T5. They lay on some refreshments and entertainment while you wait, and there's a much nicer atmosphere than you normally get at an airport where a lot of people seem very stressed out.

Thanks a lot Gumshoe ! Even more looking forward to it now !

Hi Julmops

I've attended 6 trials to date & will also be attending Saturday. Every trial has been very interesting because you see various areas of T2, both land side & air side. Also, chatting to other trials pax os very interesting. I chatted to a retired BA ccm the other week who recalled being able to travel on Concorde for £250 return to NY.

The Slipstream sculpture is certainly a talking point. As it has now been officially unveiled, staff are happy for photos to be taken.

I'm scheduled for 10.30 & have received my pass to park. One thing is for sure, I'll never be able to park so close to the lifts in the car park once the terminal is open.

This is scheduled to be the largest trial to date, when I started attending, there was only approx 150 of us, now it's scheduled to be several thousand.

Hope you enjoy the day. Do remember that there can be a bit of hanging about so take something to keep yourself occupied (I've often spent my time deleting old messages & texts). And wear comfy shoes.

Have a great day

TTFN

Roxy-popsy

I will also be there from 10:30.

We should try and have a bit of a get together although may be tricky to arrange.
For those on the lookout I will have my v-flyer luggage tags attached to my backpack.

So back in T2 departures, today my name is Elvis Presley (!!!) and I'm off to EDI on VS Little Red!

Managed to cause all sorts of problems at security, I suspect because I entered my real FC number at self service check in so it threw the system (well it's worth a try - how hilarious would it be if they give me 1500 miles and a TP for a non-existent flight!!!).

Chatting to the agent at bag drop, he told me LR will normally use gates A21-26 along with EI but at times they may use remote stands as it's really the Star Alliance terminal and EI/VS are just "guests". (EDIT: although a member of LHR staff has just told me they won't use remote stands. Fingers crossed!)

Also the EI/VS lounge has moved from the last trial I did - only next door but it looks like Lufthansa/Star Alliance will now be in the much bigger lounge and EI/VS will use the smaller one (No doubt that was always the plan but they just got the signage wrong last time). Still a building site so no chance to look inside

I'm in departure area with CHill710 and RoxyPopsy. Near the muffins.

I got Little Red to Manchester. Seq 53.

Cool. I've just "boarded".

Now off to Singapore on SQ!

Me and RP have boarded and are now stuck in 2B at the top of an escalator that is not working waiting to go back to arrivals. Looking at a VS A330 out side the window (I think lady love).
Could do with the air con on as we are sweating buckets.

At Gate A23

And now to Dublin on EI!

A busy schedule for me:

LHR-MAN on VS
DXB-LHR on EK
LHR-SIN on SQ
IST-LHR on TK
LHR-DUB on EI
SNN-LHR on EI

All in 3 hours with no jetlag!!

I think gates A18-20 are definitely the place to be for runway views.

[honey lamb]

And now to Dublin on EI!

A busy schedule for me:

LHR-MAN on VS
DXB-LHR on EK
LHR-SIN on SQ
IST-LHR on TK
LHR-DUB on EI
SNN-LHR on EI

All in 3 hours with no jetlag!!

I think gates A18-20 are definitely the place to be for runway views.

No flights to/from Cork

Afraid not!

Well, that was a disaster, although meeting up with Sealink & Chill710 was a pleasure.

Chill710 & I finally left the sweltering area within T2B where we were held due to a fire alarm going off, along with several hundred other pax, only to be returned to gate B44 where we had just come from. We were held there for some considerable time with staff handing out bottles of water & kitkats but no information for a while.

It turned out that due to the incident, the fire brgade had been called & had to secure the area before pax could return to T2 via the underground tunnel. After exiting the tunnel we walked up the very long stationary down escalator :0 Some folks were stopping half way up because the climb was too much for them. That meant much bunching up on the escalator.

Chill710 & I hadn't had any lunch before heading off to T2B as the queue had literally had hundreds of pax in it & only one lunch station, & we had to depart to T2B.

When we finally returned to T2 we were able to obtain lunch & we sank down in the nearest seats & consumed it quickly as were were starving. We then headed off to gate A16 to walk to baggage reclaim & walked out, returning our lanyards to staff on the way. There was no way we were going to hunt for a specified bag each as per our scripts.

As we exited the building, staff were handing out thank you gifts to masses of trials pax, umbrellas & purple logo toiletry bags.

Imagine the scene, stacks of people, many disillusioned & disappointed by their experience, (due to the unforeseen fire alarm going off), some still not having had lunch, being handed lethal weapons which they they had to try not to dig into other pax legs, arms & torsos.

Sealink had been loitering by the lifts for a while watching this scene waiting for us, so we met up & drove to T3 for refreshment & a chat.

Such a shame it descended into a farce for some of us.

Nice to meet you Sealink & Chill710 y)

TTFN

Roxy Popsy.

Gosh it sounds like you had a nightmare! All my "flights" were from the A gates - where everything went according to plan AFAIK - so thankfully I never had cause to venture over to the B satellite.

At the end of the day, though, I guess that's what these trials are for. Far better it happened today than once it's open properly. All the LHR bigwigs will have been there so let's hope they learn lessons ...

We had a great time yesterday! Quite disappointing "flights" flying with Swiss to Berne and arriving on Germanwings from Stuttgart... Both scenarios being very flat with no extras... Leaving from gate A17. I thought everything was very well organised and the crowd behaved well too.
I was well impressed with the large security area, bright and airy...
We queued for about 10 minutes to get our lunch so no big deal for us...
All in all, an interesting day but all done within 2 hours... Would have loved another round ...

Took part in the mid April trial. Parked up and then into a very large rent, staff were helpful and the crowd were in good spirits. Was allocated business class flights with United and went through to check in. First contact was a bit weird as the security guard upon being told I was a diabetic wanted to measure my needle, he seemed to be totally thrown by the whole thing. Then into a line, however apart from one lady, there appeared to be no one else checking in the passengers. The passengers started to become restless (you are warned about waiting during the trial) and they did give out water. One passenger even took control to update everyone about what was happening up front, however she took a bit of flak for it, people were started to get quiet rude, a few people even started to panic as they may miss their flights. One lady even pulled the diabetic card, staff offered to call first aid, however she was not unwell but just diabetic. Finally through to security, equipment all ok but again a little under staffed, some passengers were going behind the scanners to get their bags and shoes which did not go down well with the security staff. Witnessed one man shouting at his wife to hurry up as they were close to missing their flight and no she was not allowed to go and get her free lunch bag. Rarely gave I seen a passenger in such a panic over a flight! Lunch and the actual departure area were fine, it is almost a clone of T5, good views of the runways looking out East. Even provided GF options for lunch, which was a big plus for me. Overall it looks like it will be a grata terminal like T5, once they have real pax in there I am sure it will work fine although I am not sure if I will ever get to use it? One downside, they should have a warning about the escalators from the main departure area to the satellite gates, they are very long and I think some people would prefer to use the lifts.