Heathrow, terminal 5 and BA!

dontcha love the term "homeland security" bags ? Spin or what

They even did Minibags's fingerprints and irises at New York when she was nine years old. Bonkers control freakishness.

And very slow anno if you arrive at the same time as a jumbo or two from China. 2 hours is not enough to make a connecting flight with any comfort it seems.
I think the LAX border staff are the slowest though and why they have to do finger print AND iris recognition, every time, if you are only transiting the states without setting foot landside - getting back on the same aircraft even

Oh yes, I'd forgotten how abrasive Sydney immigration was. Auckland, on the other hand - very friendly.

LAX is indeed horrible - in its own special way. Heathrow horrible IMO because they cram too many passengers and retail into small spaces. Lax i think is owned by the city (this is norm in US I believe) and was designed as a row of separate terminals rather than a normal airport with internal transfer routes.
HK is a palace and staff always seem hyper-efficient.
Sydney immigration a pain in the bum.
NZ airports

LAX is pretty horrible too. You nearly always have to retrieve your luggage and go through the whole rigmarole of customs and immigration, then back again through security to your onward flight. You are also instructed to leave your suitcases unlocked. I try to avoid flying via the US as it is really set up for internal not international flights. Lots of major airports don't even have transit lounges, hence the heaving your luggage backwards and forwards scenario.

You should try an eight hour wait at Ben Gurion as I once had to do - and to make things worse I was lumbered with one of the most miserable women I have ever met -- a half German half 'Native American' stripper who spent her life complaining that 'the public do not like me...'

Not one of the best Airport experiences! And for the life of me I can't recall how it came about...

I find De Gaulle a nightmarish place. The signage to baggage reclaim in Terminal 3 is terrible, whether or not you read French. My GD had a bad experience there. She had to change flights there on the way to and from Florida. On the outward flight, her baggage was transferred to the onward flight automatically. On the way back, nobody told her she had to collect and re-check her baggage, so it was a shock when she got back to Manchester without it. Hanging around some airports - Schiphol, for example - isn't too great an ordeal, but I don't care to repeat the experience at DeGaulle.

Edinburgh Airport is one of the best I have been to. We went to my daughters wedding in Derby, the homeward journey should of taken 4 hours, leave East Midlands 7am to Glasgow, a short wait than plane to Benbecula then home by 12, it took us 32 hours to get home. we got to Glasgow fine, went to board the next plane but there was a delay because there was fog in the Atlantic, we waited 2 hours then the airline decided it would be aright to go, it was still foggy so we flew round the airport at Benbecula for an hour in the hopes that the fog would lift, The pilot made an announcement saying we have to go back to Glasgow before we ran out of fuel and to book for the next flight at Flybe's desk in the main pat of the airport, which would be on a first come first served bases. Because I can't walk fast we were the last to get to the desk, to be told because of the backlog we would have to wait 2 days to get home. I told the girl on the desk unless you want me to have a heart attack here and now whilst showing her all my medication, she then became very helpful, We had a taxi from Glasgow to Edinburgh a night in a lovely hotel with full board and room service. Next morning a taxi arrived to take us to the airport we then flew to Inverness, after a short wait we flew to Stornoway then our last flight was a 20 minute one to Benbecula in a small 17 seater plane which was fun. Needless to say by the time we got home we were quite tired.

Yes i think you are right there Elegran. Its the airport not the carrier.

In many years of being an Xpat i have travelled with many air carriers, Easyjet 7/8 times a year before Ryanair started flying to Edinburgh, sometimes good sometimes bad. My DD has just remined me of the reason she will not travel by train alone.
She had flown from Brussels to Aberdeen via Gatwick, British Midland, age 13, she has been travelling unaccompanied since she was 7. From Aberdeen to Edinburgh to spend some time with my family, i had flown over 4 days after her, was by British Rail, her Aunt paid extra for her to be assisted and put off the train at the correct Station in Edinburgh, unfortunately somone didn't read the ticket she had and she was put off in Edinburgh Haymarket not Waverly where I was waiting for her. The chaos began, I was taken to the other station only to find she had also been moved, then some bright spark put her on a train which did not stop at Haymarket and she was on her way on an express to London. I got the police involved and they took her off the train in Berwick-upon-Tweed, 6 hours after I was supposed to meet her she finally arrived safely in Edinburgh. She has never got on a train alone since.The Railway Police were brilliant, and all praise for British Midland who re-organised our flights home without extra charge at the airport when they discovered we were on different flights. DD was not too happy then as she loved being looked after by the staff when flying alone.

Downstairs !!!!!!!

Thiefrow, can't find my glasses, DGS was donstairs with Grandma for the weekend.

Ryanair own Charleoi Airport, so the staff there are employed by them. I was trying to make the point that good and bad service can be found everywhere, no matter how much you pay. I had a friend who years ago worked at Heathrow, and all the staff called it Theifrow, as so much stuff 'disappeared'.
Ryanair are a large employer in a quite impoverished part of Belguim and I think people there, except for the local council, who are always complaining they don't pay enough in local taxes, are very glad to get steady employment.

Once on the plane it is down the crew, of course. I am talking of the service from the terminal entrance to the plane, and back.

Don't want to disillusion you with Ryanair, but the assistance for the disabled at airports is really down to the airport, not the individual company. We booked assistance for DH with Easyjet at Edinburgh and Bristol airports, but it was carried out (very well) by people who did the same service for people travelling by other companies' planes.

Was it Edinburgh that you landed at?

Since becoming disabled I have been a bit worried about travelling alone, then I visited Scotland two years ago and had a really great experience, helpful friendly staff wheelchairs awaiting me, assistance going through security, great on the planes both ways in fact on landing at Charleoi, yep, the young man insisted on pushing me to my friends car and even loading my bag into the car, and he wouldn't take the 10€ my friend offered him for his help, yep the punchline, RYANAIR,,,, I know I was probably very very lucky, the comic touch came when i got home and wanted to send a mail thanking them,praise where praise is due, and all I could find was a complaints site.!!!!!
The worst airport ever is Charles de Gaulle in Paris, awful, a friend and his Mother were caught up in the fiasco when Terminal 5 opened and are still waiting for their bags to be returned and compensation !!!!

Well Spain is certainly not a world leader in disability issues

BAA is owned by a consortium led by the Spanish company Ferrovial which appears to have tentacles everywhere - worldwide.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow_Airport_Holdings

I have reported my moan to GNHQ .they have replied saying they are asking for their comments on their twitter site, (I think?)

Isn't there a single company that owns Heathrow and Gatwick? Ah yes - formerly known as BAA. Bet the managers did OK after being handed this on a plate from a past government. They have a near monopoly in the UK - Heathrow and Gatwick included.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow_Airport_Holdings

The two places where I have had trouble have been Heathrow and Sharm el Sheikh. Tbh, Heathrow were all right when we were going out to the States, just appalling when we came back. An (even more) elderly gentleman and I got off the transatlantic flight almost at the last; I was first and they had my wheelchair waiting - nothing for the elderly chap who said he had arranged one. "It's not far", said the porter, and the elderly chap was persuaded to walk to the next place - it was a long way, though and I felt dreadful that I was in the wheelchair, but I knew that I couldn't manage it either. We were put in a sort of holding area (lots of staff, standing around, gossiping) and eventually someone came and asked both of us (strangely we were both going on to Newcastle) if we could walk through security - err, no, that's why we ordered a wheelchair. We both refused to be intimidated and eventually two wheelchairs turned up.

Again when we arrived at Sharm everything was fine, and all was ok until we were at the gate to come home. There must have been at least six of us in wheelchairs, of various ages and disabilities. There was a special vehicle to take everyone to the plane (with a platform which could be raised to get people actually onto the plane). So there we all were, with assorted helpers, and the driver went round and asked everyone for money before he would go! Then, when he did set off, I realised that the wheelchair I was in hadn't been secured and it shot across the inside of the vehicle and I hit the wall on the other side. We were flying with Thomson and they were aghast when they realised what had happened.

Every single porter I have had in the States has been lovely and helpful - last year a young man ran with me through Minneapolis Airport so that we could catch our next flight - what a hero.

Galen What an exhausting experience, it must have spoilt your whole holiday. I hope you are starting to feel better now.
Sadly I don't think that it is just Heathrow Airport.
A good friend had a similar experience accompanying his wife who is now completely wheelchair bound, from Gatwick. They were so humiliated by being blamed in front the rest passengers for holding up the plane, when it was BA's fault that they weren't there on time, that she was in tears and they have never flown BA again.
On our last trip with Easy Jet, long story but conditions for disabled passengers were so bad that Dh and I waited for a supervisor to come from the other terminal so that we could complain there and then. He was extremely sympathetic and asked us to complain in writing as well because the airlines would not employ more and better assistance staff unless more people complained.

Good. Now we'll sit back and wait for a proper apology and some compensation for your distress. Over to you, Terminal 5....

Thanks Bags I think I've done it right. It seemed to go ok! I did two, one for going and one for coming.
I DO meticulously plan everything as it is the only way I can manage travelling solo! however this has put me off flying in future.
Unless I take up long distance swimming, I'm going to be confined to cruises from Southampton from now on. (Not quite sure how I'd manage all my evening dresses and pearls swimming though)