Heathow Timeline

Check in

I was recently on my annual vacation, travelling from UK (London) to India (Kolkata) on an Air India flight. It was Thursday night and the railways have had a bit of trouble, but I still managed to reach Heathrow well ahead of the departure time.

The Air India desk on Terminal three were having two desks open and three other support staff and I was treated like royalty. The luggage was checked in and the usual security questions answered in a jiffy and I was on my way to security check-in.

Security Desk

I never understood this concept of single hand luggage and having the laptops out. It just makes life difficult that you had to carry the laptop in your hand luggage and then either carry the laptop bag within the luggage/hand-luggage separately, or push your luck and carry the laptop without the case. This creates more commotion and chaos in the airport than it has resolved. Never realized how it helped the "security situation" either.

The security desks had a long line but it was moving, so I braced myself, removed my jacket, belt, wallet, keys and change, and had the laptop out, wish I had 10 hands, really. Oh! by the way, I had all the creams and gel in transparent plastic bags. Anyway, none of the alarms screamed when I went past in about 10 minutes and I was thrilled. As I was busy putting my jacket and belt on, stuffing my wallet, I was a bit surprised to see another line in front of me.

I didn't think I had to queue again, so I was just dodging by when the security officers guided me to the queue. I now realized that I had to open my shoes for this one. OK, why did I walk through the scanner then. Anyway, opened my shoes and went through with it.

Post security desk security check

And then as I collected myself up, there was another queue, this time for passport verification, what did they do at the check-in desk then? Anyway, after a few perfunctory question I was waved through. And then I had the duty-free shopping. I never understood if everything was scanned through, why I had to buy my water inside the airport.

A story about a bottle of water

Once in Stansted, when an officer was asked if a passenger could take a water bottle through the security check-in. The officer was confused and had no answer as to why the passenger cannot. He then asked if it was purchased in the airport. God bless the passenger, he honestly answered "No". As if that was proof enough, the officer declined to let him through, as if anything purchased in the hallowed grounds of the airport (inside/outside of security) is good enough to take on-board.

Lounge security

And then I proceeded to the gate marked for my departure. As I trudged along about 300 metres to reach the lounge, I was met by a nice lady at the door and was asked to show my ticket and passport - fair enough. After it was checked out, I was informed that there are no toilets inside the lounge and once I get in, I can't come out to go to the rest room. It was still about 75 minutes to take-off and I was not sure if the flight will be delayed.

I gave up and walked in, only to be greeted by two more airport official. After a long day at work and a 2 hour journey to the airport, I wasn't energetic enough to be angry about it - I was just exasperated. I went through a full body frisk and a full hand-baggage frisk. Just when I thought that I can finally take a seat and wait to be called for boarding I had to get past this other officer, who was at a desk with some list and was checking tickets and passports. I waited patiently for him to get through only because I could see no further barriers between the desk and the lounge. And finally I reached ...

The other side

On the other side of this paranoia is a completely different picture. The first time that I entered Dublin, I had a stamp on my passport which neither said when I entered or why (they scribble it!) or for how long. And when returning from Dublin to London Stansted, I got down from the plane and got out of the airport just by displaying the stub of my boarding pass! Oh! and when I went to Switzerland, they didn't even stamp my passport (I was going based on my UK Work permit, not even a Swiss visa).