As I posted the other day, I’m going to England for the week (yay!) and I’m flying into Heathrow, Terminal 3. My husband is arriving from Spain 3 hours later, in Terminal 1. Neither of our cell phones will work in the UK, apparently, so pretty much we have to find each other on our own, using eyes and ears and such!
Is there an obvious meet-up point in Terminal 1, where I’ll likely see him arrive from baggage claim/customs, or is the arrivals waiting area a big huge place where we’ll be wandering around for hours hoping to bump into each other? Some sort of statue or restaurant or something that stands out?
I assume the gate his flight arrived at will be posted, but my experience thus far in airports tells me that doesn’t mean much when it comes to people waiting in Arrivals.
I leave my house at 7pm Eastern (5 hours from now), so a quick answer would be appreciated. I’ll be able to email him to tell him the landmark, if there is one!
All international arrivals at any British airport emerge, after immigration and customs, through a single route into the public arrivals area. The flight information screens will give you the ‘expected mmhh’/‘landed mmhh’/‘baggage in hall’ routine, at which point you can mooch around this area waiting for him to appear. If you can’t identify him, I’d be worried about your marriage
Heathrow Terminal 1 has a designated Meeting Point (symbol of 4 arrows coming together on a yellow background) which might be the easiest place to find each other.
After you clear immigration and customs, you can walk from T3 to T1 using a system of underground passageways. Some of these have moving walkways and you can push a baggage cart through them.
I’d second the suggestion to use a designated meeting point, but you could also follow signs to “International Arrivals” in T1 - it’s the area below the main departure hall.
Heathrow is a big airport, but the individual terminals (there are five) are not exceptionally large. Terminal 1 is not the largest, so I can’t imagine two intelligent people who are on the same level (e.g. arrivals) having much problem. Arrange to rendezvous at the meeting point or at the information desk.
I think the meeting points, hopefully in sight of the arrival tunnel for his flight is the best place. I was just worried it would be such a big area that it could be confusing. I’m flying overnight, but he’s likely to work throughout the night and not get much if any sleep before his flight, so we might miss each other out of exhaustion-induced stupidity more than anything else
I am looking forward to this so much, I’m overthinking everything! Thanks for the quick responses!
Apprently, what I’d forgotten is that airlines can be incredibly incompetent… as it turns out, due to a maintenance issue and poor planning/coordination at Pearson airport, I missed my connection, and then was unable to get onto the following flight the next morning on standby (in the meantime, Air Canada lost my luggage, but we did find it the next day… it took the standby plane I couldn’t get on!), and i didn’t get to Heathrow until the third plane, which landed at 6:20am Monday morning. My husband went on to Brighton, and I ended up taking the bus from Heathrow, so all this was unnecessary. Quite a nightmare, but I’m here now and having a good time.
I did see the meeting point signs at Terminal 3, though, so for the future, I know what to look for! Thanks!
Actually, I’ve never had problems with Air Canada, and at least some of the problems were the GTAA’s fault. Comfort (as much as possible in economy class) and service and even food-wise, I haven’t really had any better experiences from other airlines, and Ive had much worse. Besides, I now have enough compensation to take another trip this year. Hubby travels enough that I’ll likely get a chance to use it. Can’t complain too much (though I certainly did on Sunday!)
