Gates at big airports like Heathrow....

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Bes

Bes

Bes

Soldato
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Hi

I got in from South Africa this morning and when I was walking down the 'tube' that connects the aircraft to the gate, I wondered:

Why is it you can never see the departures section when you are walking down into arrivals and vice- versa? It's not like there are even any doors in the 'tube' that could potentially lead to the departures area! How do they do it? Magic?

Thanks
 
Last time I was in an airport was Heathrow Terminal 1, not small by any stretch of the imagination and I walked right past the departures bit when arriving back there.
 
Yeah but they always seem to have rows of gates next to each other in depatures. So say you depart at gate 23, gates 22 and 24 are either side (and visible, there's like a little seating area by each one!) Yet somehow, you dont see any of this when arriving!
 
Philly international has glass dividers, and it's easy to see the way on compared to the way off.

From what I've seen at Heathrow, I know you end up downstairs getting off, but you're upstairs getting on, beyond that, who knows? :D
 
OK that seems fair enough as a lot of airports (eg) Bristol have that layout (and you can see it as the whole thing is made of glass, but it has no 'tubes' twixt air-bound vessel and terminal) but how does the 'tube' route you one way or the other (i.e. up/ down)?
 
In certain terminals in Paris, they use a 4-way door system. Arriving passengers are 'penned' through those of us in the terminal.

My question is, why did I have to queue over an hour for half of Heathrow's passengers to pass through 2 security gates, when other airports are quieter but have atleast twice as many. Heathrow sucks.
 
Bes said:
Oh no no no Go to Johannesburg Intl THAT SUCKS!!!!
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Purely on a theft scale, then yes, that is pretty bad. However, it was being renovated when I was there and things were looking good. The guy I was with ensured I had no theft trouble. :cool:
 
Hidden said:
Speaking of airport gates and that, has anyone ever actually been to Gate 1 anywhere??
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Normally I'm in the mid-thirties. There was once I was Gate 2, and having just arrived thought I was in luck. For some reason they started numbering from the furthest point. Bar stewards.
 
Hidden said:
Speaking of airport gates and that, has anyone ever actually been to Gate 1 anywhere??
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Gate 1, T1, Heathrow for me. Normally when I fly to Glasgow.


As for bad airports, Heathrow is way up there. It's dated and badly designed.

The worst major airport I've ever been through was Ahtens, before it was re-vamped for the Olympics. I use to dread going through that airport. Much better now though.
 
Jokester's never been to Chicago-O'Hare or Seattle, then.

LAX isn't too bad, nor is Portland, Oregon. But San Diego is a nightmare, as is Sydney. Minneapolis/St. Paul is a cluster ****, but once you've been through it a couple times you get used to it.

Bahrain leaves you wondering what volume of crack the designer was on, but you can at least navigate it, but Frankfurt just needs to be torn down and replaced with something a little more...... um...... realistic is the only word I can come up with. :confused:
 
Mickey_D said:
Minneapolis/St. Paul is a cluster ****,
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It's way way better than Heathrow, though Detroits Customs/Immigration is a complete nightmare now.

Oh yeah, Madrid is a hell hole as well, 2 international flights through one security scanner for connecting flights :confused: .

Jokester
 
Jokester said:
Oh yeah, Madrid is a hell hole as well, 2 international flights through one security scanner for connecting flights :confused: .

Jokester
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There's a whole sephierical outpost with about 5 gates away from the Terminal at Geneva which has this - but much worse.
You walk under the tarmac to the elevator up to the gates, where there is a natural bottle neck - but they've decided to add the security here. One walk through scanner and one hand luggage scanner for potentialy 5 flights?

Madness!

Thankfully I tend to go to Zurich more recently - it's almost a joy to use that airport.
 
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