Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024: Day 6 – London Heathrow LHR to Malaga AGP

When I got back to T5, I found a humongous queue for north security – longer than I had seen before.

I had my own issues going through The First Wing (TFW) security again. The system realised I had already gone through (before 10am) but I was trying to go through again.

I suspected this might cause an issue, but the BA lounge agent thought I’d be able to go straight through without any issues.

Security at TFW involves two checks:

1. A check by BA to (I assume) ensure the passenger is entitled to use TFW, and,
2. The normal Heathrow Security check that the passenger has a valid boarding pass for today in this terminal etc.

The first BA check was fine. Good to go.

The second automated boarding pass check (5 metres behind the first BA check) wouldn’t let me through.

The security guy, looking after manual checks, had to ring his supervisor to ask what he needed to do next.

I was advised to go to a BA rep to get them to come to him to confirm I was still on the flight.

I guess I may have gone airside, then been offloaded (for some reason), gone landside and then tried to use the same boarding pass to go airside again?

So I turned around, looked at the BA reps manning the first BA security check and asked the BA reps to confirm to the guy stood next to me that I was still on the flight.

Funnily enough, they were happy to confirm this. It was a little bizarre, to say the least.

I got back into the CCR, and I realised I had to buy another Euro adapter since I had forgotten to bring one.

I popped into the First Lounge for some lunch. There was a Goan curry, rice and peas, and bombay potato pies. All really nice.

That would keep me going through to my flight to Malaga.

My flight was due to leave from Gate A19, and it was running about 30 mins late.

By the time we pushed back, that was closer to an hour late. I had a decent amount of time at Malaga, so I wasn’t worried.

I took the opportunity of boarding as part of Group 0, even though it’s not actually boarding, nor did I really need to (I had no cabin luggage with me at all).

On into seat 01D. A window seat wasn’t available with my late change to my itinerary.

I was amazed by how many older people were making the trip. There were not many of us younger than 60 it seemed.

We pushed back even later than expected, but taxiing didn’t take long.

Drinks service started quickly. Just water for me. BA appear to have changed their mixed nuts supplier, and the guy next to me in my normal seat gave me his bag of nuts!

There’s hope for the world yet…

I looked back from row 1, and I don’t think I have ever seen as big a Club Europe cabin as today. It must have been half of the aircraft. BA must be making a bomb on this route…

Dinner comprised a roast chicken with pigs in blankets, which was really good.

The starter was another odd affair, but the pudding was a classic BA chocolate mousse, which was gorgeous.

Cheese and biscuits went down well also.

From the end of the meal service, there seemed to be a continual queue running down the aisle for the bathroom. As I was sat in 01D, I couldn’t get away from them.

The rest of the flight passed relatively uneventfully, and we arrived into (what I think was) Gate C31.

I was off first, but there didn’t appear to be any signs for flight connections.

I walked around a maze of corridors hoping to see that magical sign Flight Connections, but it never appeared.

I asked one of the airport cleaners who spoke fluent English, and he explained that there was no Flight Connections in this part of the airport.

I needed to go landside and then back in. He even apologised!

Anyway, I followed the signs for baggage reclaim and exit. I finally entered a huge passport control room, which was broadly split into two: EU residents on the left and the rest of the world on the right.

To be fair, there were similar numbers of passengers on both sides: LOADS. The queue snaked around following tensa barriers. But the EU queue seemed to move a lot faster, due to the cursory checks of passports.

The British flag was explicitly marked away from the EU queue, just in case anyone was confused!

I thought I would be here for a long time, but it moved fairly quickly, and I think I must have been through in 15 mins.

The border force guy I saw was very pleasant, didn’t ask any questions, but checked the content of my passport chip before handing my passport back.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024