Immigration Wait time for QF9 arrival@LHR

[ajw373]

Just curious if anyone who has flown to LHR on QF9 can advise what Immigration wait times are like for an ontime arrival.

From what I can tell it is the first arrival at T3 by a good 25 minutes, so would imagine the queues won't be very long at that hour of the morning. But who knows maybe they only have a skelleton staff at that time of the day.

Flying in Economy with family, so no fast track (for all the good that did last time I went to the UK where it was slower than normal line, T5 at 4pm). So just curious so I can book a mini cab without either us or the driver waiting a long time. Was thinking a 545 pickup, giving 40 mins from plane to exiting customs.

 

[AIRwin]

I can report back after my arrival on Saturday

 

[sudoer]

Flying in Economy with family, so no fast track

Are you OWE by any chance? That will get you Fast Track access at LHR T3 even if flying in Y.

 

[ajw373]

Just a lowly (life) sapphire I am afraid.

 

[AIRwin]

I can report back after my arrival on Saturday

My QF9 flight landed right on schedule at 5:05 this morning - there were only a few people ahead of me in the immigration queue even though I was seated in the second last row so I decided to keep the fast track card for future use. And my bag was already on the carousel. I was out of there by 5:30 and in fact the longest wait I faced was 7 minutes for the tube!

 

[ajw373]

My QF9 flight landed right on schedule at 5:05 this morning - there were only a few people ahead of me in the immigration queue even though I was seated in the second last row so I decided to keep the fast track card for future use. And my bag was already on the carousel. I was out of there by 5:30 and in fact the longest wait I faced was 7 minutes for the tube!

That’s good to hear and what one would expect. Thanks for getting back.

 

[ChrisDPom]

Done this run 3 times this year and had very variable experience. Many of the eGates are not active that early (they need a staff member for each bank of gates). If non UK/ European passport the line can be quite slow (again, few staff on that early).

The biggest problem I have found is luggage - it seems to arrive in 4 batches due to the size of the luggage hold. I am tagged priority and usually have a good run through the eGates but have never been as lucky as AIRwin.

Have still usually had to wait 15 mins + for the luggage (a couple of times, almost 1 hour after we disembarked).

 

[downgraded]

Done this run 3 times this year and had very variable experience. Many of the eGates are not active that early (they need a staff member for each bank of gates). If non UK/ European passport the line can be quite slow (again, few staff on that early).

The biggest problem I have found is luggage - it seems to arrive in 4 batches due to the size of the luggage hold. I am tagged priority and usually have a good run through the eGates but have never been as lucky as AIRwin.

Have still usually had to wait 15 mins + for the luggage (a couple of times, almost 1 hour after we disembarked).

I've found the arrival process very quick. Even when the egates weren't open, there was no queue for the staffed counters, and thus far priority luggage has worked for me on QF9 in a way it usually fails.

Plane to kerbside had only been a couple of minutes longer than the walk itself.

 

[Pug1]

I guess we must have been unlucky in T3 when we arrived on CX around 06.00 hours in July. Using our Oz passports for entry we had a massive queue and waited over an hour. One of the atttendant officers noticed we looked a bit "off colour" or our grey hair! (straight from Sydney), and asked my wife and I to join the express queue, which was almost empty. Otherwise we would have been there at least another half hour. I put the wait down to the arrival of a couple of other flights from China at the same time and skeleton staffing. Unfortunately we didn't bring our EU passports with us, which would have allowed us to breeze through that queue in minutes. Personally we hate Heathrow and perhaps the airport senses our arrival!

 

[justinbrett]

I usually fly into Heathrow on BA (T5) and don’t recall ever queuing more than 5 minutes or so.

 

[downgraded]

I've found the arrival process very quick. Even when the egates weren't open, there was no queue for the staffed counters, and thus far priority luggage has worked for me on QF9 in a way it usually fails.

Plane to kerbside had only been a couple of minutes longer than the walk itself.

Also, the earlier arrival time of QF9 vs QF1 speeds the exit from LHR as there's almost no other arrivals that early.