I went to Morocco 2 weeks ago and thought I would share my experiences.

The holiday was great fantastic place to visit, locals really pleased to see us as they only opened up in February after 2 years.

Now the bad stuff.

BA forced me to download an APP called Verifly which I then had to upload all my covid stuff e.g.. NHS vaccine and PCR test. This was to allow me to check in online so I would get through T5 easily.

All I needed to do was check my bag in and go through security an passport control. We arrived 3 hours early when bag check in was supposed to be open, it wasn't for another hour. Most passengers had done the same as me and checked in online so there were thousands of passenger queuing for bag drop off.

My friend had not checked in online and it turned out the queues for those who hadn't done any checking in were smaller than the bag drop off, so I went with her. Bottom line it took me 2 hours to drop my bag and get through security we made the flight but had not time to shop or relax. Oh and the Verify app that was supposed to speed me through was useless I had to queue with everyone else so pointless.

Coming home it gets better.

Picked up at 8.30am for a noon flight to Heathrow. About 3pm they announced the flight was delayed until 1pm the next day. This was deja vu for some of the passengers as they had been due to fly the previous day so cancelled twice. BA also cancelled their flights to Gatwick as did Easyjet.

We had to go through the rigmarole of getting our bags and security by the time we got to the hotel it was about 8pm.

Yesterday we got their early as per their request and were delayed for a further 3 hours finally we got to Heathrow and just after 7. Passport and security wasn't too bad then we were told our bags would take about 1 1/2 hours as they did not have the staff. I left about 8.45.

The airlines / Heathrow and Border Force need to be held to account this is all very predictable but daily I read about problems and apparently Manchester is even worse.

If any of you are travelling over Easter good luck because it will be a "mare"

Edited by Badger11 (06 Apr 2022 10.35am)

One more point

Just to make it even more interesting on the night before the holiday was due to finish I came down with sever food poisoning. Explosive diarrhoea is an understatement. I am still in bed recovering and I missed the Palace game bloody BA.

One more point

Tx for the heads-up. I'm off on Friday to Budapest.

Here's hoping....

Badger just one point, why are you putting any blame on BF? You do not go through passport control on departure and you have said passport was ok on arrival?
BF have a lot to answer for and queues will be bad ( staff shortages etc) but not sure they are to blame on this occasion

I am surprised passport was checked twice, maybe you singled out by Counter Terrorism Unit With regard to the gates, I sympathise, they are not perfect, so many little issues can stop them working ( perhaps another thread). The lady was probably a presenter (BF would have been in uniform), employed by the airport. She should have tried another gate but if it was busy, she was possibly just following instructions. Not an excuse but just what happens in my experience.
Hope the holiday was worth the hassle!

You are correct Heathrow is a total mess and I suspect will get worse. Officers from other ports forever being redeployed to assist

Edited by Spiderman (06 Apr 2022 3.58pm)

Excellent let's hope they are getting their act together, people work hard for their breaks.

One more point