On this page (6 sections)
Who is this page for, and what is free?
You probably know roughly what you need: somewhere to check in, the security queue, a bag drop, food, money, wifi, or help on arrival. This page points you to the right spoke for each, and carries the cross-cutting answers no single page owns.
Start with the distinction that explains most of the confusion at an airport: landside versus airside. Landside is everywhere before security on the way out and after the border on the way in. That is the check-in halls, the arrivals concourse, the currency desks, left luggage and the meeting points. Airside is everything past the security search: the duty-free halls, the lounges, the gates. A service is only reachable from the side you are on, which is why a duty-free bottle is bought airside and a left-luggage bag is dropped landside.
A lot of what you need is free. The wifi, the meeting points, baggage reclaim, the green help points and special assistance all cost nothing, and customs is free to walk through if you are inside your allowances. The paid services are the optional upgrades and the retail: Fast Track, left luggage, currency exchange and anything bought in the shops. Most landside services run from roughly 05:00 to 22:00 or 23:00, a few run around the clock, and live security wait times sit in the official Heathrow app rather than on the website. If you are stuck, the green help points connect you straight to a person, and the airport's customer line is 0344 335 1801.
What do you need before you fly?
The departing passenger needs a handful of things between the terminal door and the gate, and they come in order: check in, drop bags, clear security, find somewhere to wait.
Airline check-in opening times vary by carrier and terminal. The earliest desks open at 03:30 for British Airways First and Club at Terminal 5; most short-haul desks open about two hours before departure and long-haul about three. Check-in closes 45 minutes before a short-haul flight and 60 before long-haul on most airlines, and it does not reopen.
Security wait times were under five minutes for 97% of passengers across 2025, but peaks form between 05:00 and 08:00 and again between 16:00 and 19:00. The live figure is in the Heathrow app, not on the website. If you would rather not gamble on the queue, Fast Track buys a separate, shorter security lane from £12.99 per person, and it comes included with many business and first-class tickets and frequent-flyer tiers.
Two things decide whether security goes smoothly: your liquids and your bag size. The liquids rule changes as scanners are upgraded, so the current liquids and hand luggage rule is the page to check before you pack rather than a number to memorise here. Heathrow luggage allowance covers the cabin-bag size gauge, the two-piece policy at the search and the hold-baggage limits that vary by airline.
What is there once you are through security?
Airside, with a boarding pass and time to spare, Heathrow is as much a shopping centre as an airport. It was named the world's best airport for shopping at the 2026 Skytrax awards, with more than 300 shops and restaurants across the four terminals. Heathrow shopping covers the brand line-up by terminal, from the Terminal 5 luxury hall down to the smaller Terminal 4 cluster, plus the Reserve and Collect service that lets you order ahead and pick up airside. For where to eat, the Heathrow restaurants overview compares the food offer terminal by terminal.
For the alcohol, tobacco and fragrance with the duty stripped out, World Duty Free and your allowances is the spoke; it also explains what counts as genuinely duty free and what is ordinary tax-inclusive travel retail. Currency exchange covers the Global Exchange counters across the terminals, with an honest note that airport rates run several points off the mid-market and that ordering ahead or a travel card usually beats the walk-up window. And free Heathrow wifi reaches across all four terminals with a one-step sign-in, typically 10 to 15 Mbps, fine for browsing and standard streaming if tight for a busy video call. One thing you will not find airside is anywhere to smoke: Heathrow is smoke-free after security, so the smoking and vaping areas are all outside, before you go through. For prayer or a quiet moment, every terminal has a multi-faith prayer room, landside and airside.
What do you need when you land?
Arriving passengers and the people meeting them want a different set of services, and these also come in order: clear the border, collect bags, walk through customs, and meet your party.
Baggage reclaim sits landside in each terminal's arrivals hall. First bags reach the belt about 20 to 30 minutes after a short-haul arrival and 35 to 50 after long-haul, and the airline's ground handler, not Heathrow, runs the missing-bag desk if something does not turn up. If you lose something in the terminal rather than on the aircraft, Heathrow lost property is run by Smarte Carte through an online database; items are held for three months and there is no walk-in collection, so the database is where to start.
Meeting points are the five designated spots across the four arrivals halls, marked by a ceiling sign of four arrows pointing inward; Terminal 5 has two, one near the Global Exchange currency desk and one near Costa Coffee. They are for meeting on foot. If you are flying onward the same day, or arriving early before a hotel check-in, left luggage at the Excess Baggage Company counters takes a bag from about £10, open 05:00 to 23:00 in every terminal. If you are collecting an animal rather than a person, a pet flown into Heathrow arrives at the separate Heathrow Animal Reception Centre, not the baggage hall.
What about accessibility and travelling with children?
Two groups have needs that do not fit neatly under before, during or after, so they get their own pages.
Special assistance is the free, regulated service for anyone with reduced mobility or a hidden disability. You book it through your airline, ideally at least 48 hours before departure, and Wilson James provides it in the terminal at all four buildings. If you have not booked, the green help points in every car park, drop-off point, station and terminal connect you to the team, though booked requests are served first at busy times. It covers the whole route, from the car park or station to the aircraft door, and the reverse on arrival.
Travelling with children gathers the family detail: the free Stay and Play zones after security in every terminal, the staffed Family Lounge at Terminal 3, family security lanes during the school holidays, pushchairs that can go to the gate, and the eGate age dropping to 8 from 8 July 2026. Baby food and milk are exempt from the liquid limit at security.
What is open when, and where does it sit?
The single most useful thing to know walking in is which services sit on which side of security, because that decides what you can reach. Landside, before security on the way out and after the border on the way in, you will find check-in, the currency desks in arrivals, left luggage, baggage reclaim, the meeting points, lost property reception and the help points. Airside, past the search, are Fast Track, the duty-free and shopping halls, the lounges and the gates. The free Heathrow wifi covers both sides, and connecting passengers stay airside throughout without seeing most of the landside services.
On hours, most landside services run from about 05:00 to 22:00 or 23:00, tracking the operating day. Left luggage runs 05:00 to 23:00, Fast Track 06:00 to 21:00, and the currency counters roughly 05:00 to 22:00. A few things never close: the wifi, the help points, the infrastructure of seats, toilets and water, and the baggage halls themselves while long-haul flights land through the night.
For the wider arrival and departure sequences, live arrivals and live departures carry the timing, and the airport map plus the four terminal pages, Terminal 2, Terminal 3, Terminal 4 and Terminal 5, show where each service sits inside the building.