The southern terminal in TW6, after the station shuts

Heathrow Terminal 4 station is about five minutes on foot from the concourse and carries the Piccadilly line and the Elizabeth line. It has no Heathrow Express and, more importantly, no night service. On Friday and Saturday, when the Piccadilly line runs right through the night elsewhere at this airport, it runs to Terminal 5 and not to here.

Practically, that means the last useful train out of Terminal 4 goes much earlier than guests expect. Anything later is a car on the southern perimeter road. It is not a hardship, it is simply a fact to build the evening around, and Lucy and Samanta both plan their journeys on that basis.

The best version of a Terminal 4 evening starts before you land. She leaves town while the aircraft is an hour out, so that by the time you have cleared passport control and found the walkway she is already in the building. The kettle has boiled and the room does not feel like something you were handed at a desk.

That only works if the desk has your flight number. A clock time from a passenger in the air is a guess, and a guess at this terminal costs somebody an hour in a lobby. One in the morning is an ordinary arrival here, not an exceptional one.

Hatton Cross is one stop east and the central terminals are two, when the trains are running. By road, everything goes the long way round the southern perimeter, which is quicker than it sounds because the road is empty at night. Feltham and Bedfont lie ten minutes east and often make more sense than crossing the airport.

The one journey to avoid is the improvised one. Crossing from Terminal 4 to a Bath Road hotel late at night involves the perimeter road, the tunnel and a driver who would rather be elsewhere. If you are sleeping on the north side, book the hotel there and let her come to you.

Long haul passengers off the late services, mostly, arriving with a body clock three or four hours out of step and no idea whether they are hungry. Some have a morning connection. Some have a meeting in Slough at nine and have given up on reaching town at all.

For both, the appeal of Terminal 4 is that it is quiet and close and nothing is expected of you. The corridors here are silent by midnight in a way that the middle of the airport never manages.

Jasmin is the specialist, small, quick and entirely unbothered by a landing at one in the morning, and she would rather have your flight number than your best estimate. Thea is the steady one for a long haul arrival, unhurried with a guest who has crossed too many time zones to make sentences.

From the perimeter road side, Lucy and Samanta both know this terminal and the last trains out of it. Rosa, Nancy and Tina take Terminal 4 bookings too when the timing suits. Tell the desk what time you land and it will name who can realistically be there.

Hatton Cross is the gateway station one stop away and the obvious base if you want a short morning journey. The airport in general has its own overview, the central terminals sit two stops north across the runway, and the index of airport hotels will tell you whether the building on your confirmation is walkable or not.