Connecting flight at Heathrow - sufficent time between flights?

J

Josey Wales

Registered User
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101
Hi,

I have a quick question on something that is worrying me slightly.

We are flying into Heathrow arriving at 8.05AM and we have to get a connecting flight to the US at 9.55AM. Does anyone know if that is a sufficient gap in time to disembark the first plane and get to the next terminal?

Thanks.
 
You should be ok as long as your first flight arrives in time. Generally takes about an hour to transfer.
 
Get seats near the front of the plane so you can get off quickly, you should be OK
 
It depends on the terminal you are connecting to, and also on local conditions on the day.

The queue to process through the connections centre can take a longish time (up to an hour or more on a bad day) and then you have to wait for a bus to transfer you to the other terminals.

If there is a delay on the bus or if your inbound flight is delayed or if there is a delay at the transfer centre you may miss your connection. If all three happen you probably will miss it. Given a choice, I would go for an earlier flight into LHR, but there aren't any earlier flights unfortunately.

You could consider taking the flight the night before and staying in an airport hotel.

z
 
You should likely be okay with that - The first flights of the day tend to be more punctual (as delays tend to accumulate during the day) unless there's serious fog etc. problems at Heathrow which are fairly rare (and your onward flight would be likely delayed too)

Are you travelling on one ticket or have you purchased your Aer Lingus Dublin-LHR ticket separately to your ticket to the US ?

If you're travelling on one ticket I'd definitely go for it (as if the connection goes wrong they'll reaccomodate you on another flight)

If you're on two separate tickets I'd consider flying to London the night before (since if it goes wrong then the airline taking you from Heathrow to the US isn't obliged to do anything for you - not saying they won't do anything for you in those circumstances but they don't have to)
 
EvilDoctorK said:
Are you travelling on one ticket or have you purchased your Aer Lingus Dublin-LHR ticket separately to your ticket to the US ?

If you're travelling on one ticket I'd definitely go for it (as if the connection goes wrong they'll reaccomodate you on another flight)
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I'm not sure about that. We got the tickets through American Holidays. We're using British Airways from Heathrow to the US. I'll have to have a look.
 
I'd say it's likely to be one ticket then if it was sold to you all as one by American Holidays. .. so you should be okay there.

Where in the US are you flying to with British Airways ?... if you're going to San Francisco or LA the flights go from Terminal One - this means you certainly shouldn't have a problem as you don't have to change terminal (so no bus transfer involved)

If it's to another US destination with BA that will be from Terminal Four (apart from Miami which is T3) - this is a bit of a hike away on the bus - but as I say you should have enough time and you've got the "safety net" of being on a through ticket.
 
We are flying to LA so that is good to hear that we will most likely not have to change terminal.

Thanks for the info. EvilDoctorK.
 
Have you checked the itinerary that AH gave you. It usually says on that "arrive Terminal 1, depart Terminal 4 etc."
 
hansov said:
Have you checked the itinerary that AH gave you. It usually says on that "arrive Terminal 1, depart Terminal 4 etc."
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It was only this morning that someone mentioned that it might be a problem. My itinerary is at home so I will have to check it later.
 
We had a problem before where our flight to Heathrow was delayed and we only arrived 45 mins before our connecting flight to Bangkok. Our baggage was left behind as a result. I would suggest when you check in at Dublin you ask them to put the 'Rush Baggage' tags on your luggage so in the event of a delay, they will prioritise your baggage.
 
Josey Wales said:
We are flying to LA so that is good to hear that we will most likely not have to change terminal.

Thanks for the info. EvilDoctorK.
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You shouldn't have a problem then as it's all within Terminal One ... make sure you get your bags through checked and get your boarding pass for Heathrow-LA issued in advance (no disaster if they can't do this but they should be able to)

You can either go through the flight connections centre or exit to the public area .. walk along the check in hall and go in the "International Departures" entrance at the far end of Terminal One - probably six of one / half dozen of the other which way you go - the queues will surely be shorter whichever route you don't choose :)
 
You may also be able to clear security via the priority channel if you ask nicely.
 
You have to wait to get to LHR to have your onward boarding pass issued; BA don't have this facility at Dublin Airport (or at least they didn't last year).

The only real delay you can encounter is queues at the connections desk at LHR; but generally the BA staff will rush you through if your flight is due to leave soon so you should have no real problems there. As a previous poster has stated, the BA flights to LAX leave from Terminal 1. Also if you miss your connection due to the flight from Dublin being delayed they will accommodate you on a later flight (I think BA have 2/3 daily flights to LAX)
 
If you are ticketed DUB-LAX via LHR with Aer Lingus and BA then you will be issued your LHR-LAX boarding pass at check in Dublin along with your DUB-LHR boarding pass. The same applies for the return trip. BA's LAX flights depart from Terminal 1 so you will have plenty of time to transfer even allowing for the usual 20 mins holding delay on incoming short haul flights into LHR.
 
I checked my itinerary and the flight from Dublin to LHR is with British Airways. The connecting flight to LAX is with BA too. Hopefully that means we will arive into the same terminal that we will depart from to LA.
 
the flight from Dublin to LHR is with British Airways.
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You are probably aware of this, but that means it's actually an Aer Lingus flight to LHR with a BA code-share. As gdf says, it should mean you get LHR boarding card in Dublin.
 
MugsGame said:
You are probably aware of this, but that means it's actually an Aer Lingus flight to LHR with a BA code-share. As gdf says, it should mean you get LHR boarding card in Dublin.
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I flew Aer Lingus from Dublin to LHR and then BA onwards from LHR to North America. As I wasn't flying Aer Lingus all of the way they were unable to issue me my onwards boarding card. But told me I would have to pick one up in LHR. Last summer I was able to check in online the day before and then collected the boarding card from a customer service agent in the terminal and not from the check in counter which was faster.
When I flew again at christmas I was able to print my boarding card from home. and then sailed through, so if you're short on time this might be your best option.
Although Aer Lingus can check your bags through, they can't issue you a BA boarding card.

Have a nice holiday!
 
Aer Lingus CAN issue a BA boarding card and if they tell you otherwise, they are just being lazy. The boarding card will be on Aer Lingus paper but will reflect the BA flight number etc. I have had this occur more times then I care to remember when travelling from Dublin to Oz on BA.
 
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