Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - Virgin to Aer Lingus at LHR questions

In July, I am looking to use AMEX miles to fly Virgin Atlantic ORD-LHR arriving at 8:00am. Would then need to catch an Aer Lingus LHR-ORK departing at 9:30am.

Questions:

1. virgin says they have an interline agreement to check bags all the way thru to ORK with Aer lingus but both flights must be on same ticket. they are saying I would need to buy the ORK flight from them which is 4x ($411 vs $104) cost of buying the flight from Aer Lingus. Does this sound right?

2. Is 90 minutes between flights too tight? I believe it is terminal 1 to 3.

3. What are the odds of my bags making the connection if I do this?

Thanks

Yup, it's right. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news ;)

T3 to T1 isn't so bad, 90 minutes is doable and the bags should be fine. The two terminals are practically adjacent to each other.

thanks

tried to do this today but hit a snag

because I would be using miles for the virgin leg and paying cash for the aer lingus leg they would not be on the same ticket and therefore could not guarantee that the bags would be checked all the way through

the agent thought I would have enough time to gather my bags and still catch the aer lingus flight 90 minutes later but that seems overly optimistic to me

thoughts?

I'd say doubtful. By the time VS delivers the bags, get outof T3, get to T1, you haul them to T1, check bags in, and then get to Aer Lingus' gates at LHR (which are a longggggggggggg walk from the main terminal), 90 minutes on seperate tickets isn't going to work. Plus, you've no protection if you miss the EI flight.

Had you not had the re-claim/re-check (i.e. it's all one ticket and you can use the flight connections system), it's fine..but without that..I wouldn't try it.

I can't see that working on separate tickets. You'll need to book the 1405 EI flight.