U.K. and Ireland - heathrow terminal 5 to terminal 4 2H 45M enough time?

We are flying from Paris to Heathrow on BA and then have to change from terminal 5 to terminal 4 to catch our Delta flight to Atlanta. Our flight arrives at 10:15, the Delta flight leaves at 1:00. Do we have enough time? Should we plan to pack light and not deal with baggage claim?

I assume you're on two tickets? If that's the case then BA won't check your luggage through (You really should have flown Air France to stay in 1 terminal).

2hrs 45 should be fine, but if you get a 1hr delay on the inbound it's all going to look a bit dodgy.

If you can do carry on only then that would be my choice. You then do an airside transfer so avoiding baggage hassles and also the need to go through UK immigration formalities (which can again chew up a LOT of time on a bad day).

If you are connecting landside, do your research on www.heathrowairport.com to find out which service buses run between the two terminals - you don't want to be using the train service via Terminals 1 and 3 for this.

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If you are connecting landside, do your research on www.heathrowairport.com to find out which service buses run between the two terminals - you don't want to be using the train service via Terminals 1 and 3 for this.

Bus routes 482 or 490, both depart from bus stop 8 at Terminal 5, buses are pretty frequent, the journey between the terminals should take under 15 minutes, and it's free as it's within the "Heathrow Freeflow" free travel area (just say to the bus driver that you're going to Terminal 4). Both the 482 and 490 start from T5 so there's no possibility of getting on a bus going the wrong way!


Bus spider map for Heathrow Terminal 5 (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/maps/buses/pdf/heathrowterminal5-14065.pdf)

The way to deal with these things is by working backwards from the Delta deadline. I'm assuming that you have separate tickets and that you want to take checked baggage.

From the Delta website,

https://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/itineraries_checkin/requirements/index.jsp

check-in closes 60 minutes before departure. That means you need to be walking into T1 by 11.45 at the absolute latest, to give you time to find the counter. On the face of it, that gives you enough time - all you have to do is clear immigration (10.40?), collect your bags (10.50) and find your way to the bus stop (11.00). Then its a 10 minute journey to T1.

Most days you will be absolutely fine. But just this week there have been freak 2-hour queues for immigration. And who knows if your flight from Paris will be delayed by 40 minutes for some mysterious reason?

If you can squeeze everything into carry-on baggage and do online check in for your Delta flight, you will save a lot of time by not having to go landside. But do check the allowances for both airlines.

In addition, the lines for bag drop at Delta in T4 can be enormous. I've waited over an hour in the bag drop lines before now. Fortunately, they do call forward people whose flights are closing soon. (But half the time that just means that the main line doesn't move at all.)

In addition, the lines for bag drop at Delta in T4 can be enormous. I've waited over an hour in the bag drop lines before now. Fortunately, they do call forward people whose flights are closing soon. (But half the time that just means that the main line doesn't move at all.)
It's times like that where I'm really glad that the SkyTeam Elite/Premium check-in is so well-hidden that the masses don't surge on it. I cut it really close for a DL flight on 27 December (overrunning engineering work between Waterloo and Feltham and a Sunday bus schedule meant needing a minicab to get me from Feltham Station to T4), and if I'd had to use the kettle line there's no way I would have made the 60 minute cut-off.

Hopefully the OP can clarify if this is booked on one ticket or two. I'm not sure about BA's policy of interlining when there's a single ticket involved, but I imagine it might make a difference. Also, OP, what passport(s) will your group be using? It can definitely make a difference in immigration clearance speed if you decide to do a landside transfer.

I'm not sure about BA's policy of interlining when there's a single ticket involved.They will check lugage-through if on a single ticket. AFAIK, this is pretty much universal practice.

The OP posted the same question to Travelbuzz - worded slightly differently, and stating that they were planning to check baggage, and to have to collect and re-check it (which would indicate separate bookings). I expect the two threads will be merged in due course.

I replied to the Travelbuzz version of the question suggesting that the connection is too tight. Without checked baggage, or if baggage is checked through, it's entirely do-able, but if they have to collect and re-check I'd say "no way".

Thanks for all the advice! I realize the best place to begin is to NOT check our bags. We are a family of 4 (2 adult children) from US with US passports. Obviously, I'm new at this travel stuff. I didn't even realize there was more than one terminal at Heathrow, if so I would have booked an earlier flight. That looks extremely expensive, not a choice we want to make unless we have to. Any was BA might let us on the earlier flight if there is space and we get there early enough?

Thanks for tips on bus route numbers, too. That will help. Say we don't check bags, what is the sequence of events when we deplane at Terminal 5. Immigration, passports, customs, security?

Thanks so much! I'm stressed out about this and I don't want it to ruin my whole vacation.

If you don't check bags, as soon as you're off the plane follow signs for Flight Connections. A bus will then take you airside to T4 (so you don't enter the UK). You then clear security at T4 before proceeding to the gate.

Check in online if you can to avoid waiting for boarding passes at the transfer desk.

BA will not usually allow you to standby for an earlier flight on a non flexible fare, although I think most - if not all - BA European fares are now changeable for a fee.

Depending on the cost you may want to just look at rebooking on Air France as they also use T4.

Also bear in mind that BA tend to be a little more conservative than US airlines in their view of what is acceptable as carry-on baggage.

Probably too late now anyway, but booking your return from the UK as opposed to France also means you'll be paying out an extra $300-$400 in departure taxes between the 4 of you as well...

As I think you'll have figured out, you're far better off doing the research before making the bookings.

Here is Heathrow Airport's take on the connections process:

http://www.heathrowairport.com/heathrow-airport-guide/flight-connections/terminal-5-international-connecting-to-terminal-4-international

It's still not clear if mjhnurse has a BA ticket and then a DL ticket or if this is all on one ticket booked through Travelocity/Orbitz/somethinglikethat. Merely assuming bags will have to be reclaimed is not evidence of separate tickets, given OP's admissions about not understanding some of the important details in advance here. DL has pretty competitive fares ex-LHR that might not exist from the ST monopoly that is CDG, so it's possible that a broken fare CDG-BA-LHR-DL-ATL actually turned up cheaper on an online travel agency.

If these are separate tickets, it will be very tight with checked bags given DL's one-hour cut-off. If you find that you do need to check, you might consider having only one or two people check bags and the others follow the Flight Connections path. That way at least some of the party should make the original flight, leaving one or two subject to whatever rerouting or fees DL might impose if the bags don't get dropped in time for the booked flight. DL change fees tend to be rather steep, unfortunately, for international tickets. Otherwise, I'd suggest that trying to change to CDG-ATL and just forfeiting the BA ticket might be worth considering, but that's going to run $250 pp plus fare difference.

Yes, these are separate tickets. The Delta flight was very reasonable. We decided at a later date to spend some time in Paris at the end of our trip, and thus booked a separate flight to connect back through Heathrow -- got the best deal off KAYAK.

We have decided the best way to go is to pack light and not check baggage. It seems we will be fine if that is the case. Any further thoughts?

And THANKS for all the info !!

BA hand baggage info (http://www.britishairways.com/travel/bagcabin/public/en_gb)

Do keep to the rules (and remember the specific rule about liquids) - BA can be pretty strict about carry-on rules, especially if the plane is full.

You don't want to be in a situation where you thought you'd be OK with hand-baggage only to find that BA insists you check in a bag at Paris. Also, remember that the BA and DL rules for hand-baggage are probably different.

Yes I have checked on both sites to see what the restrictions are. Actually, Delta is stricter in terms of size. I was thinking of taking our bags (empty) to our local airport to see if they fit into the Delta size guage thing. If they fit into theirs, they will surely fit into BA's because Delta's is an inch thinner and 4 inches narrower. The only problem is our bags measure 22" in length, but one has wheels that extend it another inch. Do yo think that will be a problem?