A colleague is flying Thomas Cook from Vancouver to LGW, and then Monarch to Malaga.

The gap between arrival and departure is 1 h 55 mins. The flight arrives 6:55am - departure of the Monarch flight is 8:50am. Both flights are from south terminal.

He can check in online for the TC flight, but there's no possibility of through-checking bags.

It's a brief stay, so the standard 10kg hand luggage would be fine, but TC only allow 5kg.

If he were to check a larger hand luggage bag for the TC flight, can he pick this up in baggage reclaim, combine his luggage so he's still legal for the monarch flight, and then use the connections channel so that he stays airside (with hand luggage only)?

Or, having collected his baggage, is the only option to go landside and then re-enter completely?

Obviously if the flight from vancouver is late it's going to be tight.