Originally Posted by
xxxxx
For future reference, you are able to book IAH-LHR-BCN//LHR-IAH on one ticket using a companion voucher, it may have to be done over the phone though.
I could never take a trip without checking in bags, even a two night trip. I just hate having to carry my luggage through the airport. You may find that you're selected to have your cabin bags checked in at the gate at Heathrow in any case if your flight to Barcelona is full. The one time by bags were delayed for 24 hours, BA reimbursed over £600 of expenses.
How long of a connection do you have in Heathrow? On separate tickets, you'd ideally need a minimum of 4 hours given that if you miss the LHR-BCN flight, you'd need to change to a later service and you would be charged any applicable fees. Just because it was a BA flight that caused you to miss your onward flight, as it's a different ticket, you're liable for the costs.
One of the conditions of the companion tickets I have (through Chase British Airways card) is that you have to book them online and cannot book them over the phone.
We arrive in London at noon. Our next flight departs at 15:10. I initially had a 3 hr 50 minutes lay-over but then British Airways changed my flight times. It was only a small difference (about 40 minutes), but it is enough to make me nervous. I called about this and was told that if the flight time isn't changed by a certain amount of time that I could not change my flights without incurring a fee. Further, the next LHR to BCN flight was quite a bit later and was putting us arriving really late in the evening.
Honestly, I think I am better off just doing carry on only. We did carry on only for an Alaskan cruise which included the packing of coats and snow boots, etc. and I managed to get everything in 4 carry on suitcases and 4 back packs by vacuum packing all of the coats and bulky clothes. Frankly, we can't do too much more luggage (i.e. more than just one checked) because my kids can't carry or pull much more than a carry-on suitcase and a small back pack. They would not be able to, for example, go up and down stairs with a full-sized piece of luggage. One time we ended up having to walk to a port from our hotel (over a mile away) with our luggage due to some sort of traffic jam preventing our cab from getting to us. I was thankfully that we only had 4 pieces of luggage and back-packs.