Hope someone can help me out with this.

I need to get from AMS to VCE in August and I went to the bmi web site and saw that I can't book on one ticket AMS to VCE that I have to book it as two seperate tickets via LHR.

I've got two basic questions to ask:

1) How much time should I leave between the two flights? I have multiple choices from AMS to LHR, but only one choice from LHR to VCE.

2) Will I be able to check my luggage through to VCE when checking in at AMS?

In advance thanks for your help.