Originally Posted by pnoeric
I'm flying from LAX to London, then on to Berlin or Copenhagen as a separate ticket. Not sure how I'm getting to the final destination-- probably BA, Ryan Air, or really, whatever's quick and convenient.
Do I clear customs completely in London, before going to the next leg? Or do I clear at the last stop? Trying to plan that short flight and wondering if I need to leave a few hours (!) buffer after landing in LHR to allow for customs time.
If the airline rep at LAX checks your luggage onto the flights indicated on a separate ticket, then you're luggage will be cleared at the final destination for which the luggage was tagged -- namely, Berlin or Copenhagen.
If the airline rep at LAX cannot or will not check your luggage through to the final destination indicated on another ticket, then you'll clear customs at LHR and again clear "customs" at Berlin or Copenhagen. However, at TXL and CPH they are not aggressive about pulling people over for customs checks, at least not generally. LHR pulls people over for customs checks far more frequently, but for all my hundreds of times going through customs at LHR, I've not once gotten pulled over there. (I haven't cared to note whether bags tagged from the UK to EU Schengen have the green side bars on the tags attached to the bag or not. If so, then that generally means you'll get skipped over for customs checks as it indicates you are coming from within the "customs union".)