Originally Posted by
sam123
D
- Is 1 hour 15 minutes a reasonable connecting time from AY to AA at that hour of week?
- Do they have to exit the secure area going from T1 to T3?
- Any other help / hint / links to make this doable for two retirees with less-than-perfect English?
1:15 hours is somewhat tight but doable. I've done AY to BA connection there in about 35 minutes when my inbound was delayed - but this didn't leave much margin for error - nor a bathroom break
. Mind you, this was back when both airlines were still in T3. But T1 and T3 are adjacent, so no large distances or shuttle buses to follow.
The procedure is quite simple: before the UK immigration there will a corridor marked "Transfer", "Flight connections" or something similar. Go there, follow it to a security checkpoint (I don't know why UK insists on doing this - so pointless), after passing it there will be signs for T1 and T3, follow the appropriate signs through some twisting corridors and elevators and sooner or later you should pop up somewhere in the middle of T3 airside. Proceed to the AA gate and get harassed yet again for another security check.
One caveat I see is that you need the AA boarding passes in order to be able to use the transfer route. I don't think there are any transfer desks where one could obtain these. Hopefully AY in HEL is able to issue these - or maybe online checkin works for the AA flight (which I seriously doubt). Otherwise one has to do the landside shuffle and that will take a lot more time - including fighting through the shopping mall and food gallery between T1 and T3 and checking in and clearing security in T3, which is usually very crowded in peak times.
I hope it all is booked as one ticket and not as two separate ones - in the first case should anything bad happen they will get rebooked on a later flight (via LHR presumably).