Easy. Shower plus snacks with no problem.

Cheers.

Other than a late arrival the only issue could be a long wait for a shower, but you have enough cushion that you should be fine.

I will be in a somewhat similar situation near the end of May and want to confirm how this applies to us: arrival AA98 (ORD-LHR in J) into T3 at 13:15 , then (likely) departing BA 606 (LHR-PSA) from T3 at 15:45; no checked bags. My questions:

1. do we have to clear customs & immigration in LHR or just stay airside as a transit?
2. will we have enough time to hit up one of the OW lounges for a shower and a snack or should we book a later flight to PSA?
3. which T3 lounge would you recommend?

Thanks.

Please read the Wikipost. There’s information, there’s a link to an interactive page that walks you through your process following the signs and floor lines for the Flight Connections path, security, etc. With a mere 1.5 hours to connect, you’ll have to be well versed and prepared to make your next flight, particularly if your flight is delayed in a holding pattern for any time, typical at busy Heathrow.

The guide to LHR T-3 and T-5 lounges: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...d-kingdom.html

Also: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...aa-fliers.html

Thank you for the very valid reminder to thoroughly read the Wiki before posting, JDiver

My connection time would be 2.5 hours, which I hope would be more manageable.

Huh? OP has 2.5 hours at LHR which is more than enough time to make a T3-T3 connection (assuming single ticket). Even 1.5 hours is plenty of time for a T3-T3 connection. LHR flight times usually assume a certain amount of hold time in the block times.

OP - you'll have plenty of time for a lounge visit if AA98 is on time or close it. Again, assuming a single ticket, you'll go through security during the connection at LHR but not immigration or customs.

Ah, misread as 2.5 hours.

You’ve time for a shower at the Admirals Club complex and a visit to the Cathay or Qantas lounge, preferred by most.

Actually, it is not a single ticket. The ORD-LHR flight is booked but the LHR-PSA flight is not (looking at BA 606). Given that, how does that change the dynamics re: security, immigration, etc.?

JFK-LHR-PSA is the most disastrous journey I have ever had ... JFK-LGR was 5 hours late and LHR-PSA was only once a day and I missed it. AA re-booked me 24 Horus later and BA rebooked on Lufthansa via Frankfurt to Florence. My bags didn't reach me for 4 days and my return flights were cancelled because the AA system showed me as a no show for the LHR-PSA flight! Fortunately I noticed and my return flights and upgrades were reinstated 4 days before travel.

Anyway, one of the golden rules of separate ticket travel is always to look at your options if things go wrong. LHR-PSA is now twice a day at different times each day (roughly 8am and 2pm) and the flight you mention is the afternoon flight. So, if you miss it it will be the early morning next day as the first available option and a hotel to be bought and paid for at the last minute. Personally I wouldn't risk this on separate tickets. If you feel you have to then I would book LHR-PSA for the next day and book a cheap hotel night well in advance (ideally at the Sofitel).

Pisa departs from T3.

There are several newer hotels at and closer to T3 (and T4) including the Hilton Garden Inn actually at T3 rather than going to the Sofitel.

This sounds like a lovely day all around. You're right that the flight at 15:45 is the final flight of the day LHR-PSA, so we'll have to make it without having to spend the night. I'm hoping that the fact that we won't have bags to check will be somewhat of an advantage in the transit.

I have no choice about the single ticket situation as we had already booked the int'l flight when our plans changed to a new final destination. It's possible that we could fly into GOA or MXP instead of PSA, but we're still going to have the single ticket issue.

Will we have to go through security, immigration, etc with two single tickets and no checked bags?

You have to go through security for any international flight change at LHR.

With no checked bags, you won't have to go through customs and immigration, if you can get your BA boarding pass beforehand (try online check-in). Follow the "Flight Connections" signs. If you had checked bags on this trip, you would have to go through customs and immigration (as AA won't through check bags on separate tickets).

The other issue is that on separate tickets, you'd aren't technically on a connection. If AA 98 is delayed enough to make you miss the next flight, technically AA has a policy to protect you (since the second booking is OneWorld). But you are dependent upon finding an agent that knows this policy. I've no experience with this at LHR.

Given no checked bags, I'd still be comfortable with a 2.5 hour T3 to T3 separate ticket booking. But know what your contingency plan is if you don't make.

Much appreciated info. Thanks very much.

Tight Terminal 2 to 3, EI to AA Transfer at LHR
 

I have a DUB-LHR-LAX trip coming up. BA ticket but EI and AA metal, J class on AA. Been quite a few years since I did this, and I am worried as it is a very tight connection in LHR, even for the best of times and this is not the best time - busy Christmas period. Would appreciate comments on
- If I miss the flight, can AA rebook me, or do I have to go to BA?
- Best place to rebook - lounge, or transfer desk?
- Fastest/best transfer Terminal 2 to 3. Airside (bus) or landside?
- Is there still a transfer desk for AA passengers transferring into Terminal 3? Is it before or after security?

Thanks in advance!

There is a very good connections planner on the LHR website which explains the connections process.

How tight is the connection. It certainly won't be lower than the MCT of 75 minutes and the vast majority of passengers make their connections even when the airport is very busy.

- if your EI flight is late then just go to the AA connections desk in T3.

- I'd stay airside for easier access to the AA connections desk.

Like UKtravelbear has posted.. how tight is your connection.. I would allow of at least 45 minutes for the connection from T 2 to T3..
The nice thing in LHR is that if your flight arriving is late, BA staff/airport staff will provide you with help getting you to your gate.

Are you checking bags? ... I would check once you are at your gate, most if , not , all the times, your bags will make the connection too.

have fun and dont worry.... at the end of the day.. you will make it to LAX to enjoy the sun
and if you enjoy a burger, a stop over at IN and Out

The connection time is 90 min. It is actually my wife making the trip, and she is a less seasoned traveller than I am.
In that 90 min she will have to take bus, reclear security, recheck with AA, get photo taken at some point (?) etc.
I don't know what it is like in recent years, but I recall horendous queues for the bus and security in LHR. Also, flight from DUB were often delayed. So, with the season in it, I see lots of opportunity for this to go wrong. Hope for the best of course.

As I said the vast, vast majority of people make the transfer well within the MCT of 70 minutes. The airlines and LHR would soon extend that time if it was causing major issues on a regular basis.

She just needs to follow the purple flight connections signs and the LHR connections planner explains what to do so she should have a look at that as well.

90 mins is really no problem even for an unseasoned traveler, I really wouldn't stress about this any more.

As mentioned, once she lands at T2, just follow the purple flight connections signs that will direct her to T3. Take the bus to T3, re-clear security, then go to the gate. Everything at LHR is much more organized and expanded than it was 10 years ago.

1) Walk off plane, follow flight connections signs
2) Short bus ride to T3.
3) Go through security. Use fast track if it looks shorter (J boarding pass should allow access)
4) Go to J lounge of choice
5) Go to gate

Straightforward transfer. 90 minutes is plenty of time

(people have convincing themselves that LHR is a nightmare and every transfer there is difficult and time consuming. It's not.)

Thanks. Can someone say where the AA transfer desk is these days? Before or after security? They used to have a side room before security where you were supposed to nip in if coming via bus transfer.

Pretty sure it's after security. But there should be no need to go to it as long as you have a boarding pass for the AA flight (which I think EI should be able to issue at check-in). If you need to talk to an AA agent (or answer the pointless security questions if they are still doing those) just go to the AA lounge.

If your wife follows the purple Flight Connection signs, she will be OK. There are AA help desks before and after security. If she gets flummoxed, she need only ask one of the helpful Heathrow employees in purple jackets for help.

I had a similar connection T5 to T3 this month, tight but doable. No time for any lounge.

EI will be able to issue a boarding pass. But in my many previous years of travel, AA always insisted that transfer passengers recheck with them somewhere in Terminal 3, answer the stupid security questions, and get a new boarding pass.

All of this can be done at the lounge, and it is generally more pleasant and efficient there. No need for the extra stop.
(It can also be done at the gate as well, to be honest, but it's more annoying there).

It's like the AA-boarding pass checkers at T5 before the bus transfer to T3:
AA: "Sir, are you flying AA?"
Me: "No" or "I'll take care of it at the lounge." <boards bus>

AA certainly can and will accept BA-issued boarding passes without needing to exchange them. Not sure if it's any different with EI.

i guess you weren't there some of the days I was!

Oh I've had one or two bad transfers there, sure. (I remember one T5 to T3 90 minute cxn which involved being late into LHR, a remote stand arrival, late buses at the remote stand, no express connection passes, then improperly being denied access to fast track security, and having to jump the queues in the regular line to make the flight). But that's an unusual confluence of failures. Not the norm.

I make between 10-15 connections at LHR a year and the vast majority of times its perfectly fine, and no more difficult than most other airports. Tend to set my expectations by the typical experience not by the outliers. YMMV

Because DUB lands into T2 as if a domestic flight, being within the Common Travel Area, this is one of the few connections where it is worth considering doing this via landside, particularly if you are able to use T3 Fast Track, which is the non avoidable security check for going airside at T3. There is no passport check leaving T2 and the Aer Lingus usual arrival gates are close to the route to landside. I'm not sure I'm going to distract the OP from the advice given above, which is probably the best for someone not used to Heathrow. T2 and T3 are reasonably close to each other, you just walk down a underground passageway between the two terminals.

There isn't an AA check at T2 buses in Flight Connection (there is at T5) so if using the Flight Connection route you can do the security check on arrival at T3, in the dedicated hall used for the purpose, but if you have Admirals access it is easiest to do it there, which is achieved by politely ignoring the 3 or 4 AA agents that hang around the T3 Flight Connections shepherding people into the hall. It can also be done at the gate less comfortably.

Use the LHR Connections planner and walk her through it. Link. (Link is also in the Wikipost.)

Hi 👋
I am sorry if this has been asked before but I have been searching this forum for half an hour and can not find a definitive answer

can I access t3 landside with a T5 boarding pass?

Thank you in advance 🙏

You arrive with a flight at T3 and wish to go landside there, through immigration and customs? And you have a flight onwards from T5?

No if I was just flying out of T5 from London proper but wanted to go to t3 first

If you depart from LHR and your flight is from T5 (BA or IB), then no, you may not enter T3 airside with your boarding pass.

Why do you want to do that?

I'll take lounges for $2,000, Alex...

This has already been answered in the other thread https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-ireland/2003453-best-hotel-lhr-2.html

coming from landside you cant go through security at T3 with a T5 bp.

Same day turn
 

I searched FT and also did a google search with FT included. I did not find this discussed but surely it has been. I don’t know what UK entry restrictions/quarantine policies will be on July 1. I was scheduled to arrive LHR July 1 with a return flight to US July 2 on a separate ticket. The flight to LHR (BA metal AA stock) has canceled but AA hasn’t notified me yet. To avoid entering UK I was considering rebooking with a same day turn. This assumes transit is allowed but entering UK is not. It seems like I would just go through flight connections and I should already have my return boarding pass before leaving US. Anyone see a problem with this idea?

I think UK is looking to implement 14 day quarantine at rev end of May. You will be allowed in but you would have to stay in your hotel room. Not sure how would they know of you left your room or not. You can spend the night at LHR hotels and leave the country. Quarantine is 14 days or for the duration of your stay, whichever is shorter

Yes if doing a same day INT-INT connection you can go through flight connections and you would not go through immigration.

I have a trip booked in August that requires a LHR-LCY transit - going straight from Heathrow to City would meet the requirement?

Overnight connection on the return - fine to stay at a friend's place in Notting Hill who has been traveling with us?

This all assumes of course flights are running and we can actually enter our final destination. The UK government seems to somehow be more confused/confusing than the US, which is quite a feat.