So I screwed up. I purchased a J class ticket on the super sale late last year to fly US-LHR arriving at 6:20 am, and then a cheapie onward ticket on BA intra-Europe departing at 7am. I clicked on the wrong time, and didn't notice it until a month later.

Is it even possible to do T3-T5 in ~40 minutes?

Secondarily, there's another flight at 8:50. When I inevitably miss my connection, will BA let me on the 8:50 flight as a standby, or will I be charged for a walkup fare? I'm trying to decide if I need to just bite the bullet and buy a new ticket.

According to the last post in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...isconnect.html
"BA has no policy to provide protection on separate tickets and indeed states that there is no protection".

You might find a kindly agent, but if the problem is too short a connection time rather than a BA delay they might not be too sympathetic.

C'est impossible. BA will proactively offload you if you are not airside in T5 at T-35 minutes.

If AA 100 arrives 30 minutes early, maybe.

When we went through last month, we were not issued BPs in OTP, so we did have to stop in that room for BPs and questions. I saw people in the hall walk by, however, presumably by saying that they had BPs. May be a policy shift/clarity, or individual "initiative" at work.

Cheers.

That's often the problem with any attempt at planning in connection with air travel. Research, find the best course and then learn that policy has changed or personnel are making things up there's individual "initiative" at work.

Your chances of that working are just about zero. Your flight won't be allowed to land before 06:00 because there's a hard limit to the number of flights that can land at LHR before 06:00 due to noise control regs, and all the slots are already used. You need to get your BP scanned at the entrance to T5 security by 06:25 or you will be offloaded. Even on a T5-T5 connection your chances of making that work are very poor indeed; from T3 it just isn't happening.

BA does not offer standby and when you miss your flight it will be a new walkup fare unless the agent takes pity on you. Best to get your ticket changed now; if your onward BA ticket is in economy, it's changeable usually for £60 plus fare difference. If it's cheapest business, you're boned. Doubly boned if you booked a roundtrip, as when you no-show for the LHR-XXX your return leg will be auto-cancelled.

Generally not. Today, though, we probably set a personal record. We disembarked at 11:35 (would have been 11:25 except for 10 minutes of futzing with the jetbridge) and were through a very short T5 security queue at 11:59. 24 minutes.

Don't count on it :)

Cheers.

Hello, after reading through many posts in this thread, I'm trying to confirm how a T3 (American Airlines) to T5 (British Airways) connection works when I've purchased the flight from Miami to London, and then separately purchased the British Airways flight from London to Paris.

I arrive at 8:40AM at T3 in London. I have a 1:05PM from T5 to Paris. So, 4 h 25 minutes to go from one to the other. Unless forced, I will not have any checked luggage (all within measurements, and have premium economy w/ early boarding so will have overheard space I hope).

Can I use the Flight Connection bus? (And does the answer change if they force me to check some of my luggage?) I've read on another travel website that since I bought a separate ticket that I cannot use the Flight Connection buses, but instead have to clear immigration, go to T5, and re-enter. I understand the Flight Connection buses saves having to clear immigration.

If I check in and print boarding pass to London and boarding pass to Paris in US, do I need to stop at a BA counter and reprint boarding pass from the Paris ticket and get a sticker before I go to the gate? A couple posts ago...it seems to be no. I can do any security questions at the gate, but I'd like to confirm.

I thought ~4.5 hours would be fine even if I had to go out through immigration and come back in...but I then read 5-6 hours is recommended for that.

Thanks.

This is ample time. Like more than ample. Unless your inbound is heavily delayed, you'll be fine, and even if it is BA will move you to a later Paris flight.

You heard incorrectly: you will have no problems following the purple Flight Connections signs and making your way to Terminal 5 that way.

You have 3 options for the boarding pass, in the order of ease:

1. Check in online and either print your own BA boarding pass or use their mobile boarding pass.
2. When you check in with AA, advise them that you bought a separate BA ticket and ask the agent if he/she can check you in for that flight too. AA should be able to do this, but not all agents are trained on how.
3. If all else fails, take the Flight Connections bus to T5, and once you arrive, before you approach conformance (a BP scan) and security, you'll find a BA service area–the kind folks there can print your BP if you've not been able to check in up to this point.

BA will have no special security questions for you, you'll board as normal, just have your passport available when your BP is scanned at the gate. As mentioned above, 4.5 hours is bucketloads of time at LHR, you will have plenty of time to kill. The only way this isn't the case is if your inbound is delayed, and that could affect you no matter how long you plan for the connection to be.

moogsonskates, You have ample connection time, and very good advice from Microwave.

Just follow the Flight Connections signs.

Get your BA bp asap, whatever that means in practice: online yourself, AA check-in agent in MIA, some BA/transfer desk at LHR etc. However tis is just a matter of convenience, not a do or die deal.

In practice, your greatest time-waster is likely to be the T5 security line if you forget to separate some toothpaste or shampoo or mouthwash bottle from the carry-on. Take care of that, and you'll be fine. :)

We just came through yesterday, so I can provide some updated information here. The first point is that one cannot answer questions in the AC. The check-in folks can't do it, and the security person who used to be at the podium is no longer there. I explicitly asked at the desk and was told that it is no longer an option.

One can go into the room prior to the security checkpoint, but there generally seems to a line. if you have a boarding pass, just keep walking past the folks trying to draw you in. The sticker is not necessary for security. Just keep walking.

After security is another transfer desk where one could do this. It also had a line yesterday, so we opted for the AC (under the impression that that still worked).

So, we were down to the gate. We did not get there particularly early. Prior to going to the GA desk, there were security people out front to look for stickers. There was no one else coming in, and we were done in about 15 seconds.

Going forward, we will:

1. Look into the little room to see if there are short/non-existent lines and use that if so.

2. Look at the after-security transfer desk to see if they have a short line.


3. Do it at the gate. Given that so many people are snared by the first two locations, this seems (granted, n of 1), very short.

Not completely correct. They do stop at T5B, but not at T5C.

Cheers.

Aye, but you may walk or take the train from 5C to 5B, get off and then catch the bus. It'll shave off ten minutes or so, and you'll be at the front of the queue (no one else will get on the bus there).

See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22770027-post2.html for a detailed guide

It's fine but you have not noticed that he has two seperate tickets so unless his baggage is checked through at his start destination he will have to collect and go landside for a transfer. I sugsest that he tries initially to have the bags checked to Paris and then determine if he can use the airside transfer. Even saying that with the time between flights there should be no problem either way.

Those residing in glass houses should not throw stones ;)

FWIW, I'm told that the security staff are gone from the lounges and won't be coming back in the foreseeable future, so people who are transferring at LHR are well advised to answer the questions at the transfer area if it's not too busy, else to arrive at the gate with enough time to answer them before boarding is called.

When I transferred at LHR in December (a rarity for me), the desks after security were bereft of AA personnel and signage, while the new area was as you mentioned quite busy. I wonder why AA have both places populated, and whether it's only some of the time? In fact... I wonder why they moved at all, since there was nothing inherently wrong with the old setup? Oy.

Even if the poster did have checked bags, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever not to check them through to Paris. It's easy for AA to do, and well within policy to expect it to be done, so checking bags through to London only would add a huge helping of wasted time onto this transfer.