stifle

BRU entry has the no security logo but the text and process say there is security.

Add to DUB: Transfer channel, go up the stairs next to baggage belt 2. Toilets: in baggage hall and around the airport. Lounge: turn left after security and go up the stairs or lift.

EDI: occasionally you land on a remote stand and end up deplaning by steps and getting funnelled straight into baggage reclaim, in which case you need to reclear security and this adds 15 minutes or so.

LIN: wifi vouchers can be had in the lounge and these work throughout the airport, and if you log out properly your minutes will be saved for when you're on your way back, because obviously you aren't going to drop your final leg Airside transfer isn't possible.

ITA Matrix worked example: ITA now supports Premium economy so no need for the BC:T workaround.

Globaliser

I'm not sure this works properly.

If you simply specify premium economy with no fare class specification, ITA will put you in a cabin that is premium economy or higher on every sector. That means that on the short-hauls, you typically end up in business class.

If you specify cheapest but then use the fare class switch, ITA will properly return itineraries that use the T class fare for all sectors, booking into economy on the short-hauls and T class WT+ on the long-hauls.

BA235

I specifically looked at the signs pointing to flight connections when I was there last month and as far as I can tell there is no airside route.

Same plane turnaround may be doable but it would rely on things outside your control - specifically that two AF 777s aren't leaving for the Caribbean at the same time as you're trying to get through the emigration and security bottle-neck. Personally, I wouldn't do it. Arriving off the early rotation from LHR at Christmas the queue for emigration stretched right back to the concourse that connects the different Halls.

exilencfc

DB London Spezial train fares might also be a useful way of getting to starting airports in Germany, Paris or BRU.

What happens if you try to book the outbound to your starting point as part of the itn? Say LHR-AMS-LHR-JFK-LHR-AMS

Globaliser

If you try it, you'll very probably find that it doesn't work. Either an invalid routing and/or no combinable cheap fares.

stifle

Either BA.com falls over, or it prices you at a fully flexible fare, or it quotes you as though you were flying a normal ex-LON, or you get charged APD on the whole thing. Or some combination.

exilencfc

Won't try that then. Thanks guys.

dera

Perhaps add HEL to the list?

No passport control/security, most of the time its a gate arrival, departure flight is obviously from the same gate as arrival.
Airport has free unlimited WIFI. Lounge is reasonable and a new one should open in a few months time.

Prospero

Your suggestions and clarifications have been added. Thank you ^

Now added

oxongirl64k

Apologies in advance for my questions as I am a total rookie...would appreciate your wisdom and help though ...

Assumed trip: ZRH-LHR-SFO-LHR-ZRH (or any other reasonable start point e.g. DUB or MUC or whatever)

Question 1: Does this mean that I'd have to check my luggage in before boarding the trip in ZRH (same day stopover)? or if that possibility exists, for an overnight stopover, I arrive from ZRH-LHR in the evening and do LHR-SFO next morning and get check in luggage brought to airport by family member?

Question 2: For the return leg, SFO - LHR - ZRH, does this mean I would have to check my luggage "through" from SFO to ZRH? Or will I get the option to pick it up at LHR and try to do LHR- ZRH a couple of weeks later (or not at all as seems to have been suggested elsewhere)?


Thanks a bunch to one and all.

stifle

1. General experience is that you can check your luggage in for LHR-SFO without having checked it in at ZRH. Recent posts by a user claiming to work at LHR check-in say this is being stopped, but there has not been any independent verification. This should be irrespective of whether you have an overnight transfer at LHR. What you probably cannot do is check in baggage for LHR-SFO before flying ZRH-LHR. If you have no convenient family member you can also store luggage at LHR (excess baggage company on the arrivals floor of T5) for around £8.50 per piece per 24 hours or part thereof.

2. Two separate questions there. Will you be allowed to short-check your baggage to LHR only? Possibly, but possibly not. They have a lot of people in the US who try tricks like this to access cheaper fares by travelling further, and some agents will be quite insistent that your baggage is checked to your final destination. And will you be allowed to take your LHR-ZRH flight at a later date? Depends on the fare rules for the fare you book. You haven't mentioned which class of travel you're planning to use, but in I class (discount Club World) it is almost always the case that no stopovers are permitted on the fare component, meaning your LHR-ZRH must take place within 24 hours of the arrival of your SFO-LHR.

Frequentflyer99

In answer to the latter question, always try and book the final flight departing from a dffierent airport from the longhaul arrival (arrive LHR, depart LGW/LCY) and then the issue simply cannot arise. Likewise if you book the very first flight of the day after your arrival date into London, this will not count as a stopover for ticketing purposes, but the bags will not (normally ?) be through checked. If you book an onward flight a couple of weeks later you will have to pay APD for the shorthaul leg and, most likely, a stopover fee which could be around £200.

haasha

Wow, great thread! Well done, guys!

oxongirl64k

First of all thank you for your reply. I am new to this and so wasn't sure whether to ask here or start a new thread (don't throw stones, I have now done that as well... call me impatient and inexperienced).

Suggestions were made I should do this trip with hand luggage only, well the cabin I would choose to max the TP is actually F - but like I say I am still a bit reluctant with the idea just to travel with hand luggage.

Grand idea though to fly e.g. from the US back into say LHR and then to Switzerland from LCY which definitely would (in my mind) mean that the luggage checked in at the US airport wouldn't be checked through.

Pondering now over "to check luggage or not to check luggage"....

Frequentflyer99

The beauty of this option is that the luggage simply CANNOT be checked through, as it has to clear customs at your port of entry into the UK. If you can find a flight departing LGW you will even find that it saves you £5-6 as the airport charges there are lower than LHR or LCY !