Last edit by: KARFA
Welcome to this guide. If you are arriving at LHR and connecting to, from, or within T5 than this guide should help provide some practical information about how your connection will work. There are a number of types of connections which you may end up doing at T5 and hopefully all should be covered in this guide.
- General Layout of LHR and T5 - including information on underground walkways
- Arriving and Departing Gate Information
- Diagram of FCC
- Diagram of DUB Arrivals Area
- Arriving from the UK - Connections and Arrivals
- Arriving from DUB - Connections and Arrivals
- Arriving on an International Flight (not inc. DUB) - Connections and Arrivals
- T5B to T5B Connections, T5C to T5C Connections, and T5B to T2/3/4 Connections
- T2/3/4 to T5 Connections
- Arriving at T5 and Crossing the UK Border at T2/3/4, Connecting to an AA Flight Departing From T3, Checked Bags, Connections to LCY/LGW Flights, Duty Free
- New FCC in LHR T3 (July 2018)
A Guide to Connecting at LHR T5
#436
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,791
You will only be able to interline luggage if you get this on to one PNR and therefore may well need a travel agent to make the booking. It would be easier if you can go hand baggage only.
If you end up with separate tickets on separate PNRs then you have to go landside and you have to clear the UK Border.
Three hours is plenty if flights are on time, you could do this in an hour easily if staying airside, and under 2 hours going landside and there aren't queues at the T5 UK Border. If on separate tickets you bear the risk if there are delays or cancellations.
If you don't have to deal with checked luggage in LHR then you don't go through the UK Border, but some nationalities will still need a visa even if there is no passport check.
https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa
If you end up with separate tickets on separate PNRs then you have to go landside and you have to clear the UK Border.
Three hours is plenty if flights are on time, you could do this in an hour easily if staying airside, and under 2 hours going landside and there aren't queues at the T5 UK Border. If on separate tickets you bear the risk if there are delays or cancellations.
If you don't have to deal with checked luggage in LHR then you don't go through the UK Border, but some nationalities will still need a visa even if there is no passport check.
https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa
#438
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,791
A boarding pass would be best and I'm not sure why you think MH won't allow OLCI. But regardless, if you don't have boarding pass then a print out of the itinerary is ok for the domestic to internatiional corridor at T5. So you have the choice, personally I would go airside, so taking the airside bus from T5 to T4, but if you took the TfL landside bus service to T4 it wouldn't take much longer. There are MH staff in the T4 Flight Connections area, just after security.
#439
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Shanghai
Programs: BAEC (Gold), PC (Plat), HH (Gold), MR (Gold)
Posts: 2,729
A boarding pass would be best and I'm not sure why you think MH won't allow OLCI. But regardless, if you don't have boarding pass then a print out of the itinerary is ok for the domestic to internatiional corridor at T5. So you have the choice, personally I would go airside, so taking the airside bus from T5 to T4, but if you took the TfL landside bus service to T4 it wouldn't take much longer. There are MH staff in the T4 Flight Connections area, just after security.
I’ll probably reach the departures hall or flight connections in T4 (depending on which route I take) at about 1620 I guess, but MH1 doesn’t depart until 2125. How would it be handled if there were no MH staff at flight connections when I turned up? (Even if it’s possible for me to get that far - all I have to show is a flight itinerary issued by AMEX on my phone). Otherwise I guess I need to do it landside and kick my heels until check-in opens.
Thoughts appreciated!
#440
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,791
I’ll probably reach the departures hall or flight connections in T4 (depending on which route I take) at about 1620 I guess, but MH1 doesn’t depart until 2125. How would it be handled if there were no MH staff at flight connections when I turned up? (Even if it’s possible for me to get that far - all I have to show is a flight itinerary issued by AMEX on my phone).
#441
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,945
The cargo tunnel which is an airside tunnel connecting the central terminal area and T4/cargo is currently closed for refurbishment. This tunnel is used by the airside buses which go to/from T4 to T2/3/5. I am afraid I can't find out when the work is going to be completed by, so if anyone knows that would be useful to know.
The impact to the closure is that the only airside buses running to/from T4 go to T2 - there are no direct airside buses from T4 to T5 or T3. The airside buses take a long and slow overground route now between T4 and T2 which goes around the eastern edge of the southerly runway. If you need to get between T5/3 and T4 you will need to get an airside bus to T2 and change.
Until the cargo tunnel reopens if you have a UK/EU/EEA passport I would strongly recommend taking one of the landside options if going between T5/3 and T4 - so TfL buses, tube, or HEX.
The impact to the closure is that the only airside buses running to/from T4 go to T2 - there are no direct airside buses from T4 to T5 or T3. The airside buses take a long and slow overground route now between T4 and T2 which goes around the eastern edge of the southerly runway. If you need to get between T5/3 and T4 you will need to get an airside bus to T2 and change.
Until the cargo tunnel reopens if you have a UK/EU/EEA passport I would strongly recommend taking one of the landside options if going between T5/3 and T4 - so TfL buses, tube, or HEX.
Last edited by KARFA; Mar 8, 2019 at 6:12 am
#442
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: CLT
Programs: AA EXP; Avis PC; Hertz PC; Marriott LT Gold; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,133
I'm arriving on AA 104 JFK-LHR at 10:50 in T3 (according to the BA website) and have a connection to BA 314 LHR-CDG at 13:30 from T5 (according to the BA website). I will have checked bags, am in a wheelchair, and in J, so IIRC, I should get through security/immigration fairly quickly, but I will be the last one off the incoming and would like to be the first to preboard on the connection to CDG.
Is 2:40 enough time to make the connection safely given the above?
Thanks!
Is 2:40 enough time to make the connection safely given the above?
Thanks!
#443
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,435
Being last one off the incoming as you wait for the wheelchair is the wildcard there. Hopefully the speed the process through for you. Seems safe enough, as long as you're prepared to head straight to your connection as soon as you've disembarked the first flight.
#444
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: CLT
Programs: AA EXP; Avis PC; Hertz PC; Marriott LT Gold; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,133
Thanks. I have my own manual wheelchair I check at the gate and am self-sufficient, so I don't need to wait for the wheelchair attendants. I can get off the plane into my wheelchair if the aisle chair is nowhere to be found.
#445
Join Date: May 2012
Location: San Francisco
Programs: AA
Posts: 163
I am arriving next month via AA at 6:40 AM in T3 and need to book a trip to AMS in T5. There is a 8:20 flight that seems a bit tight for me since I have to re check my bags. Unfortunately it's about $100 USD more to take the next flight.
#446
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,945
As you need to go through immigration (presumably a nonEU/EEA passport holder?) and collect bags, and get over to T5 (tube or HEX), and check your bag in before bag check closes (45 mins before so 0735) I must admit it looks very tight. If everything goes well and you arrive early or on time and there is little waiting at immigration you may be ok. However, it won't take much to throw this off course.
#448
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 2
Wow, super thorough guide here
Myself and a friend are flying into Heathrow T5 from Europe next month, I'll then be returning home in the UK but my friend has a 3h40 connection before departing on another international flight from T5.
Am I correct in understanding that after I've collected my checked baggage, we could both then enter the UK (so my friend would be making a landside connection) and grab dinner together before I head off to the car parks and he takes his next flight? Obviously we'd be limited to the landside restaurants before security as I wouldn't be able to go airside again. Both British citizens so no immigration/visa issues.
Myself and a friend are flying into Heathrow T5 from Europe next month, I'll then be returning home in the UK but my friend has a 3h40 connection before departing on another international flight from T5.
Am I correct in understanding that after I've collected my checked baggage, we could both then enter the UK (so my friend would be making a landside connection) and grab dinner together before I head off to the car parks and he takes his next flight? Obviously we'd be limited to the landside restaurants before security as I wouldn't be able to go airside again. Both British citizens so no immigration/visa issues.
#449
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Falkirk, Scotland,VS Red, BA Gold, HH Diamond,UK Amex Plat
Programs: Master of the Privy Purse des Muccis
Posts: 17,907
Wow, super thorough guide here
Myself and a friend are flying into Heathrow T5 from Europe next month, I'll then be returning home in the UK but my friend has a 3h40 connection before departing on another international flight from T5.
Am I correct in understanding that after I've collected my checked baggage, we could both then enter the UK (so my friend would be making a landside connection) and grab dinner together before I head off to the car parks and he takes his next flight? Obviously we'd be limited to the landside restaurants before security as I wouldn't be able to go airside again. Both British citizens so no immigration/visa issues.
Myself and a friend are flying into Heathrow T5 from Europe next month, I'll then be returning home in the UK but my friend has a 3h40 connection before departing on another international flight from T5.
Am I correct in understanding that after I've collected my checked baggage, we could both then enter the UK (so my friend would be making a landside connection) and grab dinner together before I head off to the car parks and he takes his next flight? Obviously we'd be limited to the landside restaurants before security as I wouldn't be able to go airside again. Both British citizens so no immigration/visa issues.
Yes you can ( your friend would have to get back to security by T-35 or he would not be allowed through)
Regards
TBS
#450
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,791
Am I correct in understanding that after I've collected my checked baggage, we could both then enter the UK (so my friend would be making a landside connection) and grab dinner together before I head off to the car parks and he takes his next flight? Obviously we'd be limited to the landside restaurants before security as I wouldn't be able to go airside again. Both British citizens so no immigration/visa issues.
If all goes well your friend would have about 2 hours to have the meal, he needs to head back to security about 45 minutes before departure, 35 minutes is the deadline formally, assuming he has a boarding pass. You've only got a few options for eating in T5 landside, but one of them, Carluccios on the departure level, is considered by some people to be the best restaurant in Heathrow. The George by South departures (so handy for timing) does standard pub grub. In arrivals there is a mini branch of Giraffe, but it doesn't have the full menu, more sandwich and snack based. There are also 3 coffee shops with a more restricted food range, panini essentially.