chx1975

I am eyeing a nice BA trip on business which involves a Malta-Gatwick / Heathrow - Vancouver flight. There's 3h 10m for the ground transfer which is above the minimal 3hrs. I do not plan on having checked baggage, I have an EU passport so I am not afraid much of the immigration process either. I expect to have some sort of priority at LHR T5 security on the behalf of the business ticket. So I am confident in making this flight if the flight from Malta is not horribly late: one hour from plane to coach start, one hour from coach start to coach end, one hour from coach end to plane. What if it is? What's the process? Because if the flight is just 15 minutes late then this falls apart. Do I try to make a mad dash across London or do I begin to bang the BA desk at LGW? Or start calling BA at Malta after a time? I need a plan B. I do not have status but I can play an indignant DYKWIA very well

sammyg901

This should be fine if you are on time into Gatwick - the coach is more like 40mins off-peak, etc

One thing I would do is book the premium passport control - http://www.gatwickairport.com/at-the...sport-control/ - there was a deal here - https://www.gatwickairport.com/mygatwick for 10GBP. Even EU can be very lengthy at Gatwick at peak times!

Personally if it was looking doable I'd just get on with getting to Heathrow, you will be wasting precious time if you speak to someone at Gatwick. If the worst happens then the customer service desk there will have the most flexibility in getting you on your way vs the phone.

Maybe have a look now at what other options exist (potentially via Calgary @ 6.20pm if you were just a bit late) or if you'd prefer a hotel and to fly the next day

There was one report on here of someone getting charged a change fee which is ridiculous so definitely stand your ground if that happens!

frb98mf

I had the following recent experience which might give you a few clues:

Bought a JER-LGW, LHR-JFK (WT+ FWIW) return ticket. 3h10min change time in between LGW and LHR, last flight of the day to JFK. Bought a LGW-JER ticket with RFS on the same plane outbound that would form the inbound - a classic back-to-back to avoid being stranded.

Boarded the LGW-JER, power unit issues, departure time started slipping, app showed the JER-LGW therefore also slipping. When this crossed 45 mins delay, it became obvious that I was going to be beyond the MCT and fairly likely to miss the LHR-JFK. I raised this with the crew (plane door still open) and they were superb, agreed I should probably deplane - called customer services, got people down to help me get landside, got the captain on the line to force past the no-show that would have occurred as I was not going to be on the first leg of my itinerary, and got me to the BA rebooking desk.

Even better, they then gave me the choice of taking my original flight from LHR, taking the flight from LGW (which left soonest anyway), or being protected on an earlier flight from LHR that was supposed to have new WT+, even though by then I was at 2h50 beforehand (hand luggage and Gold though). I went for the latter, made it easily, but it turned out to be old WT+ just like the Gatters service, so turned out to be a wasted (albeit prepaid anyway) coach journey to LHR. Still got into JFK some 3h ahead of my original plan.

Now I'm thinking of having a cheeky ask for ORC! If I hadn't made this suggestion to deplane etc, BA would have been liable for full EU261 as the delay would have been overnight.

Anyway, in your situation, the flight from MLA lands sometime just after 2pm, and the NYC flight from LGW leaves around 4.30pm, so if you have enough of a delay to be beyond the MCT to LHR, your best bet is probably to stay airside at LGW, have them put you on this, landing 7.30pm in NY, and an invol onto the excellent Cathay service JFK-YVR at 9.55pm.

fatblokeflying

Don't forget yvr is terminal 3

chx1975

What's RFS? Edit: found it, Reward Flight Saver.

Captain...?

I love that Cathay flight, I did come home with it when I was doing an AMM-JFK-YVR award on AA points... neither of these two were AA but that's how it goes thanks for the tip it's very useful (although I remember little of the flight because I mostly slept, but that's why we fly Cathay business ). I checked on ExpertFlyer and indeed the MCT is BA-BA II 3.00 INTER LGW - LHR three hours.

corporate-wage-slave

This is quite pessimistic timing on the whole. If HBO and with an EEA passport you should be in the coach area within 30 minutes of doors open, hopefully less. South is quite compact. Personally what I would do is if I was in the railway station area and had say 2.5 hours to go, I would save my money and take the train instead, assuming no delays showing on the boards.

But let's say you arrive late into LGW, what I would do is focus on getting on to the first coach that you can, then onboard, if you can see things aren't improving you can call BAEC and ask them to put a note on your PNR to say you are running late, but if you are on one ticket you are protected anyway. What I would then do if HBO and with boarding pass is go towards North departures, head to the visa desk by North Fast Track (desk B2) and get your passport checked. If there is a queue there then go to Flight Management in nearby Zone A. Then go to North Fast Track. If you are 35 or more minutes from departure then it should be open sesame at the gates, and you'll make the flight. If not, go back to Zone A or Zone E and get rebooked.

The Dashboard has a LGW-LHR transport guide and a guide to LGW South.

frb98mf

Welcome to BA irrops handling. The customer service centre initially did the usual thing of refusing to provide any pro-active assistance until the delay actually occurred, ie they required me to fly to and from JER before they would help, by which time it would probably be too late and it would cost BA €600 plus a night at an airport hotel. The captain realised the absurdity of this, and personally took the phone and remonstrated with them until they gave in. Gave him a Golden Ticket!

Worth noting that as my new LHR-JFK was booked by LGW at 2h55 before departure, they had to force an override of some kind, even though I was clearly going to make the flight (hand luggage, Gold, coach waiting, Sunday afternoon with light M25 traffic). When I got to the Flounge at LHR, it turns out the ticket had in fact been cancelled or not properly issued, and had to be redone. The agent there said that theoretically if a flight lands at Gatwick under 3h before the onbound from Heathrow, BA's systems could bounce you out automatically.

BA6501

Aha, but YVR is T3, cws

Tim1975

A couple of comments:

YVR is from LHR T3 not T5.

if you do miss the connection and require some kind of re-routing then you are much better off at LHR than LGW. SO get to LHR and sort it out there. Even if you miss your flight you will have far more transatlantic options than at Gatwick.

If you are on a Canadian Passport this may not apply to you, but it may be useful if your passport has an ESTA or whatever is needed enter the USA. because a re-route might be via the US.

corporate-wage-slave

Good point. In which case the argument for going by train may be stronger if time permits. I haven't seen what the time limit for Positive Boarding is at T3, but I imagine it is either 30 or 35 minutes. But at least you don't need to worry about the visa check at T3, Positive Boarding doesn't handle that.

UKtravelbear

Canadian passport holders don't need an ESTA to enter the US

chx1975

I mentioned I have an EU passport but yes I also have a Canadian passport and a NEXUS card as a cherry on this cake, entering the USA is not a problem for me. (At least paperwork wise. I am flying BA instead of Aeroplan rewards because of my increasing unwillingness to endure what they are doing now with ppl's electronics at the US border, forcing passwords and whatnot but that's a whole another issue.)

I was planning on buying the coach ticket online ahead of the time as it seemed the train option involved a train, the tube and the HEX (or another tube) anyways it's two connections and with time limited, the 20 GBP National Express asks for a simple service seemed better and not significantly more expensive?

My memory of Gatwick is long, long, long walks. Might've been North.

Thanks everyone for the T3 warning, I thought BA is T5 only by now. One learns.

corporate-wage-slave

My apologies, Hand Baggage Only (which I think you are planning to be). There's a glossary of BA slang in the Dashboard. Personally I would do Southern to Victoria, District line to Barons Court, Piccadilly line from there to T3. Use a contactless payment card or Oyster for the whole trip.

chx1975

Yeah I figured out HBO and deleted it already, sorry for the confusion

I signed up at mygatwick but I can't find the premium passport control offer albeit it might be a case of the flight being very far out.

1.5 hours? Maybe.

Ancient Observer

Any journey from LGW to LHR after about 3.30 pm is a nightmare. (I used to commute that route). 3 hours just doesn't cover the likely timings for later in the afternoon. 3 hours would be OK at about 10am to 2pm.