injom

I had originally booked to fly INV -LHR, LHR-LAS, however the INV sector was cancelled and I was rebooked onto the early morning 7am flight.

I have been able to transfer to the INV-LHR sector the night before and am now overnighting at the Sofitel and then flying on to Las at 4.40pm. I am assuming that I get my bags back after the Inv flight for the night.

I have just noticed that the LAS flight leaves from T3. What is the best way to get from Sofitel to T3, will I be able to go airside in T5 and then use the usual passenger terminal bus as a connecting passenger or do I have to stay landslide and transfer to T3 that way? How long is the average T5 to T3 transfer (will be approx 1pm when we are heading in)

thanks in advance

The _Banking_Scot

You will not be able to go airside at T5 with a T3 boarding pass

From the sofitel I would either take the tube or heathrow express ( free) to the T2/3 and walk the underground passage way. The tube/Hex will be about 5mins plus walking and waiting time.

If in J/F or have status you can use all OW lounges in T3.

Regards

TBS

KARFA

Globaliser

Do tell the check-in agent at INV that you want your bags to go only to LHR, otherwise you could find that they have been through-checked and then it'll be hassle trying to get them back at LHR.

babats

Do bags automatically get checked all the way through when there's an overnight delay between flights?

Globaliser

If it's a T5-T5 connection and it's less than 24 hours, then the bags can be through-checked. I'm pretty confident that I've seen reports here of people whose bags have been through-checked on an overnight T5-T5 connection even though that's not what they wanted, and something has had to be done to sort that out.

What I don't know are: (a) whether the time limit is the same for a T5-T3 connection; and (b) whether the check-in system will default to a through-check if possible. But there must be a possibility that both could conspire to catch out the unwary doing what the OP is doing - hence the suggestion to tell the check-in agent proactively to make sure that the bag is tagged how the OP wants it to be tagged.

eefor jfp

I have done both T5-T5 and T5-T3 overnight connections many times over the years and have never had problems through-checking my bags. So you certainly can if you want to. I would also assume that you can get them back (I am usually asked if I want to through-check them). This is not necessarily true for AA on the way back (they have an eight hour limit or something like that so that if you are overnighting you have to pick up your bags and re-check them with BA the next morning). In the final analysis, I guess it depends on the agent doing your check-in.