:D!

It's not really a special arrangement though - at least before covid, passengers who were not allowed to transit the UK landside, but were allowed to transit airside, would sit around one or two of the T3 gate areas overnight (including being transported from and to other terminals on the flight connection buses), despite T3 being closed from the outside.

I don't know if this happened every night or only irregularly but when it did happen I was told there were quite a lot of passengers in this position.

NWIFlyer

That is true, but usually because of flight delays which cause a passenger who would be ineligible to enter to complete their journey the following day.

In this case the OP has an itinerary - quite likely through no fault of their own - where the overnight is planned. That's a very different scenario with very different immigration arrangements in place.

I can imagine when it happened previously there might well have been large numbers given it's quite possible half the plane might require entry rather than transit visas.

corporate-wage-slave

This won't work with the luggage side, but there is one connection I can spot that is within MCT - there is an Aegean flight A3609 for ATH that departs at 22:15, so that's OK for MCT. Now as I understand it, there aren't many restrictions on travel to Greece from SA (though someone had better double check that). Now that can be booked as a single ticket, and that would allow through luggage arrangements. I can't see BA amending your ticket for this, but a travel agent should be able to construct this. Or if you can go Hand Baggage Only then it's quite do-able, timing wise. A3 uses Terminal 2.

steview111

The legislation is black and white, I don’t know what you (or KARFA) don’t understand. If you’re transiting the U.K. with an onward connection, you do not need to quarantine. Never have, never will. Saying otherwise is misleading and incorrect.

If you are “disappointed” then don’t comment on things you don’t understand. I don’t see anything in the legislation that can be interpreted in any other way except that transiting the U.K. is permitted and nobody will be forced to enter a quarantine hotel.

KARFA

why do you think this unusual situation of keeping people airside in T3 overnight is happening? Do you think it might be because the alternative is that they would have to go to a quarantine hotel?

steview111

What is your point? Nobody transiting the U.K. has to enter a quarantine hotel. End of story. That’s the law. You were wrong. Stop misleading people.

KARFA

Indeed. Fortunately this airside overnight area in T3 has been created to ensure no one has to enter a quarantine hotel. LHR does not normally keep any terminal open airside overnight. A very unusual arrangement to at least provide something which doesn’t involve putting people in quarantine hotels - not something I think anyone would have predicted.

NWIFlyer

Transiting the UK is permitted provided either you remain within your port of entry or travel directly to another port in order to depart. It really couldn’t be clearer, and it’s been quoted several times by several people already in this thread and elsewhere on FT. I can therefore only recommend you read a little more deeply.

The OP wished to cross the border, leave the port of entry, and stay in a hotel before returning the next day. It was a very specific question and circumstance. That might seem to be common sense to many of us, but it’s not the law and consequently there remains a risk that an immigration officer will take a different view - we’re not talking about a shade of grey where someone stops at a LHR shop to pick up some food. Now hopefully at that point the T3 overnight would still be available and offered, but it’s not a cast iron guarantee given we just don’t have enough data points at the moment.

steview111

You could’ve answered the OP’s question with a simple “no”, they cannot stay in their own booked hotel. Suggesting they could end up in a quarantine hotel when transiting the U.K. is misleading and incorrect. If they turned up to the border and told the immigration officer they had booked their own hotel, the worst thing the immigration officer is going to say is that they have to remain within the terminal or follow whatever procedure they have for overnight transit at that time (T3). They will not end up in a quarantine hotel. As you say, it really couldn’t be clearer.

NWIFlyer

At the time I answered it, the information was correct, and the additional T3 measures had either not been put in place or weren’t known. The situation has been changing rapidly, and as more hotels come on stream there is no guarantee it won’t change again, although that is becoming considerably less likely. I think it’s fair to say that anyone with this sort of transit would be well advised to at least be wary of potential consequences, though.

It’s not me that’s muddied any waters. I think people are capable of making their own risk decisions based on the information presented and by whom, so I doubt any more needs to be said.