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Old Apr 3, 2016, 9:23 am
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Connecting DL > AF @ LHR

I'm looking at an award itinerary that would require a change from a DL flight coming into T3 and changing to AF in T4 with a 2hr15min connection. Is this a huge pain and enough time or will I be in danger of missing connection. Anyone done this before at LHR?
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Old Apr 3, 2016, 10:33 am
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Last edited by zld; Apr 3, 2016 at 10:39 am
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Old Apr 3, 2016, 10:50 am
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The FAQ seems very helpful. Rwoman has put a lot of work into it.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...london-dl.html

Maybe the mods can merge.
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Old Apr 3, 2016, 1:12 pm
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Originally Posted by 3Cforme
The FAQ seems very helpful. Rwoman has put a lot of work into it.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...london-dl.html

Maybe the mods can merge.
That's a great FAQ for sure, but it doesn't discuss the connection process if one is arriving on DL and connecting to AF/KLM. So hoping to hear firsthand from others if this is a pain or an easy connection.
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Old Apr 3, 2016, 1:12 pm
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I've done this a few times. Easier if coming into T4, but doable if arriving in T3. 1H40M is the least I'd feel comfortable with if arriving on DL in T3 and connecting to AF on T4.

One other thing to note - no guarantees as to which terminal you'll arrive at. Only the departure terminal is guaranteed. Arrival terminal can change based on aircraft rotation. So you may very well end up arriving in T4.

Last edited by SEA-Flyer; Apr 3, 2016 at 1:18 pm
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Old Apr 3, 2016, 2:27 pm
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
I've done this a few times. Easier if coming into T4, but doable if arriving in T3. 1H40M is the least I'd feel comfortable with if arriving on DL in T3 and connecting to AF on T4.

One other thing to note - no guarantees as to which terminal you'll arrive at. Only the departure terminal is guaranteed. Arrival terminal can change based on aircraft rotation. So you may very well end up arriving in T4.
I have never heard of passengers being deposited at a different LHR terminal to the one scheduled. Does DL actually do this?! That would be incredibly annoying if so.
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Old Apr 3, 2016, 2:35 pm
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Originally Posted by Ldnn1
I have never heard of passengers being deposited at a different LHR terminal to the one scheduled. Does DL actually do this?! That would be incredibly annoying if so.
Yes, I've had it happen a few times arriving on SEA-LHR. Really not that big of an inconvenience. If it happened on departures (which it doesn't) it would be awful.
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Old Apr 3, 2016, 3:09 pm
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
Yes, I've had it happen a few times arriving on SEA-LHR. Really not that big of an inconvenience. If it happened on departures (which it doesn't) it would be awful.
Well it's a huge inconvenience if you have someone waiting for you to pick you up. T3 and T4 are miles away from each other. Equally if you have a connection, the MCT between terminals is more than that intra-terminal, so you could easily end up below MCT if they don't stick to the scheduled terminal.

At what point have you been told which one you're being sent to?
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Old Apr 4, 2016, 2:04 am
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Originally Posted by Ldnn1
Well it's a huge inconvenience if you have someone waiting for you to pick you up. T3 and T4 are miles away from each other. Equally if you have a connection, the MCT between terminals is more than that intra-terminal, so you could easily end up below MCT if they don't stick to the scheduled terminal.

At what point have you been told which one you're being sent to?
If someone is picking you up, presumably they'll lookup your flight status to see if you are arriving early, late, etc. When they look that up, it'll show them which terminal your flight is scheduled to arrive at that day.

As a passenger, usually they announce when the flight crew gives their pre-arrival announcement about 45 minutes prior to landing. I've heard it as late as during taxing after landing.

As for connections, I only have experience for SEA-LHR-CDG, which I've never had any worries about MCT for, because the connection is usually so poorly timed, 3H30M being typical.

Last edited by SEA-Flyer; Apr 4, 2016 at 2:23 am
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Old Apr 4, 2016, 2:29 am
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Originally Posted by clr4t8koff
I'm looking at an award itinerary that would require a change from a DL flight coming into T3 and changing to AF in T4 with a 2hr15min connection. Is this a huge pain and enough time or will I be in danger of missing connection. Anyone done this before at LHR?
If they will check your bags all the way through it's fine. If not, it's borderline. Changing terminals at LHR is always a pain because of the stupid security setup.
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Old Apr 4, 2016, 8:38 am
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
If someone is picking you up, presumably they'll lookup your flight status to see if you are arriving early, late, etc. When they look that up, it'll show them which terminal your flight is scheduled to arrive at that day.

As a passenger, usually they announce when the flight crew gives their pre-arrival announcement about 45 minutes prior to landing. I've heard it as late as during taxing after landing.

As for connections, I only have experience for SEA-LHR-CDG, which I've never had any worries about MCT for, because the connection is usually so poorly timed, 3H30M being typical.
The DL SEA flight has operated from T4 and T3 and then T4 again and since last week it's back to T3 but this is not an on the day decision but scheduled in advance.
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Old Apr 4, 2016, 9:10 am
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Originally Posted by UKtravelbear
The DL SEA flight has operated from T4 and T3 and then T4 again and since last week it's back to T3 but this is not an on the day decision but scheduled in advance.
Yes, I'm aware that they have changed the terminal that it operates from several times. But this misses my point - I've experienced arrivals on SEA-LHR where it goes to a different terminal than where LHR-SEA departs from, and this can happen regardless of city pair based on aircraft rotation needs.

For SEA-LHR in particular it is unlikely to happen now given that SEA-LHR arrives so late in the day, that I think LHR-JFK is the only departure left for that aircraft type. But it can happen for other flights.
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Old Apr 4, 2016, 9:36 am
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
Yes, I'm aware that they have changed the terminal that it operates from several times. But this misses my point - I've experienced arrivals on SEA-LHR where it goes to a different terminal than where LHR-SEA departs from, and this can happen regardless of city pair based on aircraft rotation needs.

For SEA-LHR in particular it is unlikely to happen now given that SEA-LHR arrives so late in the day, that I think LHR-JFK is the only departure left for that aircraft type. But it can happen for other flights.
The award tickets I'm looking at have both JFK/BOS-LHR flights available. It looks like both JFK & BOS arrive and depart from T3, and I would be connecting to AF in T4. Has anyone ever arrived from either JFK or BOS into T4 @ LHR? Seems like that would make my life so much easier.
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Old Apr 4, 2016, 10:58 am
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Deleting my original response - didn't realize that BOS-LHR-BOS had changed aircraft types.
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Old Apr 4, 2016, 12:06 pm
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You might have better luck with arriving into T4 if you pick some other TATL route, such as DTW or MSP. Places that aren't served by VS tend to use T4 while other routes with VS service tend to use T3 in general, but unfortunately there's no guarantee.

Alternatively, can you just fly TATL into CDG or AMS (if award space is available) and avoid LHR totally? The AF flight exLHR would be Paris or possibly a few other destinations in France I guess such as NCE (which also has DL TATL service, but that flight tends to be expensive and full).
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