Looking to fly AA to TXL thru lhr. Is there a minimum "legal" transfer time at lhr? I would like to arrive lhr via AA 116 at 11:25 and depart on BA982 at 12:50. No booking service (starting with aa.com) includes this as a possibulity, while it's possible to go thru Helsinki or Madrid with a much shorter connection time. Is it lhr or something else?

Minimum connecting time T3 -> T4 at LHR is 90 minutes. The two flights you mention only allow 85 minutes, and therefore, don't meet this requirement.

If you'll be traveling after March 27th, or so, the TXL flight will depart T5, for which I can't yet find the Minimum Connecting Times, but I suspect you'll be out of luck there for the same reasons.

By the way, why would you willingly choose LHR? HEL is a very nice place to connect, and AY a very nice airline.

Business reasons make the 11:35 PM jfk departure extra-convenient. Helsinki and/or Madrid offer good connections and would be preferable to lhr as a back-up.

I think it'll be 120mins between T5 and other terminals in the beginning. It will be reduced later this year, however.

For future reference, the Flyerguide AA Wiki has a list of MCT's, including a LHR-specific list:

http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...Times_%28AA%29

Regardless of the official MCT, I would suggest 120 minutes minimum anyway until LHR improves. LHR is chaotic these days.

Chaotic is an understatement....

what other airport has refused to accept checked bags for transfer between terminals (due to system failures and a huge backlog?)...

and this is just in the past month. Every month in the past year has had a new LHR debacle. And for this (the guarantee to lose your bag) they charge a separate >USD 100 fee. Madness. I'm boycotting LHR no matter how convenient it might seem (it has been problematic on 90% of my trips, in the past 2 years). But to each his own -- just make an informed decision, assessing the risks.

Guess I was lucky on my last trip then. I think I did like 4 LHRs and quite a few LGWs and was actually rather prepared to go shopping on my travel insurance company as I was quite expecting to file a delayed baggage report or 2. But the baggage gods were smiling on me - bags came out first each time. I went shopping anyway, just on my own budget.

OTOH I was hit with the runway closure and fog so I was massively delayed twice.

LHR is what it is but to me it's no worse than many big US airports in terms of international travel. LAX and MIA for example are at least equally bad, if not even worse from my perspective/experience.

Last Tuesday morning (11 March) I arrived to T1 on BA 56 at about 6am from JNB and connected to AA 57 departing from T3.

Even though I had a FastTrack card from BA, I used the IRIS station at T1 (never experienced a line for IRIS), left the terminal and had a nice 7 minute walk to T3. When I arrived at the AA counter at T3, they confirmed my bags had been transferred.

I always avoid using the FCC.

Impossible to avoid FCC from T5 when it opens next week, and not so desirable from T4 these days -- so your comments are specific to T1/T3 transfers. By Sept there will be no Oneworld flights in T1, so it is getting to be a moot point. Also the walk is 7 minutes only if the walkways are working and you walk fast without too much to carry. Most people would consider T1 to T3 to be a 15 min walk (I agree with you about 7 min, but few would). Also the FastTrack pass is not for the FCC FastTrack, but only for immigration FastTrack. So going landside is just about the only way for a fast terminal transfer (sadly).

I guess it will be 2009 when the LHR terminal situation is sorted out and becomes nice(r). Expect sporadic (or not so sporadic) chaos until then. The new T5 is quite nice (as it should be, given the cost!).