Wkdleader

Here is an extract from my E Ticket

AIR - Friday 19 February
SWISS Flight 421
Departs: Birmingham
0840 Hrs, Friday, 19 February
Terminal 1 Equipment: FOKKER 100
Status: Confirmed

Arrives: Zurich
1135 Hrs




AIR - Friday 19 February
SWISS Flight 1736
Departs: Zurich
1235 Hrs, Friday, 19 February
Terminal Unspecified Equipment: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A320-100/200
Status: Confirmed

Arrives: Rome-Fiumicino
1405 Hrs


As you can see im going from Birmingham to Rome via Zurich which a one hour gap. If all goes well.

Its the first time ive ever caught a connecting flight and im massively concerned..

My questions are

1) How do i go about catching my connecting flight. Do just collect my luggage and go book in again. Rush through security and dive on the plane? ! hour seems abit tight. Does my luggage go straight to Rome? Im totally confused. Thomas Cook put these flights on so i assume they know what they are doing.


2) What happens if flight one is cancelled meaning i miss the 2nd one to rome? Would it be the airlines problem and they would have to get me on another flight.

Someone please calm my nerves and give me good news!

As you can see im using Swiss Airlines for both legs and its the same coming back to birmingham

Unterwegs

Welcome to flyertalk!
Relax. Very likely everything will go fine. Thousends of people are on these kind of tight connections every day, and most of them make it without a problem.

Your luggage will be tagged to your final destination, so you will not see it in Zuerich.

When arriving in Zuerich just check the monitors for the gate of your next flight. Then follow the signs to go to the gate. Likely the gates will be fairly close to each other, so usually it would not take more than 10 or 20 min to get to the next gate.

What can go wrong:
- Your inbound flight is late and the outbound on time (or not late enough that you can still catch it). In this case Swiss will rebook you to a later flight, potentially even on a different airline.
- Your second flight is canceled: same soluution
- Your first flight is canceled: Swiss will rebook you (likely on a different airline) to your final destination
- You make it, but your luggage does not: fill out a lost report and the luggage usually shows up one to two days late (so put important things in your carry on)
- the world stops rotating: you are on your own.

Zuerich is actually a pretty good airport to connect and Swiss is fairly organized.

Wkdleader

Thank you so much. You have claimed my nerves no end.


So to go through.

1) Check in at birmingham (they will send the suitcase to rome), board my flight as normal.

2)Arrive at Zurich, get off the plane and go into arrivals? Look for the gate number and go find it/board it. Do i need to go through check in again?

3)Arrive at rome, collect the suitcase and off i go!

Unterwegs

Arrive in Zuerich. Look for transit/transfer and your gate number.
Don't go to arrivals (this will put you to the outside and you would need to go all the way back in - which can be done, but takes more time)

1. yes

2. ja, beinahe. You will get your boarding pass for the second flight also in Birmingham. So no need to do anything else than going to the gate (and any immigration/security in between). Don't worry, just follow the signs to your gate and you will take the shortest path to the gate.
At the gate just board. If you are nervous you can always ask at the gate if your boarding pass is ok, but you don't need to.

3. si

ELAL

Nothing to worry, 1 hour is plenty for Zurich, I've made connections in 40 minutes, and even that was connecting from an international flight to a European flight, which meant quite a long walk, and having to take the train (and listen to the cows mooooing Etc.) from the E gates

United_Flyer3

Having never been to ZRH before can anyone help out here:

My itin is:

LX317 LHR-ZRH
08:50 - 11:35

then

LX188 ZRH-PVG
13:05 - 06:35


I will be in C for the LHR-ZRH leg, and then in F to PVG.

I presume 90 mins is enough transfer time, but will I have to change terminals or anything?
Does anyone know which gates I'll arrive at from LHR, as I think the flight to PVG goes from the E gates.
Do I have to go through security again anywhere?



Thanks in advance!

Unterwegs

Assuming your inbound flight is arriving not too late you should just go to the First Class Lounge. From there you can take the shuttle (6 seater Van) to the E gates. Security (and passport control for leaving switzerland) is when leaving the lounge before you enter the Van. They drop you off at the E building. If you go to the US you need to go thru security again, for other destination there is no additional security there.

The F lounge is outside of security and 'inside' of switzerland, so you have to clear immigration to go to the lounge.

FlyingFinn

One additional point: this is a non-Schengen to Schengen connection, so in between the gates the OP needs to clear immigration along the way. That could potentially slow things down a bit if there are lots of people there, but Swiss efficiency usually works here as well.

IAN-UK

Needs to go through immigration, walk the entire length of the airport , then go through the usual security check for A gates. Even with the help of the F/C security the journey can really eat into the transfer time. So no hanging about!

In the opposite direction, after you've trudged all the way through the airport from the A gates, the potential hold-ups are close together: the passport check into the B area then the security checks. It's a stressful wait in the passport queue, as Zurich departing passengers and transfers meet there. There are occasional immigration "issues" which hold things up, and it can get to be quite a mess at peak transfer times.

Zurich was a great airport for transfers. It probably still is for EU Schengen passengers. But with Switzerland as Schengen but not EU, and UK being EU but not Schengen, there are bound to be, errr, "features" in the transfer process

BobBHX

The flight from BHX will park at a remote stand and pax will be bussed to Arrivals D. From there, go down the escalator on the right and follow the passage to immigration. The first immigration desks are for pax ending their journey in ZRH. The last few desks are for connecting pax. There is hardly ever any delay at immigration -only if you've been unlucky enough to arrive immediately after a few long hauls with hundreds of people making connections. The OP is on LX421 which arrives late morning so there should be no problem. I take LX421 about twice a month and regularly make 40 min connections with ease.

After clearing immigration, go up the escalator into the shopping area. Turn left and follow the signs for the A gates. The flight to FCO will probably leave from a contact gate on the A pier, if not it will be one of the A1 - A10 bus gates. Either way, go through the same security check area and you will be in the A gate area.

goalie

if i could piggy back.....

i booked 2 saver-f awards for goalie-parents mia-cdg with the return on lx and was wondering about the conx & customs 'n immigration procedures at zrh

cdg-zrh: lx633 10am-11:20am
zrh-mia: lx64 13:05-17:30