I'm flying from LAX to London, then on to Berlin or Copenhagen as a separate ticket. Not sure how I'm getting to the final destination-- probably BA, Ryan Air, or really, whatever's quick and convenient.

Do I clear customs completely in London, before going to the next leg? Or do I clear at the last stop? Trying to plan that short flight and wondering if I need to leave a few hours (!) buffer after landing in LHR to allow for customs time.

If the airline rep at LAX checks your luggage onto the flights indicated on a separate ticket, then you're luggage will be cleared at the final destination for which the luggage was tagged -- namely, Berlin or Copenhagen.

If the airline rep at LAX cannot or will not check your luggage through to the final destination indicated on another ticket, then you'll clear customs at LHR and again clear "customs" at Berlin or Copenhagen. However, at TXL and CPH they are not aggressive about pulling people over for customs checks, at least not generally. LHR pulls people over for customs checks far more frequently, but for all my hundreds of times going through customs at LHR, I've not once gotten pulled over there. (I haven't cared to note whether bags tagged from the UK to EU Schengen have the green side bars on the tags attached to the bag or not. If so, then that generally means you'll get skipped over for customs checks as it indicates you are coming from within the "customs union".)

Ok. So even if I fly in on UAL and then switch to BA to get to Berlin (for example), if my luggage is tagged all the way thru to Berlin, I should be ok?

THANKS--

as someone else already mentioned, if your luggage is checked right through, then you don't clear customs in LHR, but otherwise you do.

check with UA whether they will check luggage through on the other carrier.

I know that Air Canada has done it in the past when you had proof of a confirmed ticket (the itinerary must include the e-ticket number), AND if they had an inter-line agreement with the airline in question (so no charters for example).

Now if you mean, BA as in British Airways, then it's likely that they'll have an interline agreement with them, but if by BA you mean Berlin Air, then I would doubt it.

Ok-- yeah, I was thinking British Airways... tho depending on the routing for getting from London to Berlin, I could end up on Berlin Air... or Bahrain Air, or Boston Air, or whomever can get me there the easiest!

Thanks for the reply.

And by the way.... WELCOME to FlyerTalk!!

Are you aware that "Greater London" has a couple of airports? Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted ...
Some of the Low Cost Airlines go from/to Luton, Stansted .. both are very far from LHR.

Check here http://whichbudget.com/

Wow, very cool site! Thanks.

Yeah, I spent some time looking at doing some inter-London transfers and it just looks like any kind of transfers from one airport to another is going to be a mess, and something to avoid.

My biggest challenge right now is that I have an int'l flight (LHR -> LAX) on 9/12, departing at 12:25p. So I need to be there in time to make that flight. That morning I need to from either Berlin or Copenhagen (exact starting city still up in the air) to make it in time... there are only two flights from Berlin to LHR (both on BA), one gets me into LHR at 9:35a and the other at noon. Noon's too late but 9:35a is awfully early. Or maybe not, for an int'l flight... but ugh. :-) Ideally I could get into LHR at 10a and zip out right after that.

Which airline London-LAX. Are you sure that it is LHR-LAX..?
If so, you will depart from T3 or T4 ... T4 has nice shops to kill some time.... 3 hours layover is not too bad....I guess you'll arrive at T1....and 9:35 London time is 10:35 MEZ (Berlin/Copenhagen), so, your flight isn't a 'red-eye-flight'
Have a nice trip ^