missko

Hi all, I'm a US citizen and will be traveling IAH-MAN on SQ and MAN-IST on TK. Travel will be on two separate tickets. SQ says it will not check my luggage all the way to IST bc MAN-IST is on a separate ticket. Looks like SQ is in T1 and TK in T2.

How much time should I budget to enter the UK, reclaim my luggage from T1, go to T2 to check into my TK flight and check my bags, exit the UK? IAH-MAN arrives into MAN at 940am. MAN-IST departs at 115pm. I am *G and planning to travel MAN-IST in economy.

Thanks all

:D!

3.5 hours is plenty.

SQ and star alliance will generally check bags through on separate tickets. How did you ask SQ?

UKtravelbear

missko does nit have 3 1/2 hours.

To allow for TK bag drop, should bags not be interlines, they have closer to 2 1/2 hours.

which offers less flexibility for a delayed inbound or problems with immigration or baggage claim.

missko

thanks all. Singapore says its policy is not to interline luggage for international to international flights unless flights are on the same ticket.

Is there a Fast Track for security and passport control for *G travelers? I see the airport has FastTrack for GBP5; however, the website says it is not suitable for families. Is there a line for families? We will be travelling with 2 young children.

NewbieRunner

It’s actually SQ in T2 and TK in T1. Not that it makes much difference. Yes, there is fast track security in T1 for *G but I don’t know exactly how it works if you are not *G of the airline you are flying. I don’t expect security to be busy late morning/mid-day. I believe you can pay £5 for fast track passport control in T2 but I have no experience. As you probably know there is no exit passport control.
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:D!

Yes you always say this on these kinds of threads. But the point is they have 3.5 hours between the scheduled arrival and scheduled departure, which is plenty of time to connect on separate tickets (as long as there is no more than ~30 minutes of flight delay), when taking into account all of the constraints including check-in/bag drop closing time, immigration, baggage reclaim, getting mildly lost and security.

See Singapore policy on interlining on separate tickets

It's a possibility they won't do it at IAH, but have you actually spoken to check-in staff at IAH, or only to a call centre agent who has never actually been on a plane?

UKtravelbear

And I will keep saying it because it gives a much more realistic time frame especially if there is luggage to check in.

And I say it because I have seen people miss flights because they didn’t factor bag drop deadlines in to their timings and had to pay for new flights.

IAN-UK

Manchester isn't a very user-friendly airport, and it's almost hostile to transfers - particularly where a terminal shimmy is involved. Whatever town hall committee designed the airport, not much consideration was given to connecting passengers.

The long-time frozen moving walkway between the terminals will be the setting for lengthy, time-limited dash with bags and kids. Followed by TK check-in (which at least offer a business-class/*G line) and the uncertainty of the security lottery.

Three hours or so should be enough time, but throwing in possible delays ... who knows? My last IAH transatlantic departure (lufthansa) was three hours' delayed because of thunderstorms.

TK has three Manchester departures, maybe create a more generous buffer by selecting the next one. If the SQ flight is one of those figuring in the Premium Flight Deals forum, maybe spend some of the cash saved on a hotel.

Arctic Troll

Interline transfers at Manchester remain intermittent, even though they have nominally reopened, so it may well be beyond SQ's ability to have the bags interlined through Manchester. Even now it is a common as not that Loganair in the UK say they cannot interline bags on to Emirates or BA flights from Manchester. Perhaps they are being lazy.

I would say 3.5 hours is enough if everything is on time. An hour to clear passport control/baggage reclaim and then the 30 minutes walk between terminals would allow 2 hours to re-check and go through security. But at busy times it can easily take 60+ minutes between entering the check-in queue and leaving the security hall.

It depends on your attitude to risk. If everything runs to plan then if you take a later flight you'll have a lot of sitting around in Manchester T1, which isn't that nice a terminal. But if there's more than a 30-minute delay on SQ then you'll be nervously watching the clock if you take the earlier flight.

missko

Thanks all.

the baggage situation has been averted! United was able to ticket the entire itinerary as one booking for the baby and me. we will check bags under our names.

my husband and our 3 year old are still travelling under separate tickets for IAH-MAN and MAN-IST. If Singapore won’t check them in all the way to IST when we check in at IAH, will they be able to get boarding passes for MAN-IST without exiting and going through passport control? In the U.S., some airlines give you a dummy boarding card that you present with your passport to a ticketing agent to get your boarding pass.

Swanhunter

They should be able to get mobile boarding passes for TK.

missko

Thank you!

JacksonX

missko , may I ask if you had to enter the UK border at Manchester or did you manage to do an airside connection? I have an upcoming trip involving T2 (SQ) to T1 international connection at Manchester Airport too and this thread has been very helpful. Thanks!