Worldjet777 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 132 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 2190 times:
Hello All!
I just booked my next ticket to Europe, but in an effort to save money, I am only traveling with AA as far as LHR. My final destination on the outbound is Rome. SO now I'm looking at getting into Rome from the London area...
I will probably go BA, because I have never tried their service, could use my OneWorld status for mileage and elite benifits, and they fly the LHR-FCO route frequently. If I arrive off AA66 at 7:50a from ORD, how much time do I need to connect? I would be going from T3 to T1.
Also, I could fly Alitalia to FCO from LHR, and I'm a SkyTeam Elite...is than a better option in any way?
I looked into flying Ryanair or Easyjet from STN...their fares were somewhat better, but I'd have to connect airports and go into CIA, as opposed to FCO. I don't see any benefit to flying with them, unless there's something I don't know here.
Really, I just need to know how much time is REALLY necessary to connect at LHR...I won't have fast track access unless OneWorld elites traveling in Y get that benefit...to my knowledge thats not the case though.
Albird87 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (6 years 2 months 2 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 2184 times:
Ok well if your going from T3 to T1 and havent got your tickets booked together then you will have to pick up your bag in T3 (which last time i went through actually doesnt take that long from T3. T1 is hell to wait for bags!!) You will then be able to take the underground tunnels to T1 and then check in.
Id leave at least 3 hours to make this connection as you dont want to rush and miss check-in.
If you can get the bag tagged all the way through (or just having carry on) then go through flight connections which is easy to follow and you can then check-in for your BA flight in the flight connections area in T1. that would then only mean you would need around 1.5 hours to do that.
However i do say that this is from my past experience (I regulary fly MIA-LHR-EDI/GLA on AA to BA connections) and also BA have this express line in flight connections if ur OW sapphire or emerald (you can try ruby but i doubt they will let you through) and also use the terraces lounge (def not for ruby holders).
However if ur flight is delayed then you could be in a pickle!!
Hope this helps
JGPH1A From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (6 years 2 months 2 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 2163 times:
Quoting Albird87 (Reply 1): Ok well if your going from T3 to T1 and havent got your tickets booked together then you will have to pick up your bag in T3 (
You don't have to have bought your tickets together to check your bags through - AA will through check onto BA even on seperate tickets, so will most normal carriers, only BD won't.
As a word of advice, avoid transferring at LHR if you possibly can - avoid UK airports if you are travelling direct to Europe - their security is a nightmare and their ridiculous cabin baggage limits are a real pain. Transfer through AMS, FRA or even (shudder) CDG.
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 21679 posts, RR: 23 Reply 4, posted (6 years 2 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 2128 times:
Two hours should be enough between flights. If you're lucky it can be done in less time (the legal minimum connecting time is probably about 1 hour) but with frequent long waits at the security check it's less stressful if you have plenty of time, but 2 hours should be fine.
I missed a BA/BA connection YUL-LHR-GVA two weeks ago (both flights at Terminal 4) that was scheduled for 1 hr. 15 min. due to a long wait at security (and the inbound flight was about 20 minutes late. Luckily I only had to wait 90 minutes until the next GVA flight. I was thinking of booking that next GVA flight originally to allow more time but decided to take a chance on the earlier one. When there are flights every hour or two it's not a major problem but I would certainly allow plenty of time if I was connecting to the last flight of the day somewhere, or to a flight that only operated 2 or 3 days a week.
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