Do I have to pick up checked bag, recheck and go back through security on layover in foreign country?

[Eli_6]

Last year, I had a layover at London-Heathrow on the way to Edinburgh.  They made me pick up my checked bag, go through customs, re-check it and go back through security.  It was a nightmare. Thank goodness I had a 3 hours layover because it took that entire time.  I was one of the last to board my flight to Edinburgh.  The thought occurred to me that they may have made me do this because my final destination was also in the UK.  

 

This year, I once again have a layover at London-Heathrow on my way to Barcelona.  Will I have to do this again?  Unfortunately, my international ticket is booked separate but with the same airlines (British Airways) and in the same class (both are business) because it was substantially cheaper to book the airfare that way than to book 1 ticket straight from Houston to Barcelona. 

 

 My concern is that unlike last year, I don't have a 3 hours lay over.  I originally had a 2.5 hours lay over, but BA changed my flight time on the incoming flight from Houston to Heathrow such that now I only have 1 hours 45 minutes.  That may seem like enough, but given what I experienced last time...it isn't.  I absolutely would have missed my LHR to Edinburgh flight last year had it only been 1 hours 45 minutes apart because it took longer than that to get through the situation I described above.   

 

I have tried to call British Airways to ask, but was transferred 3 times, was on hold 40 minutes total, and eventually someone hung up on me without answering...and I got charged for an international phone call!  I then tried messaging with them.  I sent them this question. 4 days later, the only response I got back was that I couldn't change my flight time because the flight was only moved by 45 minutes and they wouldn't allow a free reschedule unless the flight was changed by 2 hours. So...they were not helpful at all and didn't answer my question. 

 

If I have to go through the pick up, back through security, etc. process, I am going to have to pretty much relegate myself to just flying with carry on...and my kids and husband.  Which isn't easy considering we will be in Europe with a family of 4 for 3 weeks. 

[Globaliser]

36 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

Last year, I had a layover at London-Heathrow on the way to Edinburgh.  They made me pick up my checked bag, go through customs, re-check it and go back through security.  It was a nightmare. Thank goodness I had a 3 hours layover because it took that entire time.  I was one of the last to board my flight to Edinburgh.  The thought occurred to me that they may have made me do this because my final destination was also in the UK.  

 

This year, I once again have a layover at London-Heathrow on my way to Barcelona.  Will I have to do this again?  Unfortunately, my international ticket is booked separate but with the same airlines (British Airways) and in the same class (both are business) because it was substantially cheaper to book the airfare that way than to book 1 ticket straight from Houston to Barcelona.

 

The experience you had on the way to Edinburgh was nothing to do with the second flight being domestic. I strongly suspect it was because you had booked two separate tickets. If you had booked a through ticket, the bag would have been automatically transferred, and you would have connected at Heathrow via the normal flight connections route. That would have involved you clearing immigration and security at Heathrow, but without having to get your bag.

 

As you have booked two separate BA tickets for the trip to Barcelona, at Heathrow you will have to clear immigration, collect your bag, clear customs, and then go to check in the bag again before clearing security - just like last time.

 

If you DIY some money-saving ideas, you really need to have worked out all the consequences first. Because of the way that you have booked it, the London-Barcelona flight (which is, by the way, also international) is a completely separate journey from your Houston-London flight from the airline's point of view. That's why you will be held to the terms of the fares you have bought. It'll probably be less stress if you just pay up to change the London-Barcelona flight rather than trying to wing a freebie out of the airline.

[Eli_6]

2 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

The experience you had on the way to Edinburgh was nothing to do with the second flight being domestic. I strongly suspect it was because you had booked two separate tickets. If you had booked a through ticket, the bag would have been automatically transferred, and you would have connected at Heathrow via the normal flight connections route. That would have involved you clearing immigration and security at Heathrow, but without having to get your bag.

 

As you have booked two separate BA tickets for the trip to Barcelona, at Heathrow you will have to clear immigration, collect your bag, clear customs, and then go to check in the bag again before clearing security - just like last time.

 

If you DIY some money-saving ideas, you really need to have worked out all the consequences first. Because of the way that you have booked it, the London-Barcelona flight (which is, by the way, also international) is a completely separate journey from your Houston-London flight from the airline's point of view. That's why you will be held to the terms of the fares you have bought. It'll probably be less stress if you just pay up to change the London-Barcelona flight rather than trying to wing a freebie out of the airline.

Thank you for your response!

 

I actually finally got in touch with someone at BA, though, and you are completely right on my BCN issue and booking it on two tickets will require me to collect my luggage. Our cruise is going from Barcelona to England so we only needed a one-way flight from Heathrow to Barcelona. Because I was using companion fares along with avios, there was no way to book IAH-BCN LHR-IAH online.  You can do this over the phone with avios, but not online.  And the companion fares have to be booked online. So, I opted to use my two companion fares and avios for our family of four on the roundtrip IAH-LHR and book LHR-BCN separate.  (I also booked them at different times because for a brief period of time we were considering going to Malaga first and then going to BCN to catch the cruise ship.)  It wasn't just an issue of being cheap and saving a few dollars, though...it was a significant savings.  

 

I am glad to learn this now, though, as I will just be sure to have us fly with "carry on" only.  So thank you very much for responding to my post! We have a washer/dryer at our condo before the cruise and on the cruise we have free wash/dry so hopefully this will not be a problem. I don't relish trying to pack us all in 4 carry ons, but I will make it work.   Frankly, with all the issues with lost luggage, it isn't a bad idea anyway...

Edited March 6, 2023 by Eli_6

[mcgeetech]

Considering the saving on the flights, you might think about doing some shopping before your cruise for some European fashions, or FedEx clothing or baggage to your pre cruise hotel. 
I know we have been looking at flights to Barcelona, and with some of the economy options, it would be less to freight clothing ahead of time, than check a bag. Especially with some of the weirdness across a new airline for each leg of our trip.

we paid about $300 more each for tickets to avoid that headache. Not sure the budget airlines really save you anything unless you can do it all by carryon. And for a cruise that is ill advised 

[6rugrats]

1 hour ago, mcgeetech said:

.. it would be less to freight clothing ahead of time, than check a bag.

Have you looked at the cost of shipping luggage from US-Europe?

[Island2Dweller]

What's done is done.  BA are absolutely rigid that if you have two separate tickets (even if both with them), they will not check through.  Small mercy for you, at least this summer the Barcelona services are using their main terminal (T5) - previously they have used T3 which would have required a train ride between terminals as well.

One final thing to check.  London has six airports and BA fly from three of them.  Triple check that the add on flight really is from LHR and not (for example) LGW or LCY

[Globaliser]

13 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I am glad to learn this now, though, as I will just be sure to have us fly with "carry on" only.

 

If you do this, then don't forget that BA has one of the more generous cabin baggage allowances around. In particular, the weight limit is almost theoretical. Each piece can weigh up to 23 kg (although you must be able to lift it into the overhead locker by yourself and the cabin crew are not allowed to do this for you), and it's actually very difficult to pack that much weight into the allowed size.

 

I'm still not sure why you've ruled out changing the LHR-BCN flight to a later one to allow yourself a decent margin and then avoid the stress of trying to squeeze everything in to a small bag. That would seem like the obvious solution, given the length of your trip.

[Eli_6]

4 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

If you do this, then don't forget that BA has one of the more generous cabin baggage allowances around. In particular, the weight limit is almost theoretical. Each piece can weigh up to 23 kg (although you must be able to lift it into the overhead locker by yourself and the cabin crew are not allowed to do this for you), and it's actually very difficult to pack that much weight into the allowed size.

 

I'm still not sure why you've ruled out changing the LHR-BCN flight to a later one to allow yourself a decent margin and then avoid the stress of trying to squeeze everything in to a small bag. That would seem like the obvious solution, given the length of your trip.

Thanks for the reply.  I won't have any problem lifting the bags...although, I vacuum pack any puffy clothes so I can fit a lot of weight in a carry on and a personal item.  After talking it over with my husband, I think we are going the carry-on route. Going through customs, rechecking baggage and back through security was not fun and Heathrow was insane last summer.  I am spoiled in the US because I have TSA pre-check and we can fly through security here, but that doesn't apply in Europe.

 

Plus, there was a lot of lost baggage last summer at Heathrow. We flew to Edinburgh through LHR for The Open and our friend who was playing in it had his clubs lost which was bad because that is his livelihood. It apparently happened to several of the golfers there and some even had to play with borrowed clubs.

 

We only checked one bag last summer which was half-filled with gifts for a friend and her child who lives in the UK and we were there for over 3 weeks.  We also brought our formal wear with us last year which we didn't end up using. My sons' and husband's giant shoes alone take up a ton of space so if I don't bring our "formal" wear for the cruise, then that alone will save quite a bit of room. (I have no problem skipping the formal nights considering we have 10 ports in 12 days on this cruise and will be exhausted. Most nights last year, we ended up just eating at the buffet or doing room service rather than the MDR.) We did Alaska with just carry-ons which and we needed coats so I think I can do this.  The cruise ship laundry service has always worked well for us and they also have laundry rooms on the ship as well.  

[fbgd]

2 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

 After talking it over with my husband, I think we are going the carry-on route. Going through customs, rechecking baggage and back through security was not fun and Heathrow was insane last summer. 

 

For future reference it is not just customs but immigration and customs upon arrival into Heathrow if you are "landing yourself".

 

Immigration would be your passport check, then you'd collect any checked bags and you'd then clear customs as you enter into the landside area. 

 

Can't believe your golfer pro friends playing in a major championship relied upon airlines to carry their clubs. Pro friends, amateur mistake...There are companies that specialize in worldwide shipping of golf clubs for this very reason. My friends and I use Shipsticks and we don't have anything on the line besides beer money...

Edited March 7, 2023 by fbgd

[Eli_6]

9 hours ago, Island2Dweller said:

What's done is done.  BA are absolutely rigid that if you have two separate tickets (even if both with them), they will not check through.  Small mercy for you, at least this summer the Barcelona services are using their main terminal (T5) - previously they have used T3 which would have required a train ride between terminals as well.

One final thing to check.  London has six airports and BA fly from three of them.  Triple check that the add on flight really is from LHR and not (for example) LGW or LCY

Oh, yes...it is definitely Heathrow.  Houston also has three airports...the two major airports IAH and Hobby are an hour or more apart. 

 

We have had to catch a train between the terminals before at Heathrow. 

[Eli_6]

21 hours ago, mcgeetech said:

Considering the saving on the flights, you might think about doing some shopping before your cruise for some European fashions, or FedEx clothing or baggage to your pre cruise hotel. 
I know we have been looking at flights to Barcelona, and with some of the economy options, it would be less to freight clothing ahead of time, than check a bag. Especially with some of the weirdness across a new airline for each leg of our trip.

we paid about $300 more each for tickets to avoid that headache. Not sure the budget airlines really save you anything unless you can do it all by carryon. And for a cruise that is ill advised 

All of the tickets are business class on British Airways so we each get 2 checked bags up to 70 lbs each with for free on both the flights...so I suppose we could bring 8 checked bags. 

 

The issue isn't paying for the baggage, but that I don't want to have to keep up with a bunch of large bags and also keep up with my children while going through the airport. (And I also don't want to have to do the whole go through customs/security thing. I like getting off the plane, going to the lounge, getting on the next plane.)  Since there are four of us, each one of us had 1 carry on and 1 back pack.  And then we had 1 checked bag for all of us.  However, half of my checked bag was filled with gifts for the daughters of a UK friend...American girl doll, books, etc.  I am not meeting her this year so won't have to bring those gifts and I think it will be easy to skip that bag.

 

Last year, there was an issue at the port of Dover (this is info on it:  https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2022-07-22/critical-incident-declared-at-port-of-dover-amid-summer-getaway ) and we had to walk to the ship from our hotel because our pre-arranged taxi could not get to us. It was over a mile with all over our luggage.  If we had had more luggage than each of us could carry, it would have been BAD.  

 

Last year, we spent maybe 4-5 days at Edinburgh/St. Andrews at The Open. Then we went back to London and spent a night at Hever Castle, a night at Leeds Castle (in Maidstone, not Leeds the city), a night in Dover before the cruise and then was on the cruise for 9 nights and then flew back to Houston.  It was easier not having a lot of luggage going from place to place like that...especially when the places we were staying often didn't have elevators. We aren't hopping around as much this year, but it still seems easier to pack light and use my free wash/dry/fold service on the ship.

[Eli_6]

9 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

If you do this, then don't forget that BA has one of the more generous cabin baggage allowances around. In particular, the weight limit is almost theoretical. Each piece can weigh up to 23 kg (although you must be able to lift it into the overhead locker by yourself and the cabin crew are not allowed to do this for you), and it's actually very difficult to pack that much weight into the allowed size.

 

I'm still not sure why you've ruled out changing the LHR-BCN flight to a later one to allow yourself a decent margin and then avoid the stress of trying to squeeze everything in to a small bag. That would seem like the obvious solution, given the length of your trip.

I don't want to go through customs, security, etc. PERIOD regardless of time at Heathrow unless I have absolutely have to. Traveling with young children presents an entirely different set of circumstances than traveling as a solo, couple, or even with teens. Plus, it will be easier transversing the airport, boarding, etc. Additionally, I can't get us all seats together on the later flight in business, and it would put us getting in to Barcelona really late in the evening when we are already arriving in the evening. I then would also have to rebook transportation from BCN to our Air BNB, make new arrangement with the AirBNB host for check in/key pick up time, etc. It isn't worth it to me just to have 1 extra piece of luggage when I know (having taken a similar trip last year) we can swing just carry on and back pack since we have wash services on the ship and at our air bnb.

[Island2Dweller]

"I don't want to go through customs, security, etc. PERIOD regardless of time at Heathrow "

If your itinerary has the separate flight legs on separate tickets AND you have hold luggage then you have no choice.  You will have to clear UK immigration, collect your bags, recheck the bags for the second flight leg, then reclear security.

If you are with hand baggage only, you can use the "flight connections" option,  which avoids all but one of those steps.  You would still have to reclear security but that is it.  But, repeat, this is NOT an option with hold bags.

[skings]

Hi Island2Dweller you are the person who can give me the info I need. I am an 80 year old solo lady using a mobility walker havent been to Europe in many years. Will be flying from Miami to LHR in October to board a cruise in Southampton. When I land in Heathrow do I retrieve my luggage first than immigration? Also what is the process when I fly BA from LHR to Barcelona for my second cruise 10 days later. Thanks for any info.

[wowzz]

11 hours ago, skings said:

When I land in Heathrow do I retrieve my luggage first than immigration? Also what is the process when I fly BA from LHR to Barcelona for my second cruise 10 days later. Thanks for any info.

On arrival at LHR you first pass through Border Control (immigration). You then collect your luggage,  and pass through customs - basically just a walk through the nothing to declare "corridor".

On leaving LHR you check in your baggage,  when your passport will also be checked,  then pass through security into the departures area.

As an aside, you mention you use a mobility stroller. There is quite a lot of walking involved at LHR,  plus queuing at Border Control. I would strongly advise that  you request wheelchair assistance.  

[fbgd]

17 hours ago, skings said:

Hi Island2Dweller you are the person who can give me the info I need. I am an 80 year old solo lady using a mobility walker havent been to Europe in many years. Will be flying from Miami to LHR in October to board a cruise in Southampton. When I land in Heathrow do I retrieve my luggage first than immigration? Also what is the process when I fly BA from LHR to Barcelona for my second cruise 10 days later. 

 

Be sure to check you are flying BA. BA and American Airlines are close partners and sell tickets on eachothers flights. If your flight number is 206 or 208 it is operated by British Airways, if it's 1500 or 1529 it'll be operated by American Airlines.

 

BA use Terminal 5 at Heathrow and there are escalators/lifts and underground trains to get from the aircraft to Border Control. Then you'll collect bags and clear customs.

 

If you're using American they use Terminal 3 and there are no trains.

 

For your flight to Barcelona you'll use Terminal 5. Many shorthaul flights leave from the main building so there is no need to take the train. If you're flying business class or have oneworld Sapphire status there are separate Club Europe/Club World check-in desk, Fast Track security and two "Galleries Club" lounges you can use, one at each end of the terminal. If you have oneworld Emerald status go to the First Check-In at the south end of the building and the private security lanes put you right into the appropriate "Galleries First" lounge.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/business-travel/articles/the-first-wing

Edited March 9, 2023 by fbgd