British air

[LuckyStar]

2 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

I frequent Heathrow at least monthly, if not more, and have a very love-hate relationship with it. Most of my travel is now located within T3 and T5, and I actually enjoy going between the terminals because of the views of the planes from the airside buses. The sheer number of destinations around the world that can be reached from LHR is just fantastic, and transit to/from the city has so many options for various budgets and timeframes. But, of course, it can be busy, it can be crazy, it can be frustrating, and all of the other things that come with many global hubs. 

I'm considering a flight in Nov that goes through Heathrow.  We weren't expecting the long line through customs, the first time.  Barely made our connecting flight.  We're better prepared now, so it might be better and I'll be sure to leave more time between flights. 

[Zach1213]

1 hour ago, LuckyStar said:

I'm considering a flight in Nov that goes through Heathrow.  We weren't expecting the long line through customs, the first time.  Barely made our connecting flight.  We're better prepared now, so it might be better and I'll be sure to leave more time between flights. 

By customs, I assume you mean immigration which is generally the longer process. But keep in mind that you don't need to go through immigration unless you're connecting through to a UK flight. If you are connecting through to, say, Paris or Athens or Cape Town for that matter, you will not clear UK immigration (but will need to re-clear security, which can be lengthy during the rush and without any kind of priority status). 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Zach1213

[Globaliser]

2 hours ago, LuckyStar said:

I'm considering a flight in Nov that goes through Heathrow.  We weren't expecting the long line through customs, the first time.

 

1 hour ago, Zach1213 said:

By customs, I assume you mean immigration which is generally the longer process. But keep in mind that you don't need to go through immigration unless you're connecting through to a UK flight.

 

And even if you're connecting to a UK flight, you should be able to use the immigration clearance point in the flight connections stream (as opposed to the normal immigration channel for those ending their journeys at Heathrow), which is usually rather less busy.

[LuckyStar]

4 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

By customs, I assume you mean immigration which is generally the longer process. But keep in mind that you don't need to go through immigration unless you're connecting through to a UK flight. If you are connecting through to, say, Paris or Athens or Cape Town for that matter, you will not clear UK immigration (but will need to re-clear security, which can be lengthy during the rush and without any kind of priority status). 

We were connecting to a flight to Brussels from LHR.  I assume we got into the correct line.  No one told us differently.  I just booked my latest flight.  I have an 9 hr layover at LHR this time.  Plenty of time to get through any silly lines I may need to.  LOL

[Globaliser]

4 hours ago, LuckyStar said:

We were connecting to a flight to Brussels from LHR.  I assume we got into the correct line.  No one told us differently.  I just booked my latest flight.  I have an 9 hr layover at LHR this time.  Plenty of time to get through any silly lines I may need to.  LOL

 

You need to keep your eyes open. The Flight Connections route is signed with purple signs, so if you look for those you will be in the correct stream. You also want to make sure that when the purple signs give you a choice of terminal, you're following the route for Flight Connections Terminal 5. (On the assumption that you are flying from Denver to LHR, you will both arrive at and depart from T5 - no terminal change involved.)

 

Your inbound flight will very probably arrive at a satellite building. The Flight Connections route will take you to the main building, and into a big hall where immigration queues are to the left and connections are to the right. You're an international connection, so you will have your boarding pass checked, then go upstairs to clear security, and then you'll be in the main shopping area.

 

Ironically, with 9 hours between flights you will actually have time to choose to clear immigration and do something other than hang around in the airport terminal (assuming no big delays to your inbound flight). You could either take a train or Tube in to central London - you'd have time for lunch somewhere or to visit one of the South Kensington museums, for example - or (as is sometimes suggested here) you could pop over to Windsor, which was handily built underneath the Heathrow flightpath.

[FlyerTalker]

14 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

The sheer number of destinations around the world that can be reached from LHR is just fantastic, and transit to/from the city has so many options for various budgets and timeframes. But, of course, it can be busy, it can be crazy, it can be frustrating, and all of the other things that come with many global hubs. 

 

It seems that folks want the flight destination and connection options of a huge hub like Heathrow, Atlanta or CDG, but with the size of an airport like Reno or Omaha.

 

Can't be done.

 

 

 

[Globaliser]

6 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

It seems that folks want the flight destination and connection options of a huge hub like Heathrow, Atlanta or CDG, but with the size of an airport like Reno or Omaha.

 

Can't be done.

 

To be fair, it could (at least in theory) be done better than it is. A big problem with Heathrow is that (like many other global hubs) it's grown organically from an original layout dating from an era in which today's traffic levels would simply have been unimaginable. For example, it may originally have been sensible to put the Central Terminal Area where it was, but today it's a pretty mad concept that Heathrow is trying to manage as well as it can. If you could shut down Heathrow for a decade to rebuild it in a more rational way (see the very long-term plans that are in place), that would be wonderful - but of course, in real life that's completely impractical.

 

Heathrow isn't unique in this respect. Imagine if JFK were a global hub! We've largely been saved from that chaos by the US' allergy to facilitating international-to-international connections. (Although, to be fair, if JFK had become a global hub then its layout would probably have evolved differently from how it actually has.)

[LuckyStar]

6 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

You need to keep your eyes open. The Flight Connections route is signed with purple signs, so if you look for those you will be in the correct stream. You also want to make sure that when the purple signs give you a choice of terminal, you're following the route for Flight Connections Terminal 5. (On the assumption that you are flying from Denver to LHR, you will both arrive at and depart from T5 - no terminal change involved.)

 

Your inbound flight will very probably arrive at a satellite building. The Flight Connections route will take you to the main building, and into a big hall where immigration queues are to the left and connections are to the right. You're an international connection, so you will have your boarding pass checked, then go upstairs to clear security, and then you'll be in the main shopping area.

 

Ironically, with 9 hours between flights you will actually have time to choose to clear immigration and do something other than hang around in the airport terminal (assuming no big delays to your inbound flight). You could either take a train or Tube in to central London - you'd have time for lunch somewhere or to visit one of the South Kensington museums, for example - or (as is sometimes suggested here) you could pop over to Windsor, which was handily built underneath the Heathrow flightpath.

This is great advice.  Yes!  We are very excited to head back into London and hit a few more museums that we missed last time.  It's such a great city.