Is 2 Hr 50 min connection adequate at Heathrow?

Changing from BA to AA at LHR, would "2 hr 50 min" connection time be
adequate? Or would it be wiser to choose the "4 hr 40 min"?

"Ajanta" wrote in message
...
Changing from BA to AA at LHR, would "2 hr 50 min" connection time be
adequate? Or would it be wiser to choose the "4 hr 40 min"?

Should be. As long as the inbound flight isn't more than, say, an hour late.
You have to transit from T4 to T3, but I assume your baggage will be checked
through, so no probs there. Security queues for transit passengers tend to
be rather less than those starting their journey there. If things run very
late, and connection time gets really tight, you will likely make it, but
your luggage may well not - inter-terminal transfer by BA isn't all it could
be.

"Graculus" wrote in message
...
"Ajanta" wrote in message
...
Changing from BA to AA at LHR, would "2 hr 50 min" connection time be
adequate? Or would it be wiser to choose the "4 hr 40 min"?

Should be. As long as the inbound flight isn't more than, say, an hour
late.
You have to transit from T4 to T3, but I assume your baggage will be
checked
through, so no probs there. Security queues for transit passengers tend to
be rather less than those starting their journey there. If things run very
late, and connection time gets really tight, you will likely make it, but
your luggage may well not - inter-terminal transfer by BA isn't all it
could
be.



Personally, I'd go for the longer option. Indeed, I might even be tempted
to overnight at Heathrow. Why? Well two tickets (which is what you are
asking about in a separate post) is two contracts. Some airlines will
allow through checking of baggage in that situation but many won't. BA is
one of the ones that won't (but that doesn't stop some employees breaking
the rules!). If you find yourself having to collect your baggage, enter
the UK (make sure you have the right documentation) then find your way from
terminal to terminal, join the check in queues, security queues etc then
2h30 definitely is not enough. For long haul I regularly arrive at LHR 2
hrs before departure. Arrival is usually about 40 minutes; add the time
between terminals (30 minutes if T4 to T3) and your 2h30 is blown. But
arrival is 40 minutes for me because I hold a UK passport. Depending on
what time your flight arrives processing of non-UK passports always has the
impression of not being quick so even 4h40 could be a sweat.

Graculus wrote:

: Changing from BA to AA at LHR, would "2 hr 50 min" connection time be
: adequate? Or would it be wiser to choose the "4 hr 40 min"?
:
: Should be. As long as the inbound flight isn't more than, say, an hour late.
: You have to transit from T4 to T3, but I assume your baggage will be checked
: through, so no probs there. Security queues for transit passengers tend to
: be rather less than those starting their journey there. If things run very
: late, and connection time gets really tight, you will likely make it, but
: your luggage may well not - inter-terminal transfer by BA isn't all it could
: be.

I am hoping not to have any checked luggage, but if I do, I am not sure
if they would check it though, as I might be traveling with two
different tickets. Arriving LHR on the return portion of a UK-India
ticket, and departing on the return portion of a US-UK ticket. As I
mention in another thread, it is proving considerably cheaper to buy
two tickets instead of a combined one.

I hate rushing, so maybe I'd choose the later departure and give myself
4.5 hours.

Graham Harrison wrote:

: Personally, I'd go for the longer option. Indeed, I might even be tempted
: to overnight at Heathrow. Why? Well two tickets (which is what you are
: asking about in a separate post) is two contracts. Some airlines will
: allow through checking of baggage in that situation but many won't. BA is
: one of the ones that won't (but that doesn't stop some employees breaking
: the rules!). If you find yourself having to collect your baggage, enter
: the UK (make sure you have the right documentation) then find your way from
: terminal to terminal, join the check in queues, security queues etc then
: 2h30 definitely is not enough. For long haul I regularly arrive at LHR 2
: hrs before departure. Arrival is usually about 40 minutes; add the time
: between terminals (30 minutes if T4 to T3) and your 2h30 is blown. But
: arrival is 40 minutes for me because I hold a UK passport. Depending on
: what time your flight arrives processing of non-UK passports always has the
: impression of not being quick so even 4h40 could be a sweat.

My whole motivation for buying two tickets would be to save some money,
almost $300, so I'd rather not blow the savings in a hotel room
"overnight".

Here are all the possibilities-

Arrive LHR by BA: 07:35, 18:10
Depart LHR by AA: 07:55, 10:25, 12:15, 14:30, 16:50

So if I don't want to literally overnight it, then I could choose to
arrive at 07:35 and depart 14:30. That's 7 hours.

I have to be prepared for the worst case baggage scenario, i.e., I may
have checked baggage (or, what amounts to the same thing, they might
declare my carry-on to be too big), and BA may refuse to check it
though.

BTW, what are the best online airfare sites in UK, equivalents of
Orbitz and Kayak? I could do a little more research.

"Ajanta" wrote in message
...
Graham Harrison wrote:


BTW, what are the best online airfare sites in UK, equivalents of
Orbitz and Kayak? I could do a little more research.

I use www.traveljungle.co.uk. As well as checking all the normal places, it
scours the low cost carriers and consolidators like opodo and
lastminute.com. It can be a little inflexible in terms of times of travel,
but once you've identfied a target, you can go straight to their site to do
the details.

P.S. In the earlier part of this thread, I assumed through-checking of
baggage as BA and AA are meant to be partners. I may be wrong, though.

Ajanta schrieb:
Changing from BA to AA at LHR, would "2 hr 50 min" connection time be
adequate? Or would it be wiser to choose the "4 hr 40 min"?

Where are you a) coming from and b) where are you going to? I guess the
answer is a) from somewhere not in the US b) going to somewhere in the
US. Obviously answer to a) is the important one to say whether you have
enough time or not.

T.

IGraculus wrote:

: I use www.traveljungle.co.uk. As well as checking all the normal places, it
: scours the low cost carriers and consolidators like opodo and
: lastminute.com. It can be a little inflexible in terms of times of travel,
: but once you've identfied a target, you can go straight to their site to do
: the details.

Thanks.

: P.S. In the earlier part of this thread, I assumed through-checking of
: baggage as BA and AA are meant to be partners...

I would think so too, but "hope for the best, plan for the worst".

On Sat, 21 Oct 2006 10:08:13 +0100, "Graculus"
wrote:

"Ajanta" wrote in message
...
Changing from BA to AA at LHR, would "2 hr 50 min" connection time be
adequate? Or would it be wiser to choose the "4 hr 40 min"?

Should be. As long as the inbound flight isn't more than, say, an hour late.
You have to transit from T4 to T3, but I assume your baggage will be checked
through, so no probs there.

I have several times had baggage miss a connection in Heathrow. I
would say not to put anything in it that you'll need right away.

Once I was on a BA flight where more than half the baggage didn't make
it. They had delayed the departure by half an hour waiting for the
baggage, and it still didn't make it. They didn't tell us until we got
off the plane that most of us wouldn't find our baggage. (Probably
they didn't want people harassing the stewards about it.)

When we got off the plane, there was a BA employee prepared to hand
over $50 to everyone who claimed to be missing a bag. Form a line and
collect your $50. There was an American girl behind me who said, "This
is great. They deliver my dirty laundry to my house and give me $50 as
well."

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

"Graculus" wrote in message
...
"Ajanta" wrote in message
...
Graham Harrison wrote:


BTW, what are the best online airfare sites in UK, equivalents of
Orbitz and Kayak? I could do a little more research.

I use www.traveljungle.co.uk. As well as checking all the normal places,
it scours the low cost carriers and consolidators like opodo and
lastminute.com. It can be a little inflexible in terms of times of travel,
but once you've identfied a target, you can go straight to their site to
do the details.

P.S. In the earlier part of this thread, I assumed through-checking of
baggage as BA and AA are meant to be partners. I may be wrong, though.

Many airlines have stopped through checking of bags on
split tickets to discourage split-ticketing.

Whether BA/AA are one of these I don't know.

TBH the amount of delay that collecting bags will add to the
journey is irrelevent to all the other delays that he might
experience.

tim