customs, international flight query

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:24:39 -0000, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:




As an aside visa interview on Tuesday hopefully be in the States in 3
weeks.
:-)

Take a good book and a packed lunch it was a long wait when I got mine.


Owing to current security restrictions you are not allowed to take liquid into
the Embassy. I think it might apply to food as well. They now have a
refreshment trolley :-)

The book I was planning to take.

--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

"Lansbury" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:24:39 -0000, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:




As an aside visa interview on Tuesday hopefully be in the States in 3
weeks.
:-)

Take a good book and a packed lunch it was a long wait when I got mine.


Owing to current security restrictions you are not allowed to take liquid
into
the Embassy. I think it might apply to food as well. They now have a
refreshment trolley :-)


They did have a food/drink place at the back of the hall - but everyone
coming away from it was commenting on how expensive it was, although the
place was mostly full of students (and two businessmen in suits who looked
totally out of place).

The book I was planning to take.

The first time your number is 'called' (the number is flashed on a screen)
it is in sequence, the second time seems to be totally random. So book
reading will work for the first queue, but not so well for the second.

Lansbury wrote:
On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:49:23 +1300, "Cedric the sublime" wrote:


Thanks Lansbury (and other respondents); I fly Thai Air from BKK-LHR, and
BMI from LHR-MAN; both Star Alliance, but on separate tickets. The queues
for the FCC always look fearsomely long when I arrive, so I've not
investigated whether I'm entitled to use it. IYO, would I be?


On separate tickets your checked bags would not be through checked to final
destination, so you would have to reclaim them and check in again.

Have you done this?
If they have an interline baggage agreement, you should be able to check
bags through, even on separate tickets.

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:05:57 -0000, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

The book I was planning to take.

The first time your number is 'called' (the number is flashed on a screen)
it is in sequence, the second time seems to be totally random. So book
reading will work for the first queue, but not so well for the second.

Appreciate that I'd have had my head in the book and missed the 2nd call
--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:28:37 GMT, mrtravel wrote:

On separate tickets your checked bags would not be through checked to final
destination, so you would have to reclaim them and check in again.

Have you done this?
If they have an interline baggage agreement, you should be able to check
bags through, even on separate tickets.

I haven't as I don't buy separate tickets.

A lot of the airlines at LHR will not interline bags if on separate tickets.
They claim people buy the tickets this way to save money and they are not
going to incur the extra costs of interlining in those circumstances. I can't
say if it is a valid reason but one of those bits of information you pick up
working at the place

--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

Hilary wrote:
On separate tickets your checked bags would not be through checked
to final
destination, so you would have to reclaim them and check in again.


Have you done this?
If they have an interline baggage agreement, you should be able to check
bags through, even on separate tickets.


I haven't as I don't buy separate tickets.

A lot of the airlines at LHR will not interline bags if on separate
tickets.
They claim people buy the tickets this way to save money and they are not
going to incur the extra costs of interlining in those circumstances.
I can't
say if it is a valid reason but one of those bits of information you
pick up
working at the place


Some of the airlines last year (notably BA) started sending info out to
travel agents saying that unless flights were on the same ticket they
wouldn't check through... whether or not there was an interline
agreement, or even if it was the same carrier!

Naturally this caused a lot of confusion, particularly when some
check-in agents followed the new rules to the letter and others checked
people through as normal.

So the general advice we gave was this: If you have 2 tickets, assume
your bags will NOT get checked through and plan the connections
accordingly.

Hilary

I have never had a problem with BA to AA or AA to BA.

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:05:57 -0000, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

The book I was planning to take.

The first time your number is 'called' (the number is flashed on a screen)
it is in sequence, the second time seems to be totally random. So book
reading will work for the first queue, but not so well for the second.

Never got the book out. From taking the ticket to first interview was 30
minutes, just about sat down when we were called for second interview. We were
out the door in an hour.
--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

"Lansbury" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:05:57 -0000, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

The book I was planning to take.

The first time your number is 'called' (the number is flashed on a
screen)
it is in sequence, the second time seems to be totally random. So book
reading will work for the first queue, but not so well for the second.

Never got the book out. From taking the ticket to first interview was 30
minutes, just about sat down when we were called for second interview. We
were
out the door in an hour.

That was lucky.

I spent about 6 hours waiting in total for an 'interview' that was about 3
questions long.

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:10:29 -0600, Hilary wrote:

Never got the book out. From taking the ticket to first interview was 30
minutes, just about sat down when we were called for second interview.
We were out the door in an hour.

Not bad.

How long was the wait outside?

About 50 minutes most of which was standing in the line at the security hut,
which had two of the slowest moving people I have ever seen.
--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

In article et,
Hilary wrote:

So the general advice we gave was this: If you have 2 tickets, assume your
bags will NOT get checked through and plan the connections accordingly.

I routinely fly on BA from LGW to IAH, connecting to a separately
ticketed flight on CO to my final destination. BA always checks my
baggage through, even though the tickets are separate and BA and CO
are not alliance partners.