Connection time @ Heathrow Airport

June 10, 2009 6:32 PM

How much time needed to make a connecting flight at London Heathrow?

I am considering buying a ticket that will have me arriving at Heathrow (from a US airport) @ 6:45 am. I will then need to get a connecting flight to Belfast @ 8:50 am and have no idea whether I will have enough time to (a) go through immigration (b) get my bags and go through customs (I assume I will need to do this - even if it's just a transfer - I am used to doing this when coming into Newark International, and catching a connecting flight to another US airport - sometimes it can be quick, sometimes slow) and (c) get to the appropriate gate for Belfast. If the plan lands on time, I will have about 2 hours.

I am most worried about the length of time for the customs piece - I've been through LHR many times, but not often to connect...so I know what immigration is like. Any ideas about whether 2 hours is enough time?? I think it's gonna be close at best.

posted by aelish to Travel & Transportation around London, England (17 answers total)

Response by poster: also, the flight from London to Belfast is on a Friday morning.
posted by aelish at 6:36 PM on June 10, 2009

I can't answer your question directly, but at Pearson,airport (Toronto) when you're going through US Customs/Immigration (yes, they have US customers/immigration at the Toronto Airport) they pull people out of the line and send them to the front if their flights are departing within X minutes. So somebody walks along the line saying "Anyone on a flight departing before 4:10? 4:10? Anyone?" And if you have a boarding pass meeting the criteria, you go to the front of the line.

I have no idea if they do this at Heathrow. Maybe someone else does.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:39 PM on June 10, 2009

2 hours should be plenty at LHR, even with the notoriously long walks/rides between terminals. Have you considered flying into Gatwick (LGW) instead?

You should be fine...

Unless your arriving flight is late.
And unless you're switching carriers.
And unless you stop to buy a snack.
And unless you stop to do a money exchange.
And unless there's a HUGE customs line on a Friday morning. Customs won't usually make exceptions to push people through for connecting flights. That being said, long lines there are worse in my experience on a Friday afternoon vice morning.
posted by matty at 6:52 PM on June 10, 2009

Heathrow is evil. We recently had a great time flying in from New York (EWR is really in NJ, but anyway) to Belfast. Belfast International customs processing is just so much friendlier! Why fly through Heathrow (or insert big-evil-airport here) unless you have to, that's my philosophy!
posted by titanium_geek at 7:27 PM on June 10, 2009

(sorry... I should mention it was cheaper to fly direct to Belfast...)
posted by titanium_geek at 7:28 PM on June 10, 2009

Depends a lot on which airlines and hence which terminals. I had a 2 hour Terminal 5 -> Terminal 3 transfer cut to 1 hour by bad weather - I barely made my connection, but staff there will help you out in these situations.

Which airlines would you be flying with?
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 7:32 PM on June 10, 2009

Hmmmm. I'm not 100% sure, as I've only flown US to Dublin through Heathrow, and Heathrow Belfast would be a domestic rather than an international connection, so it might not be the same terminal as Dublin bound flights. If, however, all flights going to the isle of Ireland do fly out of the same terminal, 2 hours could be a bit of a squeeze --- IIRC, you go btw terminal 1 and terminal 4, each of which is conveniently located at the back end of beyond, and there's a 15 minute tram and then about 2 miles of moving sidewalk hallways, with notices overhead saying you're about a 25 min walk from your destination. So if customs takes a long time you might be a bit up against it.

If my terminals are correct, then this should be the sequence of events --- lots of fun security stuff in there. You might call your airline and see what they say.
posted by Diablevert at 7:45 PM on June 10, 2009

Where are you buying tickets from? A lot of places (packages/airlines) won't sell them if you won't be able to make the connecting flight.
posted by cestmoi15 at 8:39 PM on June 10, 2009

Response by poster: thanks everyone -

@titanium-geek: I normally fly DCA>EWR>BFS, but this itinerary (DCA>EWR>LHR>BFS) is cheaper by $300-400...which is pretty helpful right now. I assume you were on Continental, is that right? (they are usually the cheapest for me, but I'll be going in high season).

@Diablevert: I just found the same sequence on the LHR website. There doesn't seem to be a step for customs...I can't imagine that I don't go through customs @ LHR. Confused...lol.

@cestmoi15: this itinerary is through Expedia. I have had experiecnes both ways with them...sometimes, there's enough time for connections, other times not (with other routes I have flown, not this one).
posted by aelish at 8:51 PM on June 10, 2009

I think two hours should be enough time. I was on a connecting flight from Heathrow to Moscow. We had 45 minutes to catch the plan to Moscow and we made it to the gate in plenty of time. The lines at security were long, but the security people went up and down the line asking if anyone had a connecting flight in 45 minutes or less and rushed us through security.
posted by parakeetdog at 8:53 PM on June 10, 2009

The airlines will be able to give you an (extremely cautious) estimate of how much time you'll need.
posted by univac at 10:03 PM on June 10, 2009

You're flying into the UK from outside the UK and the EU. Here's how that goes down.

1) Land
2) Immigration
3) Pick up bags
4) Walk past (often unstaffed) customs desk via "green channel" if you have nothing to declare (this is pretty obvious once you're there, don't worry about it)
5) Exit into the UK
6) Head to "domestic" departures area, possibly in another terminal, almost certainly with
7) Another security check

Be aware that some UK airports have different carry-on baggage requirements than many other places - check the Heathrow site here for info on domestic flights.
posted by mdonley at 10:46 PM on June 10, 2009

you'll be fine. There is a special immigration checkpoint at Heathrow for passengers arriving on international flights who are connecting to domestic flights (such as to Belfast). The queues here are WAY shorter than the ones for people who are leaving the airport for London. I think the most I have had to wait there is about 10 minutes (I usually go through early morning too, the same time you'll be arriving).
posted by TheOtherGuy at 1:24 AM on June 11, 2009

"There doesn't seem to be a step for customs...I can't imagine that I don't go through customs @ LHR."

The page doesn't say you go through baggage claim at all. Presumably you stay airside through the whole process (special bus, special immigration checkpoint, etc) and take your hold baggage through customs at Belfast, though someone with actual experience (BAA, or @TheOtherGuy...?) would need to confirm.

The advice of @mdonley would of course hold if your connection involved changing airports.
posted by doiheartwentyone at 2:52 AM on June 11, 2009

If you have a through ticket to Belfast, you can check your bags all the way through. You will not need to pick them up at Heathrow. You will need to go through passport control/immigration. The terminal will depend on the airline. Most UK domestic flights are from T1, but the BA flights are from T5.
There is also an additional security check for international - UK connections, which can sometimes take a while if your flight happened to land right after a couple of jumbos. In this case it's usually quicker to go out through bag claim and back in through security at departures.
2 hours should be OK, but be prepared to run if your inbound flight is delayed.
posted by Jakey at 4:30 AM on June 11, 2009

2 hours should be OK, but be prepared to run if your inbound flight is delayed.

I can't emphasise this enough. Two hours should be fine, but any less and you will be in a hurry - especially if a lot of international flights are landing together and the Belfast flight is in a distant terminal.

Also, I've never seen or heard of this 'special immigration checkpoint' - last time I flew from Jo'burg to Dublin via London (which is effectively a domestic connection due to the Common Travel Area) I had to go through the same immigration as everyone else, and it took almost an hour since a flight from China landed at the same time. That was followed by a 20-plus-minute sprint/jog with my heavy carry-on through a labyrinth of tunnels, only to be told when I finally reached the gate that my bags had already been unloaded. That wasn't a good morning for me.
posted by macdara at 4:45 AM on June 11, 2009

I found this:

http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/2007/07/ba-increases-mi.html

It's from 2007 though. Googling "Minimum transit time" may find you more upto date info.
posted by kjs4 at 7:33 PM on June 11, 2009