skatterfly

Hi everyone,

I am starting to plan the last few days of our trip and I would appreciate a little advice and logistics information. We are flying to/from London on Virgin... starting our trip in London then visiting a few places in France before finishing in Paris. We'd like to spend our last night in Paris, then fly from Paris to London---on the same day as our flight back to the US---then layover a couple hours at LHR while we wait to fly home on an afternoon departure.

At least on paper, this seems like the best option.

But am I missing any special considerations?

Any reason why we *shouldn't* do this option?

Anyone do this exact thing?

Regarding the terminals? I recall very little about Heathrow... but it looks like Virgin flies out of terminal 3 whereas flights from Paris arrive in Terminal 4 or 5. Will going between those terminals be complicated?

How much time should we allocate between flights? (i.e How much advance time before the flight do they typically say you need to check in?)

As long as I stay in the airport, I don't go through security again, right? (Sorry, I know that's naive... but I have never had a transfer internationally.)

Anything else I might be missing?

Thanks!
Skatterfly

anyegr

Considering that you need time to get to the Paris airport and be at the airport at least an hour (maybe two hours) before the flight, would it really be faster than the train?

Michael

Why not an open jaw landing arriving in Europe in London and leaving Europe from Paris?

mjs

A open jaw would be the best way of doing a trip like this but if this is not possible I would arrange my trip in a different way by going to France immediately after arriving in London than taking the train from Paris to London, and going home from London. The problem with your itinerary is that unless your flight from Paris to London is on the same ticket as your flight from London, missing the flight out of London for whatever reason leaves you stranded in London without a ticket home unless your tickets are are capable of being changed at the last moment.

greg

Unless the tickets are configured as flexible as mentioned by mjs, on paper, this is one of the worst option.
If the RT to London is on a separate reservation from your Paris-London flight, then the way you configured, you have incurred a big risk with a possibility of having to buy last minutes stratospheric fares on top of the change fees to get home, which seems to be CA in your case.
In my experience, every layover at LHR involved going through security again. http://www.heathrowairport.com/heath.../faqs#security. Read the last paragraph.

jamikins

What time is your afternoon flight? If late afternoon I would aim to be in London fairly early just in case there are problems. If early afternoon I would want to be in London the night before.

hetismij2

You will go through security again at Heathrow.

Allow at least three hours, but preferably a lot more, at Heathrow.

Will the flight from Paris be on the same ticket? If not can you check your bags through if you have checked bags?

dotheboyshall

What you are missing is the extremely large bill you will have if you don't get to Heathrow in time for your next flight. Is that risk really worth an extra night in Paris?

nytraveler

Agree that an open jaw flight - into London and out of Paris is a much better idea if you still have that option.

If not, I would look into taking the train from Paris to London to avoid all of the hassle of getting to and through CDG. the train takes little more than 2 hours (the time in advance of the flight you will need to get to CDG).

Granted you then have to get from central London to LHR well in advance of the flight - but it;s really not much longer that you would have to allow for transfer T LHR - and yes, you do have to go through security again when transferring flights and you need to check if the airlines on your ticket will automatically transfer luggage from one line to another. If this is NOT a single ticket you are at significant risk of having to buy a new transatlantic tickets if you are late for any reason (you would be considered a no show and your seat given away). A

I have transferred through LHR numerous times on a single ticket - and landing with a 2 hours window is VERY tight - we often found ourselves jogging through the airport to catch the airside transfer bus and still get to the new terminal in time to get through security and still turn up at the plane at least 30 minutes in advance (when the doors typically close).

So- if possible get open jaw (multi-destination tickets). If not, look carefully at the times and options to give yourself enough time at each of the airports (at least 2 hours at CDG, although we do at least 3 hours for an international flight).

annhig

I too dislike having to travel very far, especially by plane, the day that I'm due to catch a pre-booked flight.

if you can rearrange the transatlantic flights to make them open-jaw, or rearrange your trip to put the London section last, then i would get the Eurostar the day before, and, depending on what time your flight out is, spend the night in central London or at the airport.

Cathinjoetown

I would contact Virgin and see if you can link a flight Paris to Heathrow to your existing Virgin ticket. You want your bags checked through and the airlines to help with delays.

skatterfly

Thanks to all of you for knocking some much needed sense back into my planning. We'll just travel back to London the day before our flight and stay somewhere near Heathrow/Windsor (i.e. the easiest option). I can't do a Paris/London open-jaw with Virgin, and I can't change my dates by much. Thanks again.

Michael

The suggestion of doing Paris first and London second makes sense. You are likely to land in London in the morning and would have time to take an afternoon flight or even the late afternoon train to Paris. That's what we did one year, transfering from Heathrow to Stansted to catch a late flight to Porto.

skatterfly

I wish we could fly open jaw, but it won't work with Virgin, and the tickets are already purchased. We'll just spend a day traveling back to London so we're in London the night before our flight. Thanks again!