I'm heading to Europe this weekend and I have a connecting flight in London before I reach my final destination. Here's my question: What happens if my London flight gets in late and I miss my final connection? I know that normally you can just get the next available flight, but I bought my ticket to London and then my final flight separately. The flight to London is on United, my connection on British Airways. I know that BA and United are not in the same alliance. I didn't think of this at the time and now I'm thinking I made a huge mistake. The only reason I did this is because I got a really good deal and saved quite a bit of money. Can anyone tell me what will happen if I miss my BA connection? Will I be forced to buy a new ticket or what? I'm really worried.

It's very possible that you may be forced to buy a new ticket in this situation.

You need to check the contract of carriage for the exact policy of either airline. I'd recommend that you call UA and let them know that you are connecting in London and have your itinerary available; they may be able to add a comment to your PNR. Even though UA is not in a codesharing alliance with BA they may well have an interline agreement for handling through bags. If so, when you check in with UA to begin they would be able to check your bags through to your final destination. You may have to retrieve them in London to clear customs but they would be tagged to go on, saving you a stop.

I guess I should add that my flight is scheduled to arrive at 5:55AM at Heathrow (Terminal 3) and then my connection is at 7:55AM (Terminal 1).

Only you know the answer to your question.

The general contracts of carriage aren't really the point. If you've got a full fare ticket, you'll be able to get BA to put you on the next flight. If you've got a ticket with restrictions, they'll have been made clear when you bought the ticket, though you may not have been paying attention. These restrictions very often are draconian: miss the flight and you've lost the money.

Heathrow works on the principle that all airlines interline with each other. If you've got bags, do whatever it takes (including bribery or seduction) to get the United checkin person to through-check your bags. Whatever the policy, IT CAN BE DONE. If you're worried, ensure you have no checked bags.

This is essential because, if you have bags checked to LHR only, you have to go through immigration, wait for the bags, retrieve them, go through customs (which you won't even notice), get to T1 (I'd walk through the underpasses) then queue to check in again - which can be lethal at 0700. Even if the flight's on time, making the connection is by no means certain: this is the peak period both for non-Europeans arriving at T3 and for departures from T1, and there are at least three major queues to manage.

With through-checked bags, or no checked bags, you don't even go through immigration if your next destination is outside the British Isles.

2 hours is plenty of time to transfer from T3 to T1 assuming your inbound flight arrives on time and your bags are through checked. Follow the signs for Flight Connections Centre (rather than immigration) and take the shuttle to T1. After getting off the shuttle, you'll go through a security check. Right after the security check area are the transfer desks where you can pick up your BA boarding pass if you don't already have one. Good luck!

If the flight is late leaving the United States on United, mention this to the gate person. Since it isn't your fault, BA will see this on their computer and should try to get you on the next flight. It happened to me once. The BA flight from London to Paris was 1 1/2 hours late and I missed my flight to Berlin on Air France. Air France got me on the next (very full) flight.

BTW, I made my connection in 45 minutes two weeks ago at Heathrow. Going from Terminal 4 to 3 (you must use the bus), and going through security again. (everyone must)

I have been monitering this particular flight for several days now and it seems to usually arrive ahead of schedule (5:15am or so) which would be wonderful if mine did the same. Since I will be in economy class at the back of the plane, this little bit of time could be an immense help. If only I could be so lucky...

I called British Airways and they told me I would be forced to purchase a new ticket if I missed my connection. They also said I would have to re-check my bags. This is very frustrating, but as a fairly inexperienced flier, I'm definitely learning what not to do for future trips. Anyway, I'm not sure if there is anyway around this depending on which person I speak with and how well I explain my situation. It's really interesting wally34949 that Air France allowed you to do that without buying a new ticket. That gives me some hope even though I'm still really worried.

There was a very long thread here quite a while ago where the poster was in a similar situation where Air France was the second airline, and she reported that she had to buy new tickets, although it eventually came out that Air France had actually waived some costs and treated her fairly well.

Everything I have read and believed indicates that, when the two flights are not on the same ticket, the second airline will consider your discounted ticket forfeited if you miss the second flight. Some airlines do let you cancel a ticket within a few hours after departure, but you only get a partial credit toward buying a replacement ticket, and often the replacement ticket you have to buy is very expensive, as their inventory of discounted seats has been depleted. I don't know which airlines allow the post departure cancellations, but I think it is fairly rare.

So I think it would be prudent of you to take every step possible to insure that doesn't happen. As an extreme measure, you could even pay the fee for changing your ticket, and move your second flight to the next day.

A less extreme measure would be to talk to the head flight attendant sometime when they are not busy, explain that you have a short connection, and ask if they could expedite your leaving the plane. Sometines they will just make an announcement; sometimes they can move you to a seat nearer the exit; on occasion I have even seen them let you move into a front cabin seat shortly before arrival.

Here's a thread on flyertalk.com discussing UA/BA luggage interline at LHR - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=18562

It's very important that you convince the UA check-in agent to tag your bags to your final destination. What BA told you is irrelevant as long as UA is willing to through check them. Otherwise, you'll be forced to go through the procedures that flanneruk outlined above and this will lengthen your transfer time and you do not have that luxury!

That thread is very helpful, thank you! I will definitely push to have my bag checked through my final destination.

I was wondering though, would the American Airlines counter be able to print me my boarding pass for my BA flight since they belong to the One World alliance? I have plenty of time before my flight to London to go about this if it is in fact feasible. This would save me so much time.

I just got off the phone with United and was told I could check my bags all the way through to my final destination if I brought both of my e-tickets. I told them my final connection was on British Airways and was still told this wasn't a problem despite the BA agent I spoke with earlier. So, I definitely will bring this up if I'm told "no" by the UA agent when I check in. I asked him I would still have to pass through customs and he really didn't seem to know.

Where's your final destination? If it's outside UK/Ireland, then UA is definitely right - you can check your bags through and you won't see it in Heathrow.

But if you're flying to somewhere in UK or Ireland, then I'm not so sure.

Yes, it's outside the UK/Ireland.