ccrosner

Please be patient with me....this one may be hard to explain.

Our family of four (kids as 13 and 10 year old seasoned travelers) is traveling from Boston to Edinburgh on an overnight flight in August. If I purchase the open jaw American Airlines ticket (BOS to EDI, LHR to BOS) through the AA website it costs about $4000. If I book a BOS to LHR roundtrip on AA and then add a BMI leg to EDI on the trip over, the cost is $3600 (for the same flights).

So here are my two questions:

1. Is it advisable to save the money and book the trips separately (my husband is AA Platinum)?

2. Is two hours enough connecting time between AA and BMI early on a Friday morning? I'm assuming we have to clear customs at LHR and collect our bags anyway. But they would be checked bags.

Thanks for any help you can offer?

flanneruk

The general view on this board would probably be that 2 hours is too short for non-Europeans to go through immigration and chage terminals during the early morning intercontinental arrival peak.

Personally, I'd disagree. But the problem with two tickets (and you'll have bought them on some kind of deal) is that if the flight's late (and you should see the circling contrails over our house around 0600) or delayed getting to the gate, you've probably lost your money on the connecting flight, and will have to buy new tickets at full price.

If you DO decide to risk it, use every means in your power to get AA to book your bags through to EDI (they can). That way you don't have to collect your bags at London or go through Customs (why do you assume different?), though you DO go through immigration at London

janisj

Is there a later flight you can take between LHR and EDI?

You might make it in 2 hours, I have a couple of times. But I know LHR pretty well, and didn't have 3 others in tow. I wouldn't like to try it w/ 4 people. And I'd ONLY try it if your bags were checked through. Unfortunately you won't know if AA will cooperate until you get to Logan and by then it is too late to fix.

I booked longer connections on BMI two other times and once landed so early I rushed over to BMI in T-1 and they put me on an earlier flight w/o any extra £.

alanRow

Have you checked the prices to Glasgow from Boston - it's only about 90 minutes from Glasgow Airport to Edinburgh.

alanRow

Just had a play with Expedia.

From Boston the best bet is to fly to Edinburgh via Amsterdam - I'm seeing prices of under $900 per adult return for 2 weeks in the middle of August

Check Northwestern & KLM

Gardyloo

I don't know your days, but I tried a Thurs. PM departure from BOS, connecting at LHR to EDI in the morning (4 hr layover) and a Sunday return, and came up with $3513 all in. (About $300 cheaper all in if you don't go on a weekend.) I'd recommend checking aa.com with your dates again.

Otherwise, I've done the switch you're describing, and AA wouldn't through-check bags; and frankly given LHR these days I think I'd rather schlep them from T3 to T1 anyway.

As for the BMI flight itself, no problems.

By the way, you can save another $200 or $300 by flying AA Boston - Manchester, then train to Edin. (or if you're getting a car, just drive.) As your husband is AA Plat, he can select seats in the "first class" cabin on that 757 for himself and you (but probably not the kids) since that flight is operated as all-economy, but with the big seats up front reserved for AA elites to pre-select. Still economy service, but way more comfortable than 777 coach.

Gardyloo

Meant to add, no, 2 hrs is not enough IMO. Get caught in the stack, or twiddle your thumbs waiting for the BAA wizards to assign a gate, and your connection is (cold, British) toast.

ccrosner

All incredibly helpful information!

My husband seems to really want to be on AA--the benefits of Platinum, club membership and status if there's a problem are worth a few hundred dollars I guess.

Glasgow is an option and would be slightly cheaper. But frankly the idea of taking two busses from Glasgow to Edinburgh and then a cab to our hotel doesn't appeal after limited sleep with two kids. Really think we'll be glad to go to EDI and have the ease it affords.

I have looked into the MAN option (see my earlier post that you were all helpful on). Had decided not to do it but gardyloo's suggestions on that are definitely of interest. The thought of being upgraded to larger seats is tempting. We'll fight over who gets them. Then we can sleep on the 4 hour train ride.

May still just bite the bullet and spend more to go through LHR. If I buy the 2 hour connection on AA, it's more expensive. But I assume it means my bags are checked through and the gates are in the same terminal as both flights are AA.

Any other thoughts welcome. You all are terrific--thank goodness for Fodorites!!!

Gardyloo

<i>May still just bite the bullet and spend more to go through LHR. If I buy the 2 hour connection on AA, it's more expensive. But I assume it means my bags are checked through and the gates are in the same terminal as both flights are AA.</i>

Wrong-O. It will be a British Airways flight with an AA flight number on it, i.e., a &quot;codeshare.&quot; It will leave from Terminal 1 and your bags MAY be checked through, but may not. Regardless, you still have to clear passport control at T3 and that's where the delays will arise.

Note too that the dandy BAA carry-on rule will apply for any internal flight - one bag per person, full stop, period. Another reason IMO to split your mode at MAN and take the train.

flanneruk

1. No, of course the &quot;AA&quot; connection isn't in the same terminal. AA doesn't operate domestic flights in Britain.(does your country allow foreign airlines to operate domestic flights?), so you have to change termninals to the BA domestic termninal. BA MIGHT honour your booking if you miss the flight you're booked on (I say this because they recently gave me a long harangue about why they'd expect their One World partners to sort out the mess if my incoming flight was late. BA are VERY clear that AA are competitors far, far more than they're partners.)

2. I'm fascinated that your husband thinks his Gosh What An Important Person You Must Be membership of a foreign airline's frequent flyer club matters an iota to BA (or any other airline). If anything goes wrong in all this, it's the UK-based airline you're going to want to bail you out. Your husband clearly never patronises them: why on earth should they do anything to help him?

ccrosner

Gee FlannerUK...guess I sound like an ill-informed, ugly American. I'll accept the former but I'd rather not be the latter.

My husband does fly internationally and probably didn't realize in our quick conversation about these options that it would be a BA flight. I, on the other hand, have limited experience travelling in Europe and simply wasn't thinking when I assumed they'd be in the same terminal.

Platinum membership in the states does mean that AA will help you with non-AA connections and we have found that the staff at the airline clubs can really be a huge help if there are connecting problems.

But all of this great advice has me leaning toward the Manchester option. So I thank you all and hope I didn't offend too many people with my word choice.

alanRow

&lt;&lt;&lt; (does your country allow foreign airlines to operate domestic flights?) &gt;&gt;&gt;

Mine does - a certain Irish airlines does routes like Liverpool to Inverness

Back to the 1 bag rule. There's no 1 bag rule if you fly via Amsterdam to Edinburgh

ccrosner

Thanks AlanRow and Gardyloo--
I knew of the one bag rule (my husband ran into on a trip to London earlier this year) so I'm not worrying about cramming everything into a small carryon. Will buy the next bag up and be glad for once that I have no choice but to check. Drives my husband crazy but I find it helps with the back and the kid whining! And, yes, we've lost luggage before but we've lived to tell.

alanRow

Re connecting flights through the UK.

Even if you stay airside because your luggage is checked through you still have to pass through UK security - this means 1 bag of a maximum size and no liquids in bottles greater than 100ml.

If you fail security (eg you have a large bottle of duty free whisky from a non-EU airline, or the wheels on the bag stick out too much) then there is nowhere you can check things without going to the main checkin desk.

This could easily add an hour to your transfer time.

The only alternative is to dump the problematic substances in the bins provided and say goodbye to them forever

yipper

Hi,
I know your husband is a platium AA guy, but Scotish airlines are now starting to fly from Boston to Scotland. I am not sure to what city in Scotland, but I saw it advertised in the Globe.

kasperdoggie

One thing to keep in mind is that BMI will not allow your baggage to be checked all the way through, unless the entire itinerary was booked on &quot;one ticket&quot;:

http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-us/plan...hcheck-in.aspx

So you'd need to retrive your luggage in LHR after immigration and check it through to EDI if booking 2 legs separately. We typically do that every other year, and I would be more comfortable with more then 2 hours connection time (in my experience it would take up to an hour to go through immigration, and racing through the airport to check in again from a different terminal and then make it to the gate in the back of beyond gets stressful pretty fast. I don't have that kind of mental or physical prowess after a sleepless night on the plane, so tend to try and have a longer connection in LHR. Egads, how I hate that airport.)

ccrosner

Thanks...it's probably Flyglobespan.com But that airline gets poor reviews on Fodors (I asked months ago...). Too risky--they cancel and reroute flights routinely. Not a great scenario with children in tow.

janisj

kasperdoggie - whether the bags are checked through has nothing to do w/ BMI. It would be AA who would tag the luggage at Logan. BMI would not refuse the bags at LHR . . . .

(the link you provided is for flights where BMI is tagging the luggage)

Angela_m

We had a similar situation when we flew to Europe last September. We flew ORD to LHR on AA and LHR to Naples, Italy on BMI (a separate ticket). I was very nervous, like you, about missing our BMI flight until we learned that AA has a baggage agreement with BMI and WILL check your bags through. So you will not have to pick up your bags at LHR. We had 2.5 hours between our flights and made it in plenty of time. We even had time to eat at LHR before our flight. To ease your mind, call AA and confirm their baggage agreement with BMI.

kasperdoggie

Hmm, then both VA and BA have mislead me on this subject - in both cases, they indicated that they are perfectly willing to check through the luggage but BMI would no longer accept it unless on one ticket...

We'll see what happens on the next trip to EDI on 2 separate tickets (the 1st one is usually FF miles, the LHR-EDI is the one we purchase).