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Clear customs in London for connection to Paris?

Clear customs in London for connection to Paris?

Old Apr 27th, 2009, 09:32 PM
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Clear customs in London for connection to Paris?

We are planning to fly direct to London from Seattle and then connect to Paris. Do we need to clear customs in London? Will our bags be checked through? Do we need to clear security again in London if we're not leaving the airport? We'll have an hour and a half to make our connection--will that be enough time?
jonrose32 is offline  
Old Apr 27th, 2009, 09:46 PM
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If you're booked on one ticket, you just go though security. No-one flies out of a UK airport without going through UK security. You don't think we're going to trust a bunch of foreigners thousands of miles away, surely? But not through immigration, and not through baggage collection (customs is hardly ever an issue in the UK)

Whether 90 mins is enough depends on what the airline says. If they say it is, and you miss the connection, they'll book you on the next flight

If the trip is on separate tickets, you need to go through immigration, collect your bags, go through customs, go outside and check in again then go through security. You haven't got a prayer of doing this in 90 minutes. Depending on the airlines concerned (terminals are miles apart), you need at least three hours
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Old Apr 27th, 2009, 10:04 PM
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If you can get your luggage checked through then you don't have to deal with UK immigration (note NOT customs) and just follow the signs to Flight Connections Centre. If so then 90 minutes should be long enough

If you can't get your luggage checked all the way through then you'll have to collect & recheck your luggage which will mean passing through UK immigration. If so then 90 minutes is about too short a time to make the connection

This will happen regardless of whether you booked Seattle to Paris via Heathrow or Seattle to London, London to Paris
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Old Apr 27th, 2009, 10:13 PM
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I presume you are flying into LHR? Although I have not yet missed my connection, the LHR connection had never been leisurely.

It didn't help to see a daunting long queue at the security check once I got to the departing terminal.
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Old Apr 28th, 2009, 11:32 PM
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i am planning a very similar trip - los angeles to london, then on to paris via seperate airlines. i called virgin airline and the customer service representative said to allow at least three hours between flights. as others have said, you will need to go through customs and collect and re-check your luggage.
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Old Apr 29th, 2009, 04:21 PM
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British Airways won't forward bags to non-partner airlines at LHR, but most of the other airlines should. No need to go through UK immigration/customs in that case. Just follow signs for the Flight Connections Center.
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Old May 1st, 2009, 04:34 AM
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We just did this 2 days ago. We had 3 hours between flights which was plenty. About 45 minutes - 1 hour to move off of Virgin flight transfer between terminal 3 and 5 and through Passport verification and security. We experienced no lines though. We were able to grab lunch and had plenty of time before our Nice flight.
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