Connecting through Heathrow?
 

Help! Plan A was to arrive at LHR on BA at 10:10, take the airport bus to LGW and depart 17:25 on Olympic direct to Thessaloniki.

OA has rescheduled the Thessaloniki flight and it now leaves LGW about the time I land at LHR.

Plan B is to depart LHR on OA at 12:20, changing planes in Athens.

Is this connection possible? A complication is that I booked the flights separately and so have different reservation codes for them. Will BA (in Dulles) book my luggage through to the OA flight and issue an OA boarding card? Given BA's weight restrictions for economy class I'll have to check one piece of luggage, but I will be entering Europe on a UK passport so shouldn't have a hold up at passport control if I can't transit. The good news is that there are two more flights to Athens after the 12:20 one, but they put me into Thessaloniki very late.

BA will not book your luggage through - despite your UK passport you still have to claim your luggage to get through customs. Then you have to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2. How comfortable are you with jogging to your gate? Even if your BA flight arrives on time it will be an uncomfortably tight layover.

Would have thought 2 hours is more than enough time even with collecting luggage.

I'd check to see where (Dulles or Heathrow) your 2nd boarding card will be issed and how you'll recheck your luggage at Heathrow.

Just remember that if you don't make it then it's your problem to solve - not Olympic's

Bob - thanks for the reply. Are you sure I have to clear customs in the UK given I'm going on to Greece? When I connected through LGW to get to Glasgow I didn't collect my luggage until I got to Glasgow. (And not a customs officer in sight!)

BA will not check your luggage through to another carrier

You will have to collect your luggage and go thru customs. Your separate tickets are exactly that, 2 separate flights. You are seen as ending your flight in the UK (#1). You are seen as originating in the UK, not the US, for your second flight.

BA will NOT check your luggage thru. They also will NOT give you a boarding pass for your OA. It is not one of their partners. You will have to go to the departyres desk to get your OA BP and to check in your luggage.

You are trapped in the LHR BAg snafu.

BA will not through-tag your bags. So even though you ought to be able to do an airside transit (no immigration) at LHR, because Olympic is not a OW partner BA won't send your bags on to Greece. (Even if you were flying on a partner, they still wouldn't, despite published BA rules to the contrary. Major customer-service hitch with BA.)

Thus you will need to go through immigration and customs in order to make the transfer.

But wait, it's worse...

Your BA flight will arrive at Terminal <b>4</b>, not T3. You will therefore be subjected to the delights of taking the HEX to the T1/2/3 stop, making the march of doom through a long tunnel, then a lift, blah blah. Really yucky and quite time consuming. I don't know if 2 hours is enough. It will depend on immigration and bag control at T4, plus landing on time at LHR is a sometime thing.

If I were you I'd shoot for a later departure to ATH.

This sounds like such fun... Unfortunately, a later flight to Athens puts me into Thessaloniki the next morning instead of evening (and I have a prepaid hotel res. in Thess.). Maybe I should see what it will cost to take an earlier flight out of Dulles - of course I have a non-anything el-cheapo ticket on BA ....

BA - changing a discounted ticket? Ha Ha Ha :D Not trying to be mean - But have you heard about Hell freezing over?

You <i>might</i> get lucky, but your chances are probably slim and none.

You may just have to eat that pre-paid night.

janisj - you are SO right! I talked with a BA rep. this morning, and I think he's taken classes in customer DISsatisfaction. I've decided to eat the hotel in Thessaloniki if necessary &amp; fly out of LGW the next day. The OA rep I've been dealing with is a complete contrast to BA &amp; is reissuing my ticket for the second time. This is supposed to be a leisurely trip &amp; I really don't want to run a marathon through Heathrow.