Being a newbie who has voraciously read postings since making arrangements for my first trip to Italy (and Europe!) I've become alarmed re: the flight arrangements I made BEFORE finding this website. I'd appreciate any feedback I can get (and maybe reassurance????) My family of 3 will be returning home from Venice through London. We leave Venice on Alitalia at 7:30 am, arrive Milan @ 8:30, depart @ 10:10 for Heathrow, arriving 11:10 am. We'll need to switch to British Airways for a 1:50 pm departure for SFO. Having now read many posts re: Alitalia's issues with on-time flights, it sure appears to me that odds are slim that we'll make our London connection. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to just swallow the loss of the cost of the non-refundable Alitalia tickets and try to figure another way that would ensure a less stressful start to the travel day? Thoughts from the experts? Thanks so much.

You have 2:40 in Heathrow for the switch, which should be enough. European flights are usually on-time, unless there's some serious weather issues.

The main issue isn't if you can make the connection using another airline or method. But what happens if you don't, because it sounds like your Alitalia and BA flights are on separate tickets and itinerary. If you don't show up for your BA flight, you may have to buy yourself a new ticket.

So, if you feel really uncomfortable with what you have, you can consider changing the Venice-London flight to a day before and overnight in London.

Or change the BA itinerary to be from Venice all the way back home. That may involve higher fares and change fees.

Is the whole itinerary on one ticket (bought through Expedia or some other TA, for example?) It will make a difference in terms of baggage through-checking and also if you're "protected" for the connection.

Otherwise, you'd be transferring from Terminal 2 at Heathrow (Alitalia) to Terminal 1 for the SFO flight. That's not a terrible transfer and 2 1/2 hours ought to be adequate.

Even if your bags aren't checked through to SFO (and frankly I'd not rely on BA to get them on your plane anyway, given the state of BA's bag handling at LHR) I'd recommend collecting them at T1, going "landside" (i.e. through customs) and walking to T1, then re-checking them on BA. It wouldn't necessarily take any longer, and you'd know that at least your bags weren't in Mt. Heathrow awaiting transfer whenever.

I don't think any passage through Heathrow can be un-stressful these days.

REMEMBER only one carry-on bag allowed on departing flights from Heathrow. Not "one bag and a handbag" or some other semi-civilized rule, just one item.

There are only two flights a day from LHR to SF0,my 1:50 pm flight being the later of the two so, actually, I have considered leaving Venice a day early and staying over one night in London but really, really don't want to cut my Venice stay from 4 days to 3. And you're right Gardyloo, in my infinite (naive) wisdom, I did make my flights piecemeal in order to take advantage of a fabulous SFO to LHR round-trip deal back in February. I guess my biggest worry is what seems to be a very possible delay with Alitalia taking off from on-time from Venice on time and then again on-time from Milan. I would imagine that losing even 60 minutes combined between the two airports would make my connection at Heathrow very chancey? Also, thank you so much for the mention and info about the luggage transfer. It's also been the cause of much concern. (Maybe I need to work on just "enjoying the ride!&quot

This is a tough call. In an ideal world, you'd have enough slack time at both Milan and London to make it a no-brainer. However, with current conditions (Alitalia's flakiness and BA's baggage sclerosis) I'd tend to agree that a plan B might be worth investigating.

I'd first phone Alitalia and ask how much it would cost to have them put you on the last flight out of Venice the night before. There will probably be a change fee, but might not be as much as tossing the tickets and buying new ones.

Otherwise, it's a case of risk v. cost. There's no question that on the financial scale of things missing the SFO flight with 3 pax is a train wreck. So that needs to be avoided at all costs.

Second, the routes from Venice to Heathrow are not numerous - Alitalia via Milan or Rome, British Midland nonstop, and various other folks via some other intermediate destination (Paris, etc.) British Airways in their "wisdom" don't fly from Venice to Heathrow, they go to Gatwick instead. There are flights that leave in the late afternoon/early evening to LGW that BA sells for cheap, but you'd then need to get to LHR for the SFO flight. You might look at that option, though, coupled with the bus from Gatwick to Heathrow and a Priceline hotel that night at LHR, or a PL hotel at LGW the night before, then the bus in the morning. Either way the chances of them losing your luggage would be reduced as it would be in your possession most of the time.

Or, just gut it out and hope for the best.

When is this, by the way? Weekend return or weekday?

Thanks for taking the time to reply Gardyloo. I regret this topic is not in the least fascinating but obviously holds great interest to us! It looks like I've already considered all the possibilities as you mention but guess I was just hoping against hope that someone would wave a magic wand and "make it all better"! British Airways change fees are a killer--I called them to see about switching our flight out to a day later and they advised it would be a $1400 for the three of us. Yikes! I'm afraid I have to agree that the two most logical options are to cut Venice short by one day/night or tough it out and take our chances with reservations as they stand. Blah. (By the way, we'll be making the return trip on Thursday, October 4th.)