Heathrow Airport
 

Arriving Heathrow on American Airlines with a connection to Hamburg on British Airlines. What is the procedure when we land at Heathrow? We have 1 1/2 hour lay over. Will we make our connection?

Are you booked on one ticket? I.e. will your luggage be booked through to Hamburg? Or on two separate tickets?

Assuming you are on one ticket then your luggage is checked through to Hamburg from home and you follow the advice in

http://www.heathrowairport.com/porta...t+Connections/

It's T3 to T5 BTW

"<i>Will we make our connection?</i>" No way to tell. Mostly depends on if you arrive early/on time. If it is one booking it doesn't matter all that much since they'll put you on the next available flight. If its two different bookings - you are on your own.

BTW - it isn't British >>Airlines<< -- It is British Airways.

As BA is a partner with AA, your luggage will be checked through to Hamburg. Just make sure of this when you check in in the U.S. After landing at Heathrow, You will follow the signs to EU departures (I think you will arrive at terminal 3 and need to go to terminal 1) You will get on a shuttle airport bus to take you to your new terminal. As you will already have your tickets for the onward journey and boarding passes, as long as you don't dawdle, you'll get there for your connection fine.

"<i>I think you will arrive at terminal 3 and need to go to terminal 1</i>"

Nope -- arrive T-3, depart T-5.

"After landing at Heathrow, You will follow the signs to EU departures "

You follow the signs to "Flight Connections".

It works like this...as Alan said you follow the signs to flight connections.....AA flights arrive at terminal 3 and because of all the departure garbage imposed by the US government on flights to the USA (the plane will turn around and returns to the USA), AA flights all arrive almost at the far reaches of T3 )maybe they don't want people to see what goes on with departures to the USA. I was once at Heathrow taking a Virgin Atlantic flight to NY and at the adjoining gate a flight to Toronto...passengers just enterd the Toronto lounge and when the flight was called, they simply showed their boarding pass and onto the flight; on the flight to NY, there was a security check point and random body searches and whatever just mocking the British security but that's another story)..

Anyway you follow the signs for flight connections and you will eventually come to a series of signgs indicating which door for which terminal...you're going to terminal 5 so you wait there till a BAA bus shows up (the bus could be there or you might have to wait 10 or 15 minutes)...they drive you to Terminal 5 where there will be, guess what, another security check...(laptops out, jackets on the tray, hand baggage through x-rays, I suppose it's necessary) and you will emerge into the departure lounge. As the UK is not part of the Schengen agreement regarding immigration you will not go through a UK passport control (which would delay you further). If the plane is on time, it's tight given all the walking, the wait for the bus, the security queue...if the plane is late, you may not make the connection but as Janisj said above, they will put you on the next available flight to Hamburg if you miss your connection. Upon arrival in Hamburg, you will arrive in the non-Schengen arrivals portion of the terminal and go through passport control, pick up your baggage which had been checked through, and clear German customs there (most likely going through the channel nothing to declare....).

Because of all this, do remember you are subject to whatever restrictions there are regarding liquids at Heathrow so if you buy duty free booze in the USA, you will not be able to bring it through security at Heathrow so don't...

It is really a time consuming procedure at Heathrow.

"AA flights arrive at terminal 3 and because of all the departure garbage imposed by the US government on flights to the USA (the plane will turn around and returns to the USA), AA flights all arrive almost at the far reaches of T3 )maybe they don't want people to see what goes on with departures to the USA"

Huh??? - What on earth do you mean?

I thought it was clear....a lot of the European airports I pass through because of some of the inane paranoia of the US government regarding flights to the USA had to do some re-arranging of their departure gates. I know I've passed through Frankfurt airport and there's a whole section devoted to flights to the USA. It just seems to me on the flights I have taken that the AA flights always seem to involve a long long walk whether getting on or getting off.....or maybe it's just AA or maybe it's just coincidence.

But procedures for US bound flights from Europe now involve random body searches of passengers at the gate along with security questions although, at least at Heathrow, I find security officials to be very c ompetent.

I think the biggest (and unknown) factor is simply if your incoming flight lands and deplanes on time. There's not a whole lot of wiggle room in a 90 min. international connection.

soogies Was wondering what that meant as well??

Thanks for the information and I hope we make our original flight. And yes we are booked thru to Hamburg with AA but connection with British Air (AA partner)

xyz123 We are not understanding what you said about the planes turning around and returning to the USA

"xyz123 We are not understanding what you said about the planes turning around and returning to the USA" - it's very simple. The plane is basically a Trans-Atlantic shuttle. It flies US to UK overnight, and back to the US during the day. Repeat until servicing is required.

I entirely agree about extra security on flights out of the UK to the US. The security theater required to board a flight to or within the US is ridiculous.

Its the same at Schipol they put US at the far end. Like the El Al flights

"Will we make our connection?"

OF COURSE, but first why don't you answer THESE questions:

Will our flight arrive on time?

Do we know how to follow directions? Fill out immigrattion forms?

Will we be allowed to use the fast track lane for immigration?

How fast can you RUN?

Good luck.

"Do we know how to follow directions? Fill out immigrattion forms?
Will we be allowed to use the fast track lane for immigration?"

Why should they - unlike some 3rd world countries you don't have to pass through immigration, let alone collect & recheck luggage, if you are just connecting through that country.

WoW Dukey1 your a little on edge??!! Good Lord was just asking generally if we had time to make our connection! Have never flown into Heathrow. If you don't have anything nice to say than Shut Up!

There is no immigration, as I pointed out earlier, in this particular situation. The UK is not a party to Schengen so you don't go through passport control at Heathrow nor customs. Nor do you have to fill out landing cards in this situation.