Heathrow connection
 

Alas we have only one hour and 35 minutes to make a connection .

Our flight is coming in from LAX on United at 1215PM. Our Swiss Air flight leaves for Zurich at 150PM.

Is there anything I can do to be sure we make this connection as seamless as possible barring other unforeseen problems ?

Our United flight arrives into terminal 3 and the Swiss flight departs from terminal 2.

Should we take the airport shuttle bus or walk ?

Thank you.

Ensure your luggage is checked through, otherwise RUN, following the signs to "flight connections centre" when you leave the plane unless you do want to spend an hour dealing with UK immigration

Lets try that again

Ensure your luggage is checked through, then when you arrive RUN, following the signs to "flight connections centre" when you leave the plane unless you do want to spend an hour dealing with UK immigration

Assuming your baggage is checked through, there is nothing you can do to speed up the procedure. You follow the signs for flight connections which will lead you to a waiting area for the inter terminal bus...you will take the bus marked for terminals 1 & 2...this may take a while and you can't control it as this is not a case where as one bus leaves another pulls up...whatever the schedule is at that time that's what the schedule is. They don't give a damn if it means missing your flight. After the 5 to 10 minute ride, youwill enter the flight connection center for terminal 2 and voila security again...and of course there may be a queue for that too. And make sure you have only one piece of carry on with you...they enforce that rule rigorously.

Just grin and try to bear it...competence is not an integral part of procedures at Thief oops Heathrow.

I thought we had to go through immigration first, then pick up our luggage , then re-check our luggage at the departing terminal ?

No you're an international transit passenger. No immigration, no bag claim, no customs. Just security, but a big line.

Where do we clear customs ?

Our final destination is Venice. We originate in Honolulu ?

Thanks.

You clear customs in Venice....as the UK is not part of the Schengen agreement, you will be entering the eu for the first time in Venice so you clear immigration and customs there provided.....your baggage is checked thruogh to Venice. If on the other hand, your baggage is not checked through, if you're on 2 separate tickets then...

1. You have to clear UK immigration (which can be as much as 3/4 hour)

2. you pick up your baggage and clear UK customs (usually no big deal, you almost always as a visitor have nothing to declare and go through the green channel. They do some spot checks but not many.)

3. You then drag your luggage through terminal 3 and walk through a rather long passageway to terminal 2 where you re-check with the airline...go through security and into the terminal 2 deaprture loung...a real pain in the you know what big time.

4. You will then go through immigration and customs again in Venice since, as noted, the UK is not part of the schengen agreement which has abolished many immigration inspections within the eu.

Now on returning back to the USA, you will clear US immigration and US customs at your first stop in the USA wherever that is.

Thanks.

So if we check our bags through to Venice on United and Swiss Air Lines we should have enough time to get through security in Heathrow.

You should....

That is barring no delays in your UA flight. Maybe a tall order in itself. The security check at LHR is a pain but if you are pushing it pipe up and they move you to the front of the line.

thereyet

Thanks for all the good advice.

We travelled to Dublin, Ireland a few years ago from HNL with a connection in Heathrow. We did pick up luggage after immigration and recheck them again . Why did we do that ? That was on Delta and one of their partners.

I don't know the legalities involved and I don't know why you had to collect your bags (ignorance of the check in staff, not flying on the same ticket, no interline agreement) but interestingly enough, a couple of years ago I was flying to Dublin to JFK via Heathrow....used BA so first I had to do the flight connection thing from terminal 4 to terminals 1 & 2 but then, even though I was on the way to the Irish Republic and not Northern Ireland, after arriving at Terminal 2 connection center I of course had the long security thing (why they have to have you go through security when you haven't left the secured area is idiotic IMHO but then again lots of things are idiotic in flying today)..and then for some reason I was forced to go through UK immigration as the Aer Lingus flight leaves from Terminal 1...there, of course as always, was a long queue there and only 1 or 2 immigration officers but I supposed Ireland and the UK were a common customs and immigration area but the stinker was I also then had to clear immigration in Dublin....if I had to clear immigration in Dublin it made no sense why I would have to go through UK immigration in London but at least my bag was indeed checked through...took almost 2 hours to deal with all this garbage and of course I missed the connection and had to wait a couple of hours for another Aer Lingus flight to Dublin.

I wish I understood the whys and wherefores of why I had to clear both UK immigration and Irish immigration but thank goodness neither was paranoid enough to take my fingerprints and take a mug shot like acertain paranoid country does..(as a matter of fact the Irish immigration officer made a joke about it).

UK and Ireland share the same common travel area, so when you transfer from US to Ireland, you go through UK immigration to enter UK/Ireland.

Apparently, Ireland decides to set up a passport check point at DUB. But that's actually "optional" on their part.

OK- all this talk about checking, not checking lugage doesn't answer your question about making your connection.

Are you on one ticket or two? I ask because 1.5 hours is VERY short for a connection at LHR. Sure you can make it - but it is just as possible that your arriving flight will have to circle, or not have a gate immediately and have to sit out on the tarmac for 20 or 30 minutes. And when you do get off the plane you will have a quite long walk just to get to the flight connection centre. That is why alanRow said <b>RUN</b> - that is really your best chance. But w/ any sort of delays you willmiss your on-going flight. If you are on one ticket they will put you on the next available flight. If it is two bookings - you are on your own and you'd have to buy a really expensive walk-up fare.

Thanks to all who helped with this question.

We are on one ticket.

We will RUN as advised.

Since you are on one booking - you don't need to run quite so fast :)

They have dicided it is a &quot;legal&quot; connection and will get you to Zurich one way or another. Now, your luggage may or may not take the same plane you do . . . .