Heathrow - separate tickets - connection times help
 

Hello,

My daughter and I are arriving Monday 9th December on a Qantas flight (MEL-SIN-LHR) - landing Terminal 3 at 6.15am.

I am looking to book a separate ticket flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt flying Lufthansa (leaving Terminal 2).

If I book the 10.30am Lufthansa flight, am I leaving myself enough time to: disembark Qantas flight, clear immigration (EU citizen), collect baggage, change terminal, check baggage back in, clear passport control, make said flight boarding time?

There is an earlier flight at 9.30am, but I think I might be pushing it for time.

Thanks

Welcome to Fodors. If things work as they should even the 09:30 should be OK (and even more so if you are carry on only). HOWEVER . . . December is eight months from now -- it is VERY likely that one or both flight times will change between now and then. Even maybe multiple schedule changes. On separate tickets all bets are off :(

I'd book an afternoon fight to FRA or even better, stay the night in London and fly the next day. Now building in a 24 hour layover may look like over kill -- but if either flight is re-scheduled you will be out of luck and have to pay for a last minute walk-up ticket to FRA . . . IF seats are even available

Or see if you can change your Qantas flight and go directly to Germany….

Qantas doesn't fly directly to Germany any more, not since they axed QF5. There is no possibility of getting everything onto the one ticket. Split the difference and make it an afternoon flight to Frankfurt on whatever airline you like. Just don't fly into Frankfurt Hahn, it's not a major airport and has poor connections if you want to get to Frankfurt proper.

There are better airlines if you want to fly to Frankfurt from Australia. Singapore Airlines the whole way, a Singapore / Lufthansa combo or Thai the whole way. They are usually cheaper than Qantas for a similar flight around the globe and have minimal waiting times in Singapore or Bangkok. A little cheaper but far less convenient is flying via Korea as you have a forced stopover in Seoul-Incheon. Or if you don't like Star Alliance, try Qatar Airways or Emirates. Probably too late for you, OP, if you have already bought a ticket, but think about Singapore for the next trip.

Lavandula

Thank you.

Yes, I used up all my Qantas FF points to get the tickets. Only city they would "allow" me to fly to close to Europe on the Classic Reward seats was London.

Usually I would stay the night in London and fly the next day, but given family commitments in Germany, I have to push through on the same day (which won't be easy on my daughter as her first long haul trip).

I rang Qantas to book a British Airways flight and link the tickets, but they wanted to charge $2500 one way for 1 x adult and 1 x child (booking same flight with BA was 200 pounds). So I have decided Lufthansa is the easiest option for Terminal transfer and seems to have most flights on that day.
Just have to pick the right flight time.

Then if it must be London and it must be a separate LH ticket -- then book a flight several hours later. Like I mentioned even the 9:30 flight would be doable IF both flight times remain the same for the next eight months and IF you land on time -- easy peasy. But any glitch - schedule change, mechanical or weather delay, the LHR e-Gates being down that morning or anything else and your LH ticket will be useless.

So I'd book a FRA flights at least after 12 noon.

I agree with janis, make it a flight early that afternoon. If there is a cancellation or delay it might well be on the side of Lufthansa (not unheard of for Lufthansa), so be prepared to have to navigate that also. Fingers crossed that all the airlines play nice and it will go off without a hitch. Good luck for your family commitment!

Lavandula

If anything happens like today (Tuesday evening) all bets are off. E-gates are down at every airport in the UK and and those train stations that do immigration - like St Pancras. Queues at LHR for UK passport holders were over 2 hours and for other passports much longer. LGW had 90 minute queues for UK residents.