Heathrow to Edinburgh connection advice needed
 

We'll be flying into Heathrow May 30 on American, which I believe is terminal 3. We land at 7:50 am and have decided to go straight to Edinburgh on bmi, which is terminal 1, I believe. The next available flight to Edinburgh on bmi is at 10:40 am. Is that enough time get luggage, clear customs and make the bmi flight? (We can walk very fast, if need be!) It seems like it would be plenty of time, of course, that assumes the flight lands on time. The Heathrow website says it would take 60 minutes to connect from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1, but I think that might be for connecting flights with luggage checked through.
There is also a flight departing at 12:50pm; should we play it safe and take that one? If we book the 12:50 flight but can make the 10:40 flight and there are open seats, does anyone know if bmi would put us on that flight? Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hello -- I don't know if this helps, but last month I was on a United flight that arrived in Heathrow at 6:55 AM and my connecting flight to Edinburgh (via BMI) was at 8:35 and we made it with time to spare before boarding. (about 20 min.) Mind you, our luggage was checked through to Edinburgh so we didn't have to wait around for luggage to come off the plane. (why can't you do the same?) There is alot of walking to get to the bus for Terminal 1 (but they do have those moving sidewalks) and then you get a shuttle bus that takes under ten minutes. I think you can do it in the time allotted. -- Kathy

Thanks Kathy. Did you have to go through customs at Heathrow? I am assuming I can't check luggage through because we already have the tickets to Heathrow and have yet to buy the bmi tickets, and I don't think American and bmi are airline partners (I believe United and bmi are, however.)

You're right about the partner thing, but ask anyway. You will have to go through immigration and have your passport checked and possibly security.

The official answer to this is to follow the signs when you get off the plane at T3 for the bus to the Flight Connections Centre (FCC), which is in the same building as T1. Here you'll get your ongoing boarding pass, then go through Immigration, then go through security and find yourself eventually in the domestic boarding area. The official time for all this is 60 mins (see www.baa.com, then follow Connections at the Quicklink box.)

You then in theory go through Customs at Edinburgh (your baggage tags will identify your bags as originating outside the EU, though it's very unlikely you'll be troubled in any way)

Airlines are getting very inconsistent these days about checking luggage through. It's not to do with Alliances, or even to do with interline agreements (almost certainly AA and bmi have an interline agreement, as they're almost universal in Europe except for the low-cost airlines, and bmi isn't one of those), but some airlines won't through-check baggage if the bookings are on separate tickets.

I've found two solutions to this. First be very firm at the original checkin. Heathrow is gearded to transferring bags, even to domestic destinations, so if you get AA to check the bags through to EDI, it'll work.

If the checkin airline won't help, I've found (though I've never tried this at Heathrow, it's worked at other complex airports) that the transfer desk (in the case of Heathrow the FCC) will alert the baggage system to identify your bags, and then transfer them in the normal way. Sounds dubious, but it's worked for me in some very dodgy parts of the world.

American's partner in Europe is British Airways so it might be worth looking at them for a flight from LHR. They are usually more expensive than bmi, though - but not always!