help! Problem with flight
 

My fiance booked our plane tixx to Italy for our honeymoon. On the way back, we have a layover in London, and we have to switch from one airport to another. He didn't realize how expensive/problematic it would be to do this. We arrive in Heathrow at 1:05 PM and fly out of Gatwick at 4:15. Is it possible time-wise to do this? Do we have to get our luggage and go through customs at the arrival airport and do it again at the departure one? What's the cheapest and fastest way to get from one airport to another? Thanks in advance!
~A very annoyed bride-to-be

Yes, since you will actually e in England you will have to go through customs and immigartion at Heathrow and then security again at Gatwick.

Your time between airports is close - but OK if your inbound flight is on time. If its substantially late you will not make the Gatwick flight.

Taxi is the fastest way between the two - but willnot be cheap.

Have you considred changing the flight back to a Heathrow departure - if its not too much more, eliminating the angst may well be worth it.

You should look into justairpports.com. Their prices were very reasonable as compared to other car services and a taxi (from heathrow to So. Kens in our case). They meet you at a designated place near the luggage area. I'm sure they transport between the 2 airports.

Hi bride-

Congrats on your upcoming marriage!

HOwever, the bad news is, NO, you will not make your flight out of Gatwick. Where are you flying from Gatwick to? If I assume you are from the US, and you are flying from Gatwick to the US, you'll have to be at Gatwick at least 2hrs before your flight, ie, you have to be at Gatwick by 2:15pm.

There is no way you can arrive in Heathrow at 1:05p and get to Gatwick by 2:15pm. Have your fiance change the ticket.

If you are flying BA you can use an online check-in for the second flight, which means you can arrive as late as half an hour before boarding.

Use www.aircars2000.com for a fast transfer. That said, if there is a delay with your luggage and/or traffic and/or queues at the other end then you might have problems.

I went into Heathrow on July 10 and out of Heathrow on July 25. Our plane on July 10 arrived on time, but we had to sit on the tarmac for 85 minutes while the airport organized shuttle buses to take us to the terminal. Then we walked onto the tarmac and onto buses. This was blamed on construction. Many, many people lost connections.

Our flight leaving LHR on July 25 was delayed for almost 3 hours due to "congestion".

In short, I would expect the worst from a flight landing at Heathrow.

But is online checkin available for an international flight? I don't mean to doubt, but it seems unlikely (the return via Heathrow is presumably back to the US).

Did the airline book the ticket this way, or did you purchase two separate tickets?

If the airline booked it this way my understanding is that it's their responsibility to take care of you if you miss the Gatwick flight. But you may or may not have good luck when you interact with the agent.

If you booked two separate tickets, definitely change either the earlier or later one.

I think it may be pushing it but in theory I think you can make the connection - there is a bus link between the two airports info at the following link :-http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/heathrow_gatwick_transfer.htm

this gives a journey time of 60-70 mins but says to allow longer although you could also get a taxi which may be a bit quicker but more expensive. The British Automobile Association website gives the journey time by car as around 45 mins but I should warn you that the motorway between the two airports is a notorious route for traffic jams. I guess you will stand more chance if you research the exact terminal you will be using at Heathrow and find a map of the airport so you can see where the bus/ taxi goes from.

Hope this helps
matt

111op:

Of course online checkin is available for international flights. Since there are only about 2 domestic flights a year in Britain, it'd be pretty pointless if it wasn't. But you do have to be a registered customer or FF member

The issue though isn't checkin times. It's dropping off your bags and getting to the gate - through Gatwick security - before the flight closes.

The only way this can be possibly done is by having hand baggage and having a car waiting for you at LHR.

And even then you're going to have the worry hanging over you all honeymoon. 15 mins delay in the incomer getting to the LHR gate and you're snookered.

Find a way out of the problem now. And don't believe any assurances from airline staff.

The on-line check-in thing looks useful. Don't know if it would help enough in Bride's case, but it might work for us in Jan, when we have 4-hours between flights. There is a "dry-run" of the process at the BA site:

https://www.britishairways.com/check...ages/blank.gif

This month we stood in line nearly an hour and a half at passport control. You get stuck in a line like that and there's no way you'll make the connection. I would definitely re-do those flight arrangements. But it's not worth being VERY annoyed about. :-)

Wow, interesting -- thanks flanner! I'm surprised -- doesn't someone need to check passports or whatever?

I'm in the US and asked the question to an American carrier (forget which one) who told me that I couldn't check in online for an international flight.

As someone has already said, if both tickets are with the same airline, the airline is responsible for getting you from one flight to the other and for checking your baggage through to your final destination. You should not have to go through customs, but you will have to go through immmigration. When it happened to me with BA -- but the other way around, from Heathrow to Gatwick -- they also gave me a free ticket for the shuttle that connects the two airports.

In my experience, there are also agents at Heathrow at the longer line-ups who move you to the front of the line if you are pressed for time.

Thanks, all. Our flight coming into Heathrow is from Pisa, and going out of Gatwick it's to Boston. Both flights are on BA. I'll call them and see what they suggest. We booked through Priceline.

Grasshopper, I just went to the gym, which is always a stress reducer, so I'm now wratching down my annoyance level to just annoyed, not very annoyed. :)

Priceline?? Let me guess, not a through routing, but two separate PL purchases? Gordon Bennett...

First, are you sure you're flying <i>into</i> Heathrow and <i>out from</i> Gatwick and not the other way around? I don't see any BA flights from PSA to LHR, whereas there are three a day to LGW. And, there are no BA nonstops from LGW to BOS, but there is one leaving at 4:15PM from LHR. So your airport switcheroo is in the other direction. Bad news is, that's harder.

Call either/both PL and BA and have them shift you to the BA flight leaving LHR to BOS at 7:30 PM. That will give you time to enjoy the rail, bus, and/or surface transfer options available.

As a worst case, you might think about flying on Ryanair from Florence to London Stansted (STN) the night before. Not cheap, and getting from STN to LHR is no picnic, but it's better than having to buy one-way transatlantic tickets.

Gardyloo,
You're right, I switched our to and from when I typed. I will ask BA about getting on the later flight. We booked on Priceline all at once, not 2 seperate purchases.

OUCH~ I noticed this possibiliy on BA booking for August (an fortunateyl was able to get a Heathrow/ongoing Heathrow). When you book on the Brisith Air website they use all 3 airport kind of interchangeably now. You would have to pay attention to airport code to realize what was up. As for the airline being responsible, there is a big disclaimer on the Heathrow/Gatwick connections about person is responsible for their own transport between or some verbage like that.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but when it comes to Priceline, you don't have much choice and they won't change your tickets, they are completely nonrefundable. It's always worth calling just to make sure, but I would be very surprised if they did anything with it. Basically when you book online like that, you take your chances, thus they provide the cheaper fares. For sure British Air won't touch this as they did not book it, so your only hope is Priceline, but you might not have many options. Someone else suggested taking a cheap flight right into Heathrow and then take your BA flight back to Boston, DON'T do it, if you don't show up for the flight to Gatwick, they'll automatically cancel the Heathrow-Boston portion.

It's possible that if you show up at the airport early on the day you are leaving that the BA agent will just allow you to check in for the earlier flight. No guarantees, and perhaps the odds are against it.

Even with Priceline, BA is still responsible if a connection cannot be made, since BA made this itinerary available to Priceline to book.

no, advice, bride, just well wishes for a wonderful honeymoon from a Bostonian. :)

Hi Bride, Ohhhhhhhh, sorry - thats an unfortunate mistake for you. What I would do is call some of the airlines concerned, tell them what happened, and since its your honeymoon maybe one of them will be nice enough to change your flight for you if they fly in/out of both airports?

I would be on there begging them. They have to be nice about this. Good Luck.

What a mess. You sure you still want to marry this guy? Kidding. A little.

WillTravel is right. Since it's the same ticket on BA, they are responsible if you can't make the connection. Don't need to worry about it, and there's little you can do anyways. Just get off the plane, go through customs, pick up your bags, head for the National Express bus to Heathrow, and whatever happens happens. If you can't make it, then BA will put you on the later flight to Boston. If they can't, then the next day, though you probably have to pay for hotel unless the first flight was delayed due to a BA mechanical problem.

And I believe Gradyloo is correct. You are going from LGW to LHR, not the other way around.

Do some research and learn where the National Express bus ticket office is, where it departs from Gatwick; and which terminal your flight to BOS is leaving from LHR. I don't know if you can buy tickets on the bus, or if it takes anything but sterling pounds in cash. Maybe other people can help you with that.

For what it's worth, since online check-in (e-checkin) was suggested, I flew from Toronto to London and back on BA in March and used the service. It was fantastic and I'd recommend it to anyone who can use it. However - and I'm not sure about this - I think you can only check in this way if you have an e-ticket (and therefore a alphanumeric code). I don't know if you can do it with paper tickets. On the way out I checked in from my desk at work and on the way back from a Macdonalds in London which was the only place that I could find internet use at the time. Check in both times was about 4 hours before departure. Yes you have to put in your passport number and other information, but you can also do other things such as select your seat and meal. Once at the airport, there is a special line for BA e-checkins and luggage drop off (I was the only one) and in less than than 4 minutes from entering the terminal I was in the duty free area with Boarding pass in hand. The line up for paper ticket holders wound gloomily through the terminal. If this method will buy you more time surely use it. You will have to register at the BA web site in advance which only takes a few minutes.
However, I agree that your timing will be tight, and that you may have got the airports the wrong way 'round.

RKKWAN : Why would they have to pay for their overnight hotel if the airline is responsible ?

BA would not be responsible, per se...

A good analogy would be if your flight arrived on time in term1 and you took your sweet time to walk over to term3 and missed the connecting flight. BA will put them on the next available flight (whenever that is), but I'm afraid I have to agree with <b>rkkwan</b> as to overnighting at your own expense, unless you find a sympathetic BA employee (not bloody likely) :-)

Once the ticket was bought from Priceline, it could ONLY be changed by Priceline. BA will not touch it till you actually start flying. If the 3 hour connection is deemed legal, then there is not much anybody will be able to do.

I back <b>rkkwan's</b> suggestion. Just go through the motions and live with the consequences. Not much you can do, so don't worry too much.

I still predict that you will make the connection, but of course nobody here seems to agree with me. I do this connection about 5-6 times a year and it never takes me more than 2 hours from the time I leave the plane at one airport till the time I'm having a cocktail at the airline lounge at the other airport awaiting for the boarding call.

Have a wonderful trip! :-)

I tried to find out if PL had any liability on this issue, since they sold a ticket that obviously can't meet BA's connection guidelines. I posted the question on www.biddingfortravel.com, but unfortunately since I wasn't the bidder, the moderator therte is evidently disinclined to answer, but said she was unaware that BA participated with PL. For bride_2004, was BA named on your winning bid form, or was it American Airlines (which also flies LHR-BOS and is in the OneWorld Alliance with BA)? Usually when they're offering the same origin/destinations, they don't like to send business to their otherwise-partners.

BA and AF have discontinued their free bus passes between airports i understand.

tight (but obviously legal)connections.. but.. do not get stressed over it or guilty about the scheduling.
enjoy your trip, and there is only so much one can do.. so.. try to enjoy whatever happens.

AAFF-

There is a slight difference between you and some travelers here (like me :) ). You sit in the front of the aircraft flying FC, while I sit in the cattle class all the way back which takes me an extra 15-30 mins to deplane. Your luggage gets priority handling, while mine takes forever for it to show up on the carousel. You go thru fast track immigration, while I stand in line for 1 hr.

Then at LHR, you go to FC check-in line, while I wait forever for my turn in the economy line. You go through the much shorter security line, and I again stand in the long line. That's why you can enjoy your cocktail in the FC lounge before your flight, while I run to the gate and still miss the flight!

As to whether the original poster would get a hotel if forced to stay an extra night, I admit I'm a little uncertain. On the Air Canada flight I took on Sunday, which was delayed almost 3 hours leaving Heathrow, almost everyone on board who had connections lost them. There was an announcement on board that everyone in this situation would get a hotel voucher for an overnight stay and be rebooked for flights in the morning. I thought this was exceptional treatment on the part of AC, but I was told on Flyertalk that this is expected, since the plane from Heathrow took off in the first place, and AC is then responsible from then on once the plane takes off.

<b>touche', yk</b>,

I usually don't fly in F, business mostly, but you do make some good points. I also know exactly where to catch the bus, which may not be so quick and painless for a first timer, but......

the point I was trying to make was the fact that there is not much the OP can do at this point. The ticket was issued by a travel agency (Priceline) and it is a legal connection. Unless Priceline breaks down (not before hell freezes over) and reissues a new ticket with better connection time, then the fact is that the OP is stuck with the tiket at hand. So my advice is not to raise any expectations for the OP, and tell the OP to start calling, when it won't change anything.

You might want to read the BA policies.
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...w/public/en_us

BA neither provides nor pays for the service. Minimum connect time is three hours. Don't forget to retrieve your luggage, as that will not automatically connect.

I'd definitely try to do carry-ons only in that event. Waiting for luggage will add yet more delay and complication.

This is a good page too:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...q/public/en_us

Particularly this:
What should I do if my flight to London is delayed?
A British Airways' staff monitor all flights and connecting passengers behind the scenes. We will do everything possible to help you make your connection in London.
If you think you may have missed your onward flight, please go to our British Airways Flight Connections desks in London where our staff will be able to assist you with arrangements for the next stage of your journey.

Whatever you do, be sure to take a taxi. Budget elsewhere in your vacation if needed, but spend the money to get there as quickly as possible.

WillTravel, I was getting anxious on her behalf but your post calmed me down. Thanks for the good advice as always.

We used BA's online check in when we flew to Cape Town via London -- worked like a charm.

Bride_2004, you said your tickets were purchased through Priceline, but this sounds like a routing that you were able to see the full itinerary before you purchased. Is that right?

British Airways does not participate in Priceline's Name Your Own Price bidding service. Priceline also sells conventional airfares and it sounds like that is what you purchased.

You might want to post this question at www.flyertalk.com in their Travel Bidding forum. There are many seasoned business travelers there that may have some things to add.

Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know that this worked out fine! For anyone who runs into this trouble (though I'll be sure to avoid it in the future just because of the stress it caused before hand!), don't worry about it too much. Once you're on your first flight, you don't have to re-check in at the airline for your second flight (just like you don't if you have a connection at the same airport). This means that you don't need to be there 2 hours before the second flight leaves, just as long as you're there in time to board! Thanks to everyone who helped me plan a wonderful honeymoon!