Urgent -- need athens airport advice asap
 

I've just been informed that departure time for our Aegean flight Athens to Heraklion has been changed. With the change, we will have only 1 hour, 50 minutes between our BA flight from London and the new departure time.

Is this enough time to collect our luggage (yes, we have to check one bag), check in with Aegean (we're not booked through) and get to the departure gate?

Also, what about customs/immigration? We're USA citizens, but our flight originates in London. I guess this has to be done in Athens too?

All help appreciated.

Athens airport is quite small, so while I think you're probably OK, I'd err on the side of caution and try to arrange more time between flights.

That sould be ample, assuming your BA flight arrives on time. Since the UK isn't in Schengen, you will have to go through customs and immigration in Athens, but that's not a problem. I've never had to wait more than a few minutes at passport control, and you walk straight through customs.

The walk from Arrivals to Aegean Airlines check-in takes about five minutes.

Thanks for the advice. I have the option of taking a later Aegean flight, but it would entail a 5 1/2 hour layover, so I'll think about it.

im not sure of the size of the athens airport..i was there in 2005
but i remember there was CONSIDERABLE distance btw where we got off the train to make it to the departure gate to santorini..we pelted our way to make it!

Hello crckwc1

I don't want to add to your concern about this but if I were you I would move to the later flight.

The BA Athens flight from London Heathrow has a tendency to depart late. Sometimes between 20 to 40 minutes and that could be enough to affect your time to catch the Aegean flight. That delay isn't too bad if you are heading into Athens but a different story if connecting to an island flight.

I used to fly BA on that route and more often than not it didn't keep to timetable. I cannot recall making up any time on route, and usually always we arrived late. It's probably all due to congestion out of Heathrow.

I said "assuming your BA flight arrives on time", and that's a big assumption. On reflection, I have noticed that BA flights to Athens are often late, so perhaps you should take billbarr's advice and opt for the later one.

If you are flying out of Heathrow, note that BA's move to Terminal 5 hasn't gone smoothly so far, and that could be another factor in favour of the later flight.

I agree, Heimdall. I had not taken into account the problems at T5.

When I used to fly BA to Athens it was from a number of terminals at Heathrow over the years, and finally T4. It was 'state of the art' when it opened and I don't recall the problems that T5 has had.

That said, we usually always departed late X(

bill

Thanks, billbarr and Heimdall,
Based on your input, I'm in the process of changing our flight to the later one. Better to have a long layover than to miss the earlier flight and not be able to get on a later one. Fodor folks are great! I would never have known all this if not for you!

Update - I was able to successfully change our flight, without penalty, because of your prompt replies. Aegean gave me 48 hours in which to make the change without charge,and you came through quickly with the information I needed. Thanks again!

After the trip --
Our BA flight left exactly on time -- out of terminal 5 Heathrow no less!-- and actually arrived early! As it turned out, we could easily have made the earlier flight. We even inquired about the possibility of getting on the earlier flight on standby, but the fare was significantly higher and the hassle didn't seem worth it, so we cooled it in the airport for 5 hours. But, I'm glad we rescheduled for the later flight since delays could have made us miss the early flight.

Great to hear back from you crckwc1 and it is especially good that you had no delays.

I think you made the right decision though in changing to a later flight. Athens Airport isn't too bad a place to hang out for a few hours. The old one at Helenikon wouldn't have made it so good. 30 minutes there was long enough for me!

Tell us about your vacation. Looking forward to the trip report.

Bill

Hi, Bill -- I'll try to get a more-or-less complete trip report together soon. In the meantime, I've posted one experience under the title "Car rental snafu in Crete" for starters. Since you were helpful with planning our journey to Heraklion, I thought you might like to read what happened when we got there.

Cheers,
Kay