US to Heathrow to Paris :: What to expect - help.
 

Good day.

I'm flying into Heathrow and hopping on a plane to Paris. I wanted to know what to expect.

Will they stamp my passport in London even though I'm transfering to another flight (on a different airline) to Paris? Will they do the same when I land in Paris?

Or - will I land in london and be able to pickup my bags and dash straight to Paris?

How does that work?
Kwame

It depends on lots of things.

If your baggage is through-checked on a partner airline (for example from United to bmi) you get your boarding pass at home, under norrmal circumstances you follow the signs to the Flight Connections Centre, go through Security again, then walk to the bmi gate. Your passport won't be stamped, though if your a citizen of a country that requires a Airside Transit Visa, this will have been checked at boarding.

If your bag's not through-checked (eg a transfer from BA to Air France), you need to come through passport control to collect your bags, then change terminals, check in again then go through security to get to your gate. For this, citizens of some countries might need a full UK visa.

There are some other possible variations on this. Whether or not you go through immigration in Britain, you'll certainly go through immigration in France. If your bags are through-checked, though, they won't go through Customs in Britain.

I'm sure the airlines are not partners...

So.... It sounds like 2 hours may not be enough time to transfer flights.

I land in London at 11am and I have a flight to Paris that leaves at 2pm.

We changed flights with a aprtner airline( Virgin atlantic to bmi)Passengers in transit were kept together and made to stay in a crowded small room on long lines then taken to a bus
to get the other terminal. We made our flight( 1 1/2 hr between flights) but our luggage did not.It arrived in Paris the next day.

11 am to 2 pm is 3 hours - not 2 - and would seem to be a reasonable time to change terminals if your plane isn;t late.

If these are separate tickets = you do realize that neither airline is responsible if you miss your flight to Paris. It's up to you to fix it - and pay any additional cost.

If you can, I would allow longer due to the current state of alert. How long immigration takes depends on how many flights arrive around yours. I have known immigration to be very quick and to take quite a while.
Good luck.

Sorry. I mispoke (or mistyped).

Two hours is not enough time to checkin for my flight to Paris. You have to check in an hour before any flight in the US...

I was assuming the same rule may apply in Heathrow... Which gives me two hours to check in...

It sounds like its possible... but we're taking a chance. I'll have to talk to my girlfriend (who purchased the tickets) to see whats possible. We could switch to a later flight if one is available...

Then again...

If there is little or no difference in the cost to switch flights now or when we arrive, we'll probably take our chances.

There are 3 airlines who fly LHR to CDG - BA, BMI & AF

All of them offer on-line checkin up to a day before the flight and their websites do tell you when self & desk checkin closes

So rather than us try to outguess you, why don't you look at the websites - after all you do know which airlines you are flying & which terminals you are using. Then come back to us & ask us if it's possible.

Normally I would say that 2 hours (actually probably nearer 2.5 hours) is more than enough time from landing to checkin even if you have to pass through immigration, collect luggage, go through customs & go to/from T4 but without knowing details it's hard to be certain.