British Air Question (For London/Scotland/Ireland Trip)

My question is, will they allow me to check our bags all the way
through from DUB to PDX

Probably not. But you can always ask.

It may depend on the ticket category you bought, but you might want to see if you can change your current tickets, and have them merged to a single one. Paying change fees will likely be cheaper than buying a new transatlantic ticket if you miss the second flight because your first one was delayed or you couldn't check in for your second flight in time.

I have read on FlyerTalk that BA will not do this. Your best option is to do as Jean suggests—-call BA and ask to merge the two tickets into one booking. Even if there is a fee, it is worth doing, to avoid having go through immigration to get landside to retrieve and re-check the bag. That could potentially eat up your 3 hours, causing you to miss the long-haul flight.

Or do both flights with carry-on, no checked bags.

And if they will not merge the tickets, and you do not want to change to carry-on, I advise you to change the Dublin to London flight to the previous day, and overnight in London or Windsor.

The consequences of missing the LHR to Portland flight are too severe (costly) to risk. Check the BA website for the cost of a last-minute one-way ticket from LHR to Portland and you will see.

You need to make some changes. Not only are you in high danger of not making this connection, you are probably paying more for your flights this way. Tickets that originate outside London usually have less fees than those that start from London.

BA does not allow this. The following is from this https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/baggage-essentials/checked-baggage-allowances

“If you’ve booked separate flights with different booking references to get to your final destination each flight is considered a separate journey. This applies even if all of your flights are with British Airways, BA Cityflyer and BA Euroflyer.

You’ll need to check your bags in for each separate flight. Make sure to leave enough time between each flight to do this and get to your departure gate for the next leg of your journey. Simply follow these steps:

Check in your bags for your first flight
Collect your bags when you land - you may need to go through customs
Go to departures and check your bags in again for your next flight
Collect your bags at your final destination
Please be aware that on journeys with separate tickets and different booking references, your bags will not be transferred on to your next flight as it is considered a separate journey.

In case of delay, cancellation or other disruption to your initial flight, when you hold a separate booking on a different reference for your next flight, airlines are limited in the assistance they can give you for your onward journey/subsequent flight, just as they have no obligation to automatically check your baggage through to your next flight as each booking is considered a separate contract.”

on the plus side there is no immigration/border control when flying from Ireland to the UK

Carol now retired makes an excellent point about the cost. We used to fly home from Europe on separate tickets, separated by two-three days in London. But once I read about Heathrow’s high Air Passenger Duty fees and looked up the cost, we fly home from Italy to London to Seattle on one ticket. I looked at the ticket pricing and found we were paying an extra $200 or more for our “London fix”, in addition to the hotel cost.

So if the BA agent says they cannot merge the tickets and your only option is to cancel both tickets and re-book as one ticket, it might not be all that e pensive a change. And it would certainly provide peace of mind.

Let me reiterate what Ramblin on stated...

There is no immigration or customs when flying from Ireland to the UK.

But if you have to retrieve bags you will have to go through security again.

So you are saying that Dublin flight will come in to the domestic arrivals area of T5? And they can pick up their bags there and head straight upstairs to the BA bag check area without going through immigration? Good to know.

But they will still have to wait in the BA bag check line, and then the regular security line, not the one of transit passengers. And won’t they have to show passports somewhere, for the US-bound flight?

Arghhhhhh!! I can't believe I didn't realize this. But thank you. Do you think 3 hours between flights would be enough time to retrieve our bags and then check in for the long haul flight and go through security? I will see if I can either combine the tickets through BA or may have to leave Dublin a day early and stay overnight in a LHR airport. Yuck.

And won’t they have to show passports somewhere, for the US-bound flight?

Only to the airline.

Three hours should be plenty of time if your first flight isn't delayed. Check in online.

Thanks Frank. Our flight from DUB to LHR gets into Terminal 5 and our flight out from LHR to PDX leaves from Terminal 5. I"ve never been to LHR, but these must all be in the same area, even if we have to go get our luggage and re-check it? We actually have 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Just got off the phone with BA. They won't merge the tickets. However, since the BA flight from DUB->LHR gets in at the same terminal where the LHR->PDX flight leaves from, and we don't have to exit the airport, he thought it would be possible as long as our flight from DUB isn't horribly delayed. Still risky. For those of you who have navigated LHR, does this sound do-able?? Are the lines really that long and slow?

I think it's doable if your plane isn't horribly delayed.

Download your boarding passes ahead of time. See if BA has self service bag check. (I only do carry on so I don't know the answer.) These will save time. Head straight for security.

Have you checked the on-time performance of the flight from Dublin?

Are you on the earliest BA flight from Dublin? If not, can you change to the earlier BA flight? BA also sells Aer Lingus flights to LHR, but they arrive at Terminal 2, so not an option.

For peace of mind, consider arriving at LHR the night before.

Okay - so I realized I'd just be too nervous even with 3+ hours to get the bags etc. So I did what many of you suggested and canceled our 2nd night in Dublin and we'll fly to LHR the night before. This still gives us 3/4 of a day in Dublin, which is fine. There is a hotel right near terminal 5 at LHR so we just walk over before the flight. It was worth the peace of mind and we'll be trading one night's hotel price in Dublin for an airport hotel night. It cost 166 euros to change the flight but I'm good with that. Thank you all for helping me avert a potential catastrophe!!

Peggy, I am glad that you came to a solution that eliminated stress for you! Even though we are talking the same terminal, Terminal 5 is quite large and it can take some time to go from one end of it to the other end. I agree that approaching it relaxed, feeling like you have enough time, is far better than stressing out about this during your trip.

This situation illustrates the value of open jaw/multi-city flights. Even if the price might be slightly higher than a round trip, the time and expense of getting back to the original airport may negate the initial savings.

If you're talking about the Sofitel hotel at T5, you'll have a nice stay. I've stayed many times.

Excellent. That solves all the potential problems and €166 is a small price to pay for peace of mind, in my view.

You all are so nice and I already feel a sense of relief! It took me awhile to realize what I had to do for peace of mind.... whew. And Frank II, we ARE staying at the Sofitel at T5. I called a friend who recommended it as well and the fact that you could just walk over to the terminal cinched it for me! Oh to be a more experienced traveler.... maybe someday!

Thanks again, everyone!