Seeking advice about how much time is needed between flights in Heathrow. I will be flying through Heathrow to Barcelona and seeing flight options that allow only 1 hours & 25 minutes between flights. That seems unrealistic to me. How much time do you recommend between flights? Thanks!
Posted by
New York, NY
4044 posts
Are you changing terminals? Is your itinerary on one ticket or multiple?
Posted by
San Francisco area
1880 posts
https://www.heathrow.com/connecting-flights
Enter your flights onto Heathrow’s connection tool. It will show what to expect. Assuming this is all on one ticket the airline is responsible for getting you there. If you miss the connection they will get you on a later flight that has available room. Do check to see how many and what times the later flights are to get an idea of what the options may be.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8810 posts
One ticket on one airline that has multiple flights daily, I would feel comfortable with this. It is a bit tight, but if everything works, you will make it. Any significant delays then you will be on next available flight.
The trick at Heathrow is to keep moving, have your carryon luggage ready to go through security (which means liquids already in a bag and easy to pull out, tablets and laptops ready to pull out), and a have positive attitude.
Posted by
Austin, Texas, USA
567 posts
I flew through Heathrow about 6 months ago. I was on one ticket, but changed airlines (BA to AA); went through passport control; took the shuttle bus on the tarmac to get to the connecting terminal; and had time to grab a quick lunch in the food court. My connecting time was about 90 minutes so you should be fine but don't slow down until you get to your connecting gate to be safe,
Posted by
Chicago
2021 posts
If you are on one airline, ie BA you should make it if you don't slow down. I'd say about 90mins.
Posted by
Australia
1071 posts
We are flying into Heathrow from Australia in mid February to change planes (and airlines) and go on to Madrid. We have allowed 4 and a half hours between flights as we need to change terminals, go through immigration and (probably) collect and recheck our bags. Our flights are on separate tickets but we are going to try to get our bags checked through to Madrid in Sydney as both airlines are Oneworld members (QANTAS and Iberia).
Our first flight arrives at 6:15am and our flight to Madrid leaves at 10:45am. We would rather hang around Heathrow bored than be frantically trying to run to catch our next flight.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7046 posts
To me, at least 60-90 minutes is needed. Factors that play into that are if the plane arrives on time, does one need to change terminals, does the plane pull up to a gate or to a stand and then bussed to the terminal, and time of day. My wife and I always play it safe and allow 3 hours. On a couple occasions a number of years ago we had a couple 2 hour connections and were close to running to make the connecting flight.
Posted by
Freedonia
16069 posts
Just to underline...if you are flying to Barcelona you will not go through passport control at Heathrow. You will have to go through security.
Use the flight connections link above for step by step instructions.