We are flying in to Heathrow and then catching a flight to Dublin (cheaper to fly in to London and take a cheap flight to Dublin instead of to Dublin based on where we are traveling from). So this is not a connecting flight but rather a separate one. I believe we will have to exit through customs/immigration and then reenter the secured airport area to go back in for our next flight.
I have read on a few posts here that UK/Ireland is a Common Travel Area and those on flights that originate in London and land in Dublin don't have to do customs/immigration again. However, as I research I find that this applies to UK/Ireland citizens-- but haven't seen that this would apply to American citizens. Am I missing something? Has anyone done this recently and could let me know how this works? It's not that big of a deal to do Customs/immigration at both stops but would be great to not have to waste that time that we could be doing fun things in Dublin!
Thanks.