We will be flying from Seattle to Florence in May. The best option (using the same airline roundtrip without a 6-hour layover) we have found is on British Airways. The flight arrives at Heathrow in Terminal 5 and leaves from Terminal 5. The layover is one hour 20 minutes. Just wondering if that will be enough time. Will we have to go out of security and end up in another terminal? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Preston UK
1581 posts
The minimum connection time for T5 is 75 minutes so this is just compliant. If the first flight is on time you should be fine. But obviously all sorts of small things can happen to make your flight late and mean you miss your connection. You won’t need to pass through UK immigration or customs and would not need an ETA.
You should probably check when the next flight to Florence is on the day you fly. My guess and fear is that it will not be for several hours. BA also flies to Florence from London City. Whilst it’s a great airport to fly from you don’t want to be doing that transfer unless desperate. You would also in that situation need an ETA and have to go through immigration and collect your bags.
Posted by
Freedonia
17696 posts
This website, http://www.heathrow.com/flight-connections will give you all you need to know about connecting at Heathrow.
Basically, you follow the purple Flight Connections signs. You won't have to pass through immigration or customs but you will go through security. Once past security you will be in the main terminal (Airside.). About 45 minutes before departure, your gate should be announced. It could be in the main terminal or in one of the satellites. You get to the satellites by underground tram. There are signs and you stay airside the entire time.
Remember, follow the purple Flight Connections signs and not the crowd to immigration.
If this is all on one ticket, and your arriving plane is late, and you miss your connection, BA is obligated to get you onto the next available flight at no cost to you. In fact, depending on when that next flight operates you may be owed compensation, a meal voucher and even a hotel room if the next day. They will want you to take the compensation in the form of a voucher. You can refuse and insist on cash. (Not really cash but usually a money transfer into a checking account.)
Also be aware that this far in advance of your flight, times may change. If you don't like the changes, you can have BA give you something better at no additional cost to you.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC
858 posts
Travelpatty, is your BA flight to LHR in the afternoon or the evening? The reason I ask is that we have flown the Vancouver to LHR flight in the evening many times over the years and it is notoriously late departing because it is often late leaving LHR (the delays at LHR can start to pile up as the day there progresses). When we have a connection, we often leave a few hours gap. One strategy is that you can check BA or Flight Radar to see if the incoming flight from LHR has left reasonably on time the day you are leaving. If it hasn’t, when you are at Sea-Tac they can hopefully switch you to the next Florence flight and you don’t have to figure it out at LHR. We have had that done a few times plus it has been done automatically for us too.