Heathrow Security Question

Yes, you always have to go through security at Heathrow. Unless you arrive on a domestic flight.

This is tricky.

You will definitely have to go through security.

As for immigration, technically you are supposed to go through.....however......if you can check in online for the Aegean flight, and you have a boarding pass in your hand--or on your phone--you can try to use Flight Connections to stay airside and transfer you by bus to Terminal 2. This is only if you are doing carry on.

Go to Heathrow Flight Connections, fill in your flight information and it should give you step by step instructions.

If you check a bag, you will have to go through immigration, collect your luggage, go to Termina;l 2, check in and then go through security.

There is an underground passage between Terminal 3 and 2 that should take no more than 10 minutes. It's landside.

With two separate tickets:

If you have carry-on only AND you have your boarding pass for Aegean, you will only go through security. It will be a security screening for connecting passengers. Follow the flight connections signs to T2 on arrival

If you check a bag, you will have to go through immigration, retrieve your bag, exit through customs, and then walk to T3 and check your bag with Aegean. After check-in, you will go through security.

I will just chime in to say I have had to go through security every time I've had a connecting flight through Heathrow. And a warning, they can be very strict about liquids in carry-ons. They have bags equivalent to sandwich bags which don't hold much. The "TSA approved" plastic bags are not accepted, unless you happen to get lucky.

Laura/Frank II/Badger
Thanks very much. This is very helpful. Not quite the news I was hoping for, but better to be forewarned. I'm grateful to you all.

Ladyvet27
If TSA size liquids for shampoo etc don't work for the security folks at Heathrow, do you know what amount is permisable?

Thanks in advance

-Mark

One more question regarding safe layover timing.....

If I do get forced through immigration in order to transfer to the second flight to Athens, will 4 hours be enough layover time to accomplish this? I do have Global ID in case that helps speed things up.

-Mark

If I do get forced through immigration in order to transfer to the
second flight to Athens, will 4 hours be enough layover time to
accomplish this?

Could work, but is on the optimistic side in my opinion.

Global ID is a US rule and is not relevant to the U.K.

The rules for liquids are International ones so should be the same as the US. You can bring in up to 1 litre of liquids in individual amounts of up to 100ml. They should be in a sealable bag of no more than 80 sq cms I.e. 20x20 or 15x25.

No one will be forcing you to go through immigration. It will be your decisions you take that will determine whether you will need to do that. Choosing two separate tickets is presumably saving you money over a connected ticket but does bring other challenges.

will 4 hours be enough layover time

Changing terminals and traveling on separate tickets makes that a HIGH risk proposition. ( with checked bags to deal with, this borders on suicidally dangerous)

Does Aegean carry on limits, size and weight, coincide with Virgin Atlantic?

Buy a single ticket SEA-ATH, or allow more time, is my unsolicited advice

I want to address the specific question about time going through passport control. Unless you have the misfortune of several flights arriving as the exact same moment, passport control at Heathrow can actually be quite fast. They have "e gates". Here is a video put out by the UK about egates for your information. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=406801794307159

I have not spent more than 15-20 minutes at passport control for the last few years due to e gates.

Also, I have never been asked to change my liquids from my quart size plastic bag to their bag either. They are very strict. Ipads, computers out, no water in water bottles (double check if you had water on your flight). Be ready when you get to the line. Don't start thinking about what you should do at the security line itself!

As other have noted. The fact that you have two different tickets is your biggest issue here. Flights get delayed, irregular operations happen, and then you could end up losing the value of your second ticket. Make sure you at least have trip delay/interruption coverage and be aware of how much that delay has to be in order for a claim to be covered.

Also, anyone planning on carry-on only always has to be aware that the airline can (if it wants) ask you to gate check your carryon. This would instantly give you checked luggage whether you planned on it or not. Make sure your meds, passport, documents, money, etc are in your personal item.

Thanks Carol. I do have an electronic passport so I should be able to use the e-gates.

I checked connecting flights to Athens and I can book one that would provide 6 hours and 45 minutes between the scheduled landing time of the flight to London and the departure flight to Athens. That's a much better buffer for flight delays and security. What do you guys think. Is this safe enough to move forward with it?

On a side note, I noticed that there is a flight on the same airline to Athens that leaves earlier. If a miracle occurs and I get through security and to make my way to Terminal 2 in less than 2 hours and 25 minutes, I might be able to change flights to catch this earlier flight.

checked connecting flights to Athens and I can book one that would provide 6 hours and 45 minutes between the scheduled landing time of the flight to London and the departure flight to Athens. That's a much better buffer for flight delays and security. What do you guys think. Is this safe enough to move forward with it?

All you gotta have is for Virgin Atlantic to be delayed or cancelled to throw the Aegean flight out the door with no reimbursement. I would do a little more shopping around and book SEA to ATH on one ticket.

Let me say something about the liquids rule. I went through Heathrow in January. They are testing new equipment that allows you to leave your toiletries in your carry on and eventually will be allowed to take bottles up to 2 liters. (This is a rule that is scheduled to go into effect at the larger UK airports in June.)

A month prior to that I went through security at Heathrow and they did make us take our liquids out of our bags. But they didn't blink an eye at the container they were in as long as the container they were in was the approximate size of a ziploc bag. Individual toiletries has to be under 100mg.

I came through T3 at Heathrow last Saturday afternoon about 2.30pm. There were no queues at all for the e gates, but my passport for whatever reason doesn't work in the machines. My wait to see a Border official was about 5-10 minutes. The queues on the other side, for those who can't use the e gates was quite a bit longer but that's irrelevant in this case as US citizens can.

However, getting on the plane in São Paulo there were quite a number of passengers who were having their carry on bags checked at the plane gate. As said above, that would be a big problem for anyone travelling on two separate tickets with a short connection time.

The new scanning machines are steadily coming in in the UK but as I understand it the June 2024 deadline isn't going to be met. But we did use them on the way out at T3 fast track, which is completely separate to the regular security lines.

Some of you live a charmed life. I have never been to Heathrow when they have not required me to take my liquids and put them in their baggie. I have a friend who is a flight attendant who actually brings back extra baggies from Heathrow so that she can just be prepared if she has to go through there. Because its one of the only places where a flight attendants have to play by the liquid rules. (They hate it)
Also, if you’ve been playing the very common game of one liquid baggie for each of my bags that doesn’t work in Heathrow.

Now as to the original question for me, four hours would be plenty of time, but I would also be willing if I had to to buy a new ticket to Athens, so what you need to look at is how much would a new ticket to Athens cost and if that’s more than you’re willing to pay allow a little extra time. I do this a lot - people will tell you you booked your ticket wrong but of course they don’t really have any idea if you did. I’m doing it next month to Paris, and no, it wouldn’t have been better to book the flight directly to Paris.😂

If I do get forced through immigration in order to transfer to the second flight to Athens, will 4 hours be enough layover time to accomplish this?

If your inbound flight arrives on time, 4 hours is enough time. What you need to have is a back-up plan if things go sideways and your inbound flight is significantly delayed. You also should review the Aegean rules for changing a ticket in case the schedule for your Virgin flight gets changed between now and Sept. You could end up having to buy a new ticket for London to Athens in these cases. You just need to be comfortable with that and know what your options are.