How long does it take to clear customs/immigration at Heathrow? Route from Heathrow to Salisbury?

Hi,

No checked bags means you are only saving time spent waiting for the checked luggage to come out. Waiting in line at Border Control is a different story. Based on my experience on arriving at LHR in the morning, I would say your standing in line time would be less than 20 mins. It all depends how many flights arrive at LHR as yours, roughly.

You might want to consider not making bus / train reservations or buying tickets in advance for a specific time. It's not at all unusual for transatlantic flight to arrive later than expected. Not the norm perhaps, but it does happen. We've arrived 2 - 2 1/2 hours late on more than one occasion. Just food for thought.

It also depends on which terminal. We arrived at T3 this spring at about 9:30AM. This was at its most outlying gate, with a very long walk to Immigration. The combined T1/T3 immigration was terribly understaffed, and it was an hour before we headed towards the Tube. On the other hand, the previous trip came in T2, and is was maybe 20 minutes before we were on our way to the Tube.

Thank you for the good advice. We will arrive T3 so I will now expect to walk a ways to immigration. And flight delays are pretty common these days. Won't purchase advance tickets!

Margaret, I think you're right to wait to buy tickets. It can be a very long walk to the immigration hall. The wait in the hall is so variable. You can wait an hour. Last time, we had no wait at all, but our flight was 5 hours late! There are so many variables. Once you get through immigration, you can get some money before you leave the secure area (we used an ATM next to baggage claim), you walk by customs and you're done.

Have not made the Heathrow-Salisbury connection so I can't help you there.

May you have an on-time flight, a short walk and no lines!

I would also suggest you wait until you arrive. On my last trip into Heathrow last month, the weather turned bad and we were diverted to Stansted to refuel. We then made the short hop to Heathrow. Arrived two hours later than planned.

Take the bus link to Woking station and then train direct to Salisbury (every 30 minutes & takes 1 hour + about 50 minutes for the bus link - which is also at 30 minute frequencies). Pay for bus on the day. You can reduce the train fare to £16 off peak one way if you pre-book at least the day before. Turn up & pay on the day at Woking is £26.10 one way. Turn up & pay on the day at Woking for an off-peak return to Salisbury will be £32.90 - assuming you are going to make the return trip within a month. (This could part fund a journey back to London - if you are not returning to Salisbury. You would then need to purchase a ticket for the Woking to London Waterloo leg - which you could do at Salisbury station.

Don’t forget that you can use the trains from Salisbury to get to Bath &/or Portsmouth Harbour.

It also depends on where your seats are on your flight. The farther back, the longer it takes. You may wonder why you see people hustling past you towards immigration - that's why. We've had times when it went quite quickly and times where we could have had a picnic while we waited.

I flew into Heathrow about a month ago and my plane got in around 5:45 AM. I was seated in the very back of the plane, made a stop before customs and was able to get through customs in less than 15 minutes. That could be because our flight got into super early, but you never really know how long it will take to get through customs. I would allow 30 minutes to be safe.

The main imponderable is how many large planes turn up just before yours. Terminal 3 these days is dominated by Oneworld and Virgin plus a few remaining assorted airlines. There is still a mainly long haul flavour - hence the queues that can build unexpectedly.

The terminal tries to hide its age but some parts do feel a bit like 1961 even if they might not really date right back to the opening. As it grew like topsy some of the outer gates are up to 20 minutes from the core.

I really appreciate all of the helpful suggestions and information. Thank you all! Margaret