So I'll be passing through LHR next week, god help me. Warning - rant ahead.
I've been through LHR a few times before, but it has been years since I did. Now, as I prepare to fly to Scotland next week, I'm reviewing multiple threads from others who are figuring out how to transit LHR, (as well as other forums, websites, etc.) and looking over what I'll need to do - something that I had figured would be easy enough and wouldn't require me investing any time figuring out the hoops to jump through. And I am immediately reminded why I had promised myself to avoid this airport whenever possible. In this case it's necessary (and I'm not changing plans now), so here I go. We will manage (we have many hours to kill there) but I am once again gobsmacked at what a mess the place appears to be (and how badly written instructions are for what are intended to be helpful guides assisting confused passengers).
First, do I have our ETAs done - we are headed for Scotland so yes we need them anyway (beyond navigating between LHR terminals), and now have them (done online last night, and accomplished quickly and easily on my third attempt, once I figured out I needed to disregard most of the stunningly poorly-written instructions and just proceed logically - that's a whole other rant, I'll spare you that).
I am arriving to the UK on an international flight, and (self) connecting to an onward domestic (intra-UK) flight, and will be on two separate tickets, so I fall into what the airport and helpful folks probably would call an "edge case" (outside the expected norm). So what I see is a string of confusing hassles as I make the journey between two terminals. It's probably not much of a challenge for those who routinely do this, but seems breathtakingly complicated to someone who has been avoiding the place for a decade.
We arrive at T3 (American Airlines). Our onward flight departs from T5 (British Airways). We will have checked bags. Two separate tickets. (We have valid reasons for all of that, no lectures please.) I did know that we would need some time for this - we have plenty.
So we will have to formally enter the UK and go through all the ceremonies required to do that, will be exiting secure areas, making our way to another terminal, where we will need to go through security, check bags, run the shopping gauntlet, etc.
Fortunately we have over 7 hours to kill, so I am pretty confident we will be able to make it (but I expect it could consume a shockingly high portion of that time).
This website (link helpfully provided by Frank II in another thread) - Heathrow Connecting Flights - looks initially promising, but bzzzzzt! (buzzer sound) - nope, not for me, because of the text (next to a little checkbox) obliquely hints that it won't be so easy:
By clicking this, I am aware that the connecting flights are arranged upon flight booking, for self-connecting flight, please follow arrival and departure procedure, see Travel Between terminals.
That bit there sounds so polite: "the connecting flights are arranged upon flight booking" but seems an incredibly poor choice of words. Of course your flights are "arranged" when you book them (they may be a hot mess, but you have certainly "arranged" them, or you're not going anywhere). A loaded term there, "arranged." That completely misses the point! That text really should say "ALL BETS ARE OFF" or perhaps "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". OK, fine, whatever.
Ah, the old language conundrum: when is a "connection" not really a connection? What exactly is a connection versus a transfer versus...something else that we do sometimes but there is no word for that? Pedantic, for sure, but sometimes words matter.
(rant continues below...)
