Multiple stops/airlines to get to destination.

Wow, that better be a very cheap ticket to go through all of these changes. I don't understand why you are not flying from Heathrow to Florence. That is not making a lot of sense. Again I would have the same question on your return. That is a very strange travel pattern. Is there a hidden reason for the schedule?

If an US citizen all you need is a passport with at least 3 months to expiration. You should stay behind security in Heathrow with nothing to go through so four hours is far more than enough. In Germany you will go through both immigration (passport control) and customs. The next day will be only standard security at the airport. Germany to Florence is considered a domestic flight. Slightly different on your return. You are exiting the Schengen zone on your departure from Germany so you do go through immigration exit. In London, you would go through both immigration and customs for England since you are leaving the airport and the next morning for departure would be immigration exit and security.

It's possible that this may be an award ticket and these were the only possible connections available at the time of booking.

Also, if you look at the interesting side of things, depending on when the OP's flight is the next day, s/he can pop over and see the famous Cologne Cathedral

Yes, it is definitely a "reward" ticket travel. I would not have picked this itinerary ideally. I'm questioning my plan to do it this way. I may end up purchasing a ticket!!

TB - one thing to keep in mind is that AA will generally let you update the ticket for no charge if a more direct routing opens up. So keep checking online and if you can get a direct LHR to Florence or even another routing that bypasses LHR, I believe AA will let you change for free (but don't hold me to this).

If this is a free ticket, why give it up and spend your hard earned cash. Look at this as an adventure - especially depending on what time your flight is to Florence. If you have enough time, spend the night in Cologne, visit the cathedral, and the famous bridge with all the locks and grab a pint at one of the restaurants. Look on the bright side - you are getting a free stopover - this is something I always try to do on free tickets (with United I have to keep the layover to less than 24 hours). I always look forward to this type of opportunity.

No, no visas required for Germany (or UK or Italy or the rest of the EU), assuming you are a US citizen on a US passport. Or Canadian. You will, of course, need your passport and ticket numbers etc.

American Airlines and British Air are codeshare - you should be able to check in for your flight in Dallas and not need to check in again for your LHR - Dusseldorf. Confirm that these 2 flights are on the same ticket. You will land at LHR, go through immigration (may be a long line) where they look at your passport and ask questions. Occasionally they ask to see your return ticket, or to know where you are staying. Have your itinerary handy. Often they don't ask, but better to be prepared.

After that, if the flights are on the same ticket, you will have your boarding pass already (printed in Dallas), so you will make your way to the gate. You will probably need to go through security to get there, possibly with a terminal change. Research Heathrow, a huge airport. 4 hours should be fine, though.

You arrive in Germany, go to your hotel, and the next morning you will return to the airport. All you will need is your passport and your ticket info to check in. Leave yourself enough time to deal with the process, but you should be fine.

Thank you so much! I have worried about my "plan" but at least now I know it will work!

Arnold, I am trying to view this as an adventure. I will be traveling alone, but meeting up with a group once I make it to Florence. It should be a learning experience.

tb,

There's no way I'd ever use a flight Itinerary like that, especially given the overnight layovers. That's not only a waste of valuable holiday time, but will also add to the cost with two hotel stays, perhaps taxi's back and forth to the airport, meals, etc. If at all possible, look for a less complicated alternative. You might want to speak to a travel agent.

To answer your other questions....

• If you're travelling on an American Passport, you won't need a Visa. Your Passport will be stamped on entry and exit, and that's all that's required. Be sure to check the expiration date of your Passport.
• Yes, a four hour layover should be fine. I was just at LHR a few weeks ago, and although it's a large airport, they seem to run things efficiently. You'll most likely have to go through security again before boarding your flight that departs LHR, so be prepared for that.

As this is your first trip to Europe, you may want to read Europe Through The Back Door as that will provide lots of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. You'll also need to give some thought to a few other things such as medical coverage, credit cards and accessing cash (be sure to notify your card issuers that you'll be travelling) and travel with electronic gadgets (you'll definitely need Plug Adaptors).

You could do the free ticket to London and then look and see if there is a low cost carrier to Florence. If there is it might be as little as $100

TB -- I have had crazy flight itineraries too, using frequent flyer miles. Sometimes they start out fine, but the airline rearranges or cancels flights. Our worst was one of the latter, which (the week before we left) became Denver> Newark> Copenhagen> Munich> Athens> Lesvos! It took almost 26 hours and we had to run through several of the airports. But the point is, the tickets were free, and that left thousands of dollars in our pockets, and it ended up being one of our best vacations ever.

We've also had a couple of stopovers in Munich during Octoberfest (one planned, one unplanned) which were really fun.

As Arnold says, look on this as an adventure. If you can't get to Cologne, at least wander around Dusseldorf. And you get a night in London, too! Follow Ken's advice about the Rick Steves books. Come back to this forum and ask more questions, as things come up. And above all, pack light. You'll want just one bag that you can carry with you (check all your airlines for size restrictions).

The Florence airport is very small, and Pisa Airport is the dominant airport in the region. It's just an hour train ride from Pisa to Florence.
Your American flight going into LHR is right. The preferred way to get to Florence area is on a non-stop British Airways flight into Pisa from LHR. British Airways is a member of the same flight "alliance" as American Airlines.

American Airlines (AA), British Airways (BA), Air Berlin (AB) and Vueling Airlines (VA) are all partners with the OneWorld alliance. Florence airport (FLR) is a Vueling hub.

If you have a reward ticket with AA, you might want to explore different options rather than the crazy 2 layover itinerary you are considering.

There are no flights from LHR to FLR and there is only one daily BA flight from LHR to PSA (Pisa) which is only one hour away via train or bus from Florence. A better option to consider is to fly AA/BA from DFW to LHR then BA from LHR to BLQ (Bologna). Bologna is only 37 min away from Florence via high speed train, and BA has 3 daily roundtrip flights from LHR to BLQ, therefore you might have better luck.

If Florence is your final destination, you might also consider flying AA to FCO (Rome Fiumicino). I don't know when you are flying, but AA has non stop flights from both Chicago ORD and New York JFK to FCO in summer. When I used my AA miles (also to go to Florence), I was able to find tickets easily from SFO to FCO (both via ORD and JFK). From the FCO airport you can take a train to Florence. Two trains a day from the airport to Florence (at 11:08 and 15:08) don't require a change at Rome central station (Rome Termini), but if those times aren't convenient just take a shuttle train from the airport to Roma Termini (32 min ride) then from Roma T. take a high speed train to Florence (90 min ride). There is a train to Florence every 20-30 min.

Coming back you might need to spend the night, not in Florence, but rather nearer the airport you depart from, since flights back to the US depart in the morning.

Thank you to everyone for contributing their thoughts. It has put me much more at ease for this trip!

Heathrow's website has a wonderful connection guide. Put in all your details, and it will tell you all the steps required and the estimated time (key word is "estimated" - but four hours is definitely enough): http://www.heathrow.com/flight-connections

Do follow Arnold's tip above, about how more direct routes can open up even on award tickets. You have to keep on top of this (they won't notify you), but if a better route opens up, you can change to it. Particularly since you have months before your departure, the likelihood of a better connection becoming available is high.

David's tip is also good - investigate all alternate routes you could take and decide which ones you would prefer, so you can make snap decisions or can suggest alternates. Both Pisa and Bologna are acceptable alternate airports to Florence.

Edit: Cross-posting with Roberto, who, as usual, has a very thorough discussion of your options.

Roberto,
I will definitely check into other options with my reward travel.

Harold,
The Heathrow Flight Connection Plan is wonderful! I'm glad you shared that info!

Brad,
It's nice to know it was a success on your trip.

I used AA mileage for a "free" ride to Europe. Same problem of an inconvenient detour through DFW. I booked the "free" tickets some 9 months in advance. I experienced schedule flight changes with longer/worst layovers as we got closer to departure.

The last time I flew from London to Bologna my tickets on Easyjet were less than £25 each.

Thank you Arnold & Harold; you can learn something new everyday. Can you book better itineraries on award travel online, or do you call an agent when you see a better route? If you do it online, do you just do it through " manage my booking"?I never knew this, and we do use AA award travel.

When we book award travel these days we tend to book Seattle (SEA) to LHR and then book another flight on. On our trip to Florence we flew into Bologna and then took the train to Florence. It was very easy- simple airport layout and then out the door, turn right and on to the bus for the train station.

We used to view those overnight layovers as a nightmare, but now they don't look so bad. Even if it's just few hours, it's something fun and gives a break from airplane seats.

Tangent: I was recently looking at AA award to Honolulu routing the wrong direction to Chicago then Anchorage. Didn't get it.

If you are doing all this with only carry on luggage, then there is no risk of losing or delayed luggage, and it is indeed an adventure. Enjoy that German breakfast. On the other hand, if you are checking bags, you increase the risk of a mistake with every flight. This is a case where a call to an AA agent might be worth the extra charge

I once had an itinerary like yours when we were younger, raising children, saving every penny and living overseas for seven months, which meant work-related items, a musical instrument, and a lot of different clothing. It was a great adventure on the way over, but on the way home all my cases were waylaid--even my carry on that had to be checked on the last leg. All four flights had been delayed for mechanical or weather-related issues and I was repeatedly rerouted during this trip back. Luckily luggage was delivered the next day.

Patty - only now seeing your question so responding to it.

In general the airline websites generally cannot handle redoing anything more than just a simple change. i would rather chat with an agent. A key item is that you can ask the agent to waive the rebooking fee if you cannot make the change online. Most of the times the agent will do this (most of my experience with this has been with United).

I think you are wasting a key benefit of the frequent flyer program if you are using your miles just to get from Seattle to London and then buying a separate ticket to your final destination. You should definitely get the connecting flight on the same ticket. This saves you the cost of the connection and also helps reduce the massive departure taxes you will have to pay for any ticket departing the UK (you will get hit by a small amount on this to a European destination but will get hit again for a larger amount on your return to Seattle). Note - if you are just connecting on the same ticket then you normally don't get hit with these high taxes.

Another key item to keep in mind if you are using AA miles is that award tickets that use British Airways flights have massive fuel surcharges added on. So a free RT ticket to Europe on AA will probably cost $20-50 in taxes while the same ticket flying on BA metal will set you back at least $500 - and this is in economy. Business class will have higher fuel surcharges.

One other thing to consider when looking for AA awards - consider using the BA website/booking engine to search for award availability since sometimes they will show other partners or routings that AA may not display. Obviously, you will still have to go back to AA to ticket.