Help: Concern about Connecting to Milan via Heathrow

Hey kapri,

I have never had that tight of a connection.

Call British Airways Customer Service. 1 (800) 247-9297

They are very nice on the phone. Have your PP # ready and your full name as it appears on your PP.

I fly BA from Boston to Rome straight (both legs) and always plan a layover of no less than 3 hours. I have also flown BA from Boston to Milan Linate - Heathrow on both legs with a generous layover.

The link below tells you what to do at LHR – you won’t cross the UK border – just make your way to your second flight via Flight Connections

https://www.heathrow.com/flight-connections

No time for browsing the shops – but that’s a good thing isn’t it!

That is enough time both ways otherwise the airline would not be able to sell the ticket to you that way. The problem is that you put your credit card in and chose to buy it that way and if you try to change it they may charge you a change fee plus the cost of a flight with a longer connection of it is more

I had the same short connection two years ago. Then they rebooked me on an earlier flight out of Milan. If the arrival is on time, it’s sufficient, but you must move fast (no duty free shopping, sorry).
Having checked baggage or only carry on has nothing to do with it. You won’t need to retrieve your checked baggage, it goes through automatically. If anything it is better to have as little as possible as carry on so that you can run faster if you need to.

We usually go to and from Rurope via Heathrow. If you are in the same terminal, Tetminsl 5?, you will be fine. No passport control, just security.
We have been fine with an hour between flights.

Last time when I flied from Rome to Heathrow, I had an hour and twenty minutes to catch my next flight back to SFO. The flight arrived on time but it has to wait for about thirty minutes for an open gate. Then spent about 20 minutes for security check. Before I board my next flight, I got picked out for "additional" security check and being almost the last one in that queue did not help my nerves. Needless to say, the plane door slam shut behind me once I was onboard but at least it waited for me 8-)

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for your input! Sounds like it will be cutting it very close. I called British Airways, and to change the flight now we will incur "change fees" which are not cheap. However, they said that since the flights are listed this way, that it means as an airline they feel it is feasible. If we were to miss the flight due to some delay, they would then be obligated to take care of us.

I may see if someone at the airport upon our departure at Atlanta can help us, as I find people at the gate are often the friendliest. I also just changed my last name post-marriage and had to change the name on my ticket to reflect this. This required the airline to separate our tickets rather than keep them grouped, and I am now under a completely different reservation than my husband. They are unable to regroup the tickets, meaning we may not necessarily be issued seats next to one another off the bat...for our honeymoon! :( Really hoping that someone takes pity on us at the airport.

Here's hoping for the best!

Could Brexit affect transit time through LHR? May is after march 29 date for Brexit to go into effect, meaning you'll be flying from EU into UK.
I have not heard how this will affect passport control or if will remain the same, since you would not be leaving Terminal 5.

Just something to be aware of and to know the facts about (which might not even be apparent until the end of March)

I fly through Heathrow on regular basis, it is a very big and busy airport. It takes long time to go from point A to B. On your outbound flight you have 3.5 hours, you may think that it is a long time but at Heathrow it is not. You ll have to go through another security check and walk, take a train and walk some more to reach your terminal. I ll suggest just explore the shops & bar at terminal 5. For an inexpensive snack grab a pre packed sandwich from a shop that's equivalent of a mini CVS/convenience shop at Terminal 5. Quality & variety of those sandwiches is amazing. If you guys wanna try local British beer/ale, again on Terminal 5..on a corner there is a bar. I always go to these two spots. On your inbound flight, you only have an hour and that is scary to me. You should probably run to reach to you terminal.

Have a nice trip.

Even though you are on two reservations, you should be able to request to connect he two reservations (we’ve done that with United when we’ve had 1 ticket on miles and second ticket paid). That way, if you miss your connection BA will reschedule you and hubby on same fights. Call customer service to ask if that is possible.

Minimum connection time that BA will sell at Heathrow for the same terminal is 60 minutes. This is do-able, providing the first flight is reasonably on time, but not that comfortable.

When you arrive, check carefully what part of the terminal you have landed in (A, B, or C) AND the area your onward flight departs from. If BOTH are B or C, go to the one you are leaving from and clear security there, rather than the main building. If EITHER is A you will clear security in the main building A, co-mingled with the originating passengers in Heathrow. It is not possible to be sure of this beforehand as these change on a daily basis.

Just relax. You have gotten some good info and some bad info.

Flights on BA across the Atlantic as well as flights to and from Milan use Terminal 5 at Heathrow. There is no need to change terminals or go through immigration/border control either way. You will stay Airside. Use the following website to plug in your flights and get step by step instructions.

https://www.heathrow.com/flight-connections

The other advice I will reiterate is to see which satellite you arrive in and depart from. If you can avoid the main processing area you will save time. (A concourse). There will be BA personnel around to help.

As long as this is one ticket meaning it was purchased together, and you should miss a flight, the airline will get you on the next available one. If it is the airline's fault, they will also supply a hotel room depending on the length of your delay.

Kapri, We had a BA flight with a tight connection a few years back, it was from Edinburgh thru Heathrow and to Philly in the US. Our original flight out of EDI was delayed so our connection time became tighter yet. As we departed from our EDI airplane we were met by BA staff and they handed us a bright orange envelope/paper and we were told to use this as we shuffled through Heathrow gates and areas. The BA staff also early in the connection walked us along to insure we were on the right track. As staff along our connection saw the orange paper we were moved ahead and this allowed us to make our connection to the US under tight time constraints. My point is if they give you an orange paper (I don't know if they still do that or not) be sure to keep it very visible for the airport staff to see, they all realized when seeing the paper that we were on a tight schedule and boosted us along. If you get that paper have it up front and make sure it is seen. BA worked really hard to get us on our flight.