How long does it take to change planes at Heathrow for connecting flight (to Rome)?

There is never a good answer to this question. Two and half SHOULD BE. We have done exchanges in less time in Heathrow. If it is all on one ticket I would go for it since BA would re responsible for getting you to the next flight. And if some inbound flights were delayed, then it is possible they would hold the plane for a few minutes. If two separate tickets -- NO.

A lot of the advice you received here still holds
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/flying-to-rome-via-paris-next-year-how-long-a-transit-at-cdg
If one 1 ticket, you're probably OK
When is this trip?
Might want to check COVID requirements and go with whichever is the smoothest transit.
Can you make your 1 stop in US/EastCoast?

I believe you'll have passport control in UK as well as in Rome (entering Schengen)
If you fly thru Paris you'll just go thru that once.

BA has 3 flights a day currently; if you missed the connection due to Seattle to Heathrow leg being very late, BA as long as you have one ticket is obligated to put you on the next one with space. I wouldn't stress about it, not unless you need to absolutely be somewhere in Rome at a certain time. That's the way it goes. A 2 1/2 hour layover is perfect to me.

We are “frequent flyers” on BA and I would not hesitate to take that connection, since it is on one ticket. Heathrow has a bad reputation but we have never had a problem; just follow the well-signed Flight Connections path to your Rome flight and you should be OK. Your flight from Seattle will land at T5 and your Rome flight will depart from either T5 or T3. If the latter, there will be a special bus to transport you between terminals. In either case, you will go through security before you reach your departure gate, but you do not go through passport control/immigration.

On our last trip to Europe (2019) we were flying Seattle to Barcelona on BA,, with a 2-hour connection time. Our flight left Seattle very late, like 2 hours behind schedule (first time that happened in 10 years of flying BA 48), and we arrived at Heathrow with about 35 minutes to make the connection from T5 to T3 for the Barcelona flight. As we taxied to the gate, an announcement on the plane asked everyone to stay seated until the 16 Barcelona passengers had disembarked. We were met at the gate by a BA agent who escorted us (all 16 passengers) to a waiting bus that took us to T3, then shepherded through the security there to our waiting plane.

I know they can’t do that with every late flight, but we were pretty impressed.

Last time I changed in Heathrow it took just shy of 3 hours. Why it was the last time.

No passport control or customs but you will go through security again.

BA is not obligated to put you on the next flight. They must put you on the next AVAILABLE flight. A big difference.

If you go to:

https://www.heathrow.com/connecting-flights

And fill in the form, it will give you step by step transfer instructions.

If direct flights aren’t an option, I would be looking to try to have the plane change in America so as to minimise the number of countries involved and the various Covid rules.

Airports now are very different beasts to what they were 21 months ago. Far fewer passengers but more checks and regulations. A through ticket is vital, which at least puts the onus on the airline should there be a delay.

A few years ago, we had a Dublin-Heathrow-Denver British Airways flight with a 75 minute connection time. BA told me that they wouldn't book it if they didn't think you could make it. I researched our path through the airport which included a shuttle bus to change terminals. We made it in plenty of time but since the Dublin leg was pretty short, there was less that could go wrong.

I wouldn’t hesitate to take that connection time. Nor would I worry about making my connection in the US which would add significant time to your travel coming from Seattle.

I have found the secret to making quick connections in London is to be ready for security. I was tripped up once because I had filled my water bottle after security in Seattle and forgot to empty it before security in London. That added a good 25 minutes to my transfer time. Now I take a moment to go through a mental checklist prior to approaching security and check my bag so there is less to deal with.

I like to go about three hours - the last few times we were out of our arrival terminal, in the next terminal, thru security (usually within 5-10 min) and deciding where to have breakfast in about an hour.

Two caveats - we were arriving early morning - anywhere from 6-8am, and we didn't have checked bags, so we just took our carry ons, headed for the secure connections bus and were on our way, so we didn't have to stand in line at passport control (tho now - being from Canada - I imagine we'd just use the E-gates?) and we didn't have to wait for bags to come out. (these were two separate ticket flights - of course, if you're all on one ticket, I'm assuming your bags are checked thru).

Thanks everyone for your input.

It was VERY stressful flying in October from Seattle to Nice and then from Lisbon to Seattle, both going through Amsterdam, which was a mistake. But Delta didn't have their usual Seattle - Paris direct flight then and I jumped the gun (if I had waited another few weeks, that flight would have appeared on Kayak).

This time, my preference is again for Delta Seattle - Paris, and it does appear that Air France, Delta's partner, has more flights to Rome throughout the day, as I would probably miss the connection. The problem is that Kayak shows that the return there is no direct Paris - Seattle, so that I would have to do Rome - Amsterdam - Seattle. I'd likely miss the Amsterdam - Seattle leg, and assuredly Delta flies a direct flight to Seattle only once a dam.

Ergo, go London. I do find navigating Kayak somewhat overwhelming. I looked again, and there is a Seattle - London - Rome BA flight at a better time with about 4 hours of waiting at Heathrow for the connecting flight.

The problem, of course, is that the airlines make you go input your parameters all over again after half an hour or so. I just hope I can find the above flight again. It seems as though each time I search Kayak, I get different possible flight itineraries. It's hard keeping things straight. I think United also does a Seattle - Newark - Rome and then Rome -Amsterdam - Seattle (again, assymetric).

QUESTION: I feel under the gun. I'd going in early March. Should I book now? Does BA like Delta offer non-penalty changes so that one doesn't feel locked in irremediably once one books?

Many thanks.

It would be nice to hear from James E why it took him 3 hours to get through Heathrow that time. Was there a problem with his documents? Long lines at security? Trouble navigating?

As for the BA change policy, yes, they are offering free changes on booking for flights through August, so March is included. But making that change may not be easy, if it is one that must be made by phone rather than online. There are long waits on the phone lines these days. I am trying to reach them to amend our March flight ( in a way that cannot be done online) and Yesterday I was disconnected after waiting on hold exactly an hour. I am trying again today, and it took 5 tries to get past the busy signal and actually get into the queue.

Just a thought—-I know people advice against making a connection in the US before the overseas flight, but have you considered a direct flight to Italy from the US, avoiding the ( covid-related) complications of transit through another country entirely? Such flights generally originate from the east coast airports—-our March trip has us flying to JFK to pick up an Emirates flight directly to Milan. I booked as separate tickets, so we are spending some time in New York (a city my husband loves) before catching the Emirates flight —-but maybe that won’t work for you. You could see if you can book it as one ticket from Seattle on Emirates’ website. Their prices are very good for the Milan flight (the only one I know that goes direct, without a stopover in Dubai). And their Flex and Flex Plus tickets are fully refundable, according to people I asked on FlyerTalk.

Or if you want to go directly to Rome, I will mention that my sister has booked LAX to Rome direct with the “new” Alitalia for a September trip. You would have to get yourself to LA for that.

Have you looked at Condor? 2h 25m in Frankfurt to change planes.

We’ve gone through Heathrow a number of times without issue, and fingers crossed for passing through in April. SEA used to be our departure city but now Las Vegas is and British Airways is our preferred carrier. Carol brings up a great point about being prepared to pass through security. Our experience is that LHR is much stricter and they pull bags more frequently than we’ve seen in other places and they are very thorough in their examination process. It does make me feel very safe, but review their rules ahead so you don’t run into that a hold-up. Otherwise, our experience is that is enough time.

I had a terrible experience with Condor + Aegean going from Seattle - Munich - Athens.

Someone I know suggested going through a professional travel agent or maybe even AAA. The aarp has staff that simply use a search engine and have limited English ability.

I used odyssey adventures to book a trip to Nepal a couple of years ago (they handle the entire trip as a tour operator). They booked me across the U.S. (to JFK) and then to Doha and finally to Kathmandu. I couldn't find the connecting flight/gate at JFK. If I had done it on my own, I would have taken Cathay to Hong Kong and then on to Kathmandu.

Needless to say, I was unhappy having that many stops (it was exhausting). So even a professional agency that handles many many travelers can make bad decisions. They tried to come up with an excuse that they saved me money booking me eastward rather than westward...

So perhaps the way to go IS to fly to a U.S. city with a direct flight to Rome, even though it might not show up on a Kayak search unless one searches for a multicity itinerary. Can this be done on as [part of a roundtrip ticket? I would want to leave from the second (US) airport a couple of hours after landing rather than staying for a day or two there and then continuing on to Rome.

AA has SEA-ORD-FCO or SEA-DFW-FCO

Delta has SEA-FCO, via Boston, JFK or Atlanta ( in addition to CDG and AMS)

Joe,

I come up with no available flights when I do a search for a multicity flight Seattle - Boston - Rome. How did you find them?

On the Delta site all I did was select SEA-FCO and among the results were flights that had one connection to Rome. ( as noted in previous post)
Do not remember if I did search as one way or r/t, but just picked random date in April/May for the outbound flight to see where one had to stop en-route to Rome . (I did not use 'multi city' as the search method)

If you want to fly SEA-FCO, why are you using multi-city? Unless you must transfer at a certain city, use round trip and let them offer you connections.

Terminal 5 in Heathrow is our transfer airport of choice. I make sure both my flights use that terminal. While my preferred layover time is 2 1/2 -3 hours (I like to relax and have my breakfast there), my transit from seat/arrival at gate to back into departure terminal is 45 minutes. That’s with not hurrying. Consequently, you should have no problems. However, this was preCovid…but as everyone else entering thru this security passport check area has already been on a flight and checked in for both their flights, I wouldn’t expect a delay.

The “multi-city” search is for what is called here “open jaw”. You would use it if you wanted to fly into one airport in Europe (Rome), and home from another (say, Zurich). It does not work for choosing your stopover/plane change airport on the way to Rome. Assuming you want to fly home from Rome as well as start there, just use Seattle and Rome in your search, choosing “roundtrip”. Then you should see all the options.

Out of curiosity, I checked Emirates to see if they offered Seattle to Milan (or Rome) with a New York layover on one ticket (I booked our ticket on that route as separate tickets as we wanted to spend time in New York on the way). They do not. From Seattle, the choice is SEA—-Dubai—-Milan (or Rome) or SEA—-SFO—-JKF—-Milan (and not Rome). Either way, it is a long journey of 25-30 hours and not recommended!

I've done multi-city only once (in October, Seattle - Nice, Lisbon - Seattle).

Such a search wouldn't work if I wanted to fly to a U.S. city first, from Seattle, and then catch a connecting flight to Rome. So I did get confused.

After much deliberation, anxiety and confusion, I finally threw my hat into the ring. What will work for me is a Delta flight Seattle - Paris - Rome and the other way around (for the return trip). It means a 4 hour lay-over at CDG, but at least I'm familiar with the airport, sort of (6 times already). CDG is gigantic, it must be one square mile (or at least appears that way). Hopefully, the gates will not be too far from each other, maybe even in the same building. Terminal 2E, as I recall, can be divided into different buildings, so a K gate might not be in the same building as the L gate. And you'd have to take a bus to get to L...

Going through passport control sometimes has taken two hours...but the remodel of CDG makes it a lot more appealing if you have to be there for 4 hours than, say, Sea-Tac.

AA has SEA-ORD-FCO or SEA-DFW-FCO
Delta has SEA-FCO, via Boston, JFK or Atlanta ( in addition to CDG and AMS)

I did not see AA: SEA-ORD-FCO or SEA-DRW-FCO. Maybe I didn't look long enough--did one have to scroll & scroll several "pages"?

Actually I'm wondering if to fly from Seattle to Rome via Boston or Atlanta, one would have to buy two separate tickets (on one airline), i.e., Seattle to Boston, and then Boston to Rome.

Where are you searching and what are your dates?

I just did a search on Google Flights for dates in March 3/8 and 3/29
RT SEA to FCO
https://www.google.com/travel/flights

United has a flight from SEA with plane change in Newark- EWR- arrives in Rome 8:05 am- total time 15 hr 14 min
Return from FCO you have choice of plane change in Newark EWR- leaves FCO 11 am- arrives SEA 8:12 pm- (very inexpensive by the way $716- Economy which includes your seat selection and 1 checked bag)- total time 18 hr 12 min
or FCO thru Dulles IAD- leaves FCO 9:45 am- change in Dulles- arriving in Seattle 7:52- total time 19 hr 7 min

It seems like you are not searching in the right place?

Actually I'm wondering if to fly from Seattle to Rome via Boston or
Atlanta, one would have to buy two separate tickets (on one airline),
i.e., Seattle to Boston, and then Boston to Rome.

NO not unless that is what you want to do. No need because the flight has a plane change built in.

Go to the airlines ACTUAL website- Use Google flights just for preliminary research- always book with the ACTUAL airlines.

Wow, you and everyone is making this more complicated than it has to be.

Go to Google Flights. Do not use Kayak. Kayak sells tickets and may not show you everything available. Google Flights basically tells you what is available. Enter where you want to go, the dates, what class you want to fly in, and the number of stops. Then let it do it's magic. It will usually show you the cheapest flights first but you can change this. Choose the flights that give you the connection time you feel comfortable with. NO ONE CAN TELL YOU HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE SINCE WE HAVE NO IDEA OF ANY DELAYS.

Then, when you see the flights you like, go to that airline's website. Book through them. (If there is a change of plane, do not book separate tickets because if there is a delay, on a combined ticket, the airline is responsible for getting you to your desination. On separate tickets, you may have to buy a new ticket.)

As for time to change.....the airlines will not sell you a ticket they don't think they can honor.

It's that simple. Prior to the pandemic, I flew internationally a few times a year. And this is exactly what I do. (Although I tend to stick to specific airlines for frequent flyer point accumulation.) I do the same for domestic flights.

Go to Google Flights. ... Google Flights basically tells you
what is available.

Frank II is very wise. Exactly what I do; and like Frank II i do this a few times a year (despite the pandemic)

+1 on the Google flight as research. A week ago we were booked on BA Sea, LHR, FCO in early March. We received notice that our Sea -LHR flight was canceled and we needed to select a different flight. They offered a cancelation option so we started over and decided to go with Delta SEA - AMS - FCO In order to avoid LHR now they are no longer part of EU. Plus the news out of GB made things look worrisome. We prefer to get to the new time zone as soon as possible. Plus we ended up with better connection to Palermo.
PS: return is FCO - JFK - SEA.

google is my go to see what option are there then I prefer to book on major Airline.

Don & Cyndi, which BA flight were you booked on before the cancellation? Was it BA 52, the afternoon departure? I see it has not been flying recently, although the later departure (BA 48) has been.

I think you were wise to change to a flight that does not route you through Heathrow in March.

I just did a search on Google Flights for dates in March 3/8 and 3/29
RT SEA to FCO
https://www.google.com/travel/flights

United has a flight from SEA with plane change in Newark- EWR- arrives in Rome 8:05 am- total time 15 hr 14 min
Return from FCO you have choice of plane change in Newark EWR- leaves FCO 11 am- arrives SEA 8:12 pm- (very inexpensive by the way $716- Economy which includes your seat selection and 1 checked bag)- total time 18 hr 12 min
or FCO thru Dulles IAD- leaves FCO 9:45 am- change in Dulles- arriving in Seattle 7:52- total time 19 hr 7 min.

I think I'm going to stick with SEA - CDG - FCO despite the long connection wait. And I did book directly off the Delta site. But it was not easy finding this particular flight. I spent at least a couple of weeks plowing through pages & pages. I must be inefficient, thinking I had found the best solution (Heathrow or Newark or Paris with 1 hr. 15 min. connection).

Rick Steves (or someone else) had recommended Kayak but in the future I will look on Google flights.