Flying from Edinburgh to US, connecting in Heathrow

90 minutes is enough time to connect at Heathrow.

Immigration (and security) will take place at Heathrow; any items you need to declare for customs will take place at Edinburgh.

Taking the train from London to Edinburgh is all your responsibility: carrying luggage to central London, deciding which train to take, and it will take an extra 6 hours once you factor in getting to the station - I would not do that.

With all due respect to the poster who gave instructions for USA to Edinburgh via Heathrow, the answer is incorrect.

From Edinburgh to Heathrow is a domestic flight. At Heathrow, you will not have to go through immigration, customs or security. (You only go through security for a connection if your arriving flight is from outside the UK. There is no exit immigration or customs from the UK.)You will simply proceed to the next gate once it's announced. Ninety minutes should be enough time. Make sure this is all on one ticket so your bags will automatically be transferred to your second flight and if there is a delay, the airline will put you on the next available flight at no charge.

Go to this website, plug in your flights and you will get step by step instructions:

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

Taking a train is fine. You will arrive in London at Kings Cross station and will have to get to Heathrow from there. It's slight over an hour on the tube but it's direct with no changes.

However, if you are going directly to Heathrow, flying is so much easier especially on one ticket.

Frank II is correct - there is no immigration or customs as you are leaving.the country. You will of course have both when you enter the US.

I'm a little confused - partly it sounds like a through ticket, all on one ticket and just changing planes. But partly it sounds like you don't have the Edinburgh tickets, and you are self connecting in Heathrow.

The experience could be quite different.

Are you doing the in and out flights of the trip separately?

The flight we are thinking of buying is from Edinburgh to Philadelphia with a connection at Heathrow. I was concerned that 90 minutes wouldn’t be sufficient time to connect to the other flight. Thank all for your help.

The Heathrow layover time…I have to admit it’s doable because we did it not too long ago in a similar scenario to what you’re describing.

We were two adults in our late 40s, decent shape. BUT, we did our homework ahead of time and got as familiar with Heathrow as we could via videos and other travelers’ advice. Of course, there are always surprises when traveling, but we tried to plan it as best we could like we would a NASCAR pit stop. =)

It turned out that we did need just about every minute of that layover, and that included some very fast walking/jogging at times. We had about 10 minutes to buy and eat a sandwich before lining up at the gate to board.

Two years ago our flight from Glasgow to LHR was delayed, so we missed our Transatlantic flight to Philadelphia. British Airways was going to re-route us the following morning to Boston. Fortunately, while we were waiting for our hotel and meal vouchers, I noticed on the departure board that there was a later flight to BWI. I asked if there were any seats available on that flight, and they had two left. I snagged them, and we were off to Baltimore.

To British Airways credit, our suitcases arrived at BWI, still tagged for Phiadelphia! And they gave us meal vouchers for LHR. Not only that, but the ticket agent let us use his mobile to ring our friends in Delaware, so that they could meet us at BWI instead of PHL.

Unfortunately, we caught COVID, either at the airport or on the plane. But that's a story for another post!

Mike (Auchterless)

Thanks to all. We booked a flight with a 2 hour 20 minute layover at Heathrow. Hopefully, that will allow us enough time to get through security.

You won't do security at Heathrow - that will be done at Edinburgh. All you need to do at Heathrow is get off the plane and go to the next gate.

(And yes my first reply was the wrong way round)