Flying Heathrow to Edinburgh

You’re looking to book a separate ticket to EDI, for after your arrival at LRH, right?

if that’s the case, the suggested gap would be long. You’d have to clear UK immigration in LHR. Then maybe baggage claim, customs, maybe change terminals before checking in for the new flight and going back through security.

Can you change your ticket to include the connecting flight? Even if it cost more I could be worth it.

Given the capacity limits LHR is operating under until mid Sept, I think a stand alone booking of LHR-EDI is the kind of flight more likely to be a target for cancellation, compared to longer flights.

With a 2 PM arrival, any departure before 530PM is more a wishful hope than a practical plan, especially if you have checked luggage.

If I had to do it would be looking at a single ticket all the way to EDI.

Spend the night in London and take the train the next day, or buy an anytime train ticket to Edinburgh. Trying to self connect at Heathrow sounds too risky.

Google " BA cancel Edinburgh flights" to see this is not a good idea

When you arrive at Heathrow, you will have to go through immigration. If you are taking a connecting flight, you follow the signs for connecting flights and do not go to the main immigration hall.

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

Plug in your flight information and it will give you step by step instructions.

That being said, travel around the UK this summer is like playing craps. You could roll a good hand or a bad one.

As stated, flights are being cancelled. But then, train strikes are also on the horizon. Train strikes have already been called for August 18 and 20th meaning service will be affected from the 17th to the 21st.

Which airline are you flying into Heathrow? All flights from Heathrow to Edinburgh are on British Airways from Terminal 5.

I have done connections at Heathrow. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it's not. I would opt for the 17:30 flight (5:30 PM) That gives you a cushion in case your incoming flight is late.

We come in on the 14th so rail won’t be striking yet. That may be a good idea. We hoped since we are coming later in August that the cancellation mess would be over but maybe too optimistic! The flight was a hopper rescheduled from last December when Covid hit again so will see if we can add the extra bit to it. Never will use hopper app again, it was a huge runaround to even get a credit and then to rebook.
Thank you everyone for all the good information.

When BA cancelled our late September LHR-EDI flight leg we debated on taking the train or rebook. With all the railroads and unions appearing to have strikes approved, but few actual strike days scheduled, we opted to rebook rather than take a chance of getting stranded in London. We left ourselves a 3 hour cushion. Whichever you do, it’s a toss of the dice this year.

BA cancelled our LON-EDI and EDI-LON flights in June, and we had to spend hours on the phone finding alternatives, which ended up being other BA flights. The hours were due to the hold times to even talk to someone.

Immigration can be a long line, but the real bottleneck is running through security again. There were seas of people, and although the line moved fairly quickly, it still took 30 minutes. Customs was trivial with nothing to declare.

I'd second the opinion of trying to get your flight "covered" under a single confirmation number so the airline will take responsibility for providing a proper connecting time and work to get you where they promised.

Oh and forgot to mention we will keep carryon luggage with us so no baggage claim time needed.

No way to know for sure. Early this month I had one ticket DFW to EDI, with a change at LHR. My LHR - EDI leg wasn’t cancelled but first flight ran late and with less staff, I was cancelled and put on a later flight. Literally one minute apart, one person told me no problem catching the original flight and my boarding pass to enter security would not work. It cost me 6 hrs at LHR, but my checked bag made it on the flight and all I lost was a bit of time (plus they gave me a voucher for food). However with a separate ticket, I would be nervous. But I also have a train cancellation one day while here - so who knows anything…. Being flexible and prepared is the only way to travel this summer.

After the recent round of cancellation, the only BA flights to EDI from Heathrow on August 14 left are at 9:10 am (which is before you arrive) and 22:00. That flight is expensive—-£237 each in Economy.

There are less expensive flights at 19:00 and 19:35 if you transfer to London City Airport (£174 and £195 respectively). One of those would probably work better than waiting around Heathrow until 10 pm. At least you could get outside for awhile! But you will have to arrange your own transport to the other airport.

You'd be better off getting the 8:35 PM Easyjet flight from Gatwick. It's 117 GBP as of today and there is a direct bus between Heathrow and Gatwick. A lot better than having to go through London to get to LCY. I wouldn't try for an earlier flight if having to change airports.

Being a Sunday in August, I'm not surprised flights are booked on that route.

Most of us could have told you when booking airline tickets, book direct. Going through a third party when changes/refunds are needed can be a nightmare.

If there is a convenient one, can you get them to send you from Heathrow to Glasgow? They actually did this for us directly in April. 3 days before our flight they notified us that our flight to Edinburgh was canceled and were sending us to Glasgow an hour later. After a lot of back and forth, I found that the next flight to Edinburgh was filled, and by going to Glasgow and then taking the fast train over to Edinburgh we would ultimately be only about 90 minutes later than initially planned (bus from Glasgow airport to Glasgow Queen is 15 minutes and often, direct train every 30 minutes takes about 35 minutes and you are in Waverley Station in Edinburgh. Since either way you have to pay for transit in from the airport, I think this was only an additional about 13 GBP for the train).

Of course, on flight day, our plane to London was delayed two hours leaving London, mechanical issue, thus two hours late leaving here, and we were now missing the flight they gave us. Did manage to arrange for the next one at the local AA and BA counters before we left Philadelphia. Had our original flight to Edinburgh not been cancelled we would never have made it, and would not have been aware of the Glasgow option. And probably not gotten in to Edinburgh until early evening, instead of early afternoon.

. Never will use hopper app again, it was a huge runaround to even get a credit and then to rebook.

Above buried in the middle of OP's 2nd entry. Appears he is committed and has no option to get a single ticket for the entire journey, without loosing the investment in this ticket.

Oops, missed his second post. That explains a lot...

I have a reservation to fly from Nashville to Heathrow to Edinburgh on British Air on July 24/25...returning on August 8. So far, the July 24 leg from Heathrow to Edinburgh has been cancelled twice (fix weeks ago... and today)...and the Aug. 8 leg from Edinburgh to Heathrow has been cancelled once. In other words, BA seems to be canceling Heathrow to Edinburgh flights right and left.

After I received each of the 3 cancellation emails, I quickly rebooked. Today I chose to rebook London to Edinburgh flying out of London City airport.

Bottom line: if you have a BA reservation from Heathrow to Edinburgh and vice versa anytime soon, be prepared to monitor your email for cancellation notices.

We just flew into Heathrow yesterday. We have e passports. It didn't take more than 15 minutes to clear through customs. Easy peasy.

We too are flying into Heathrow and then on to Edinburgh (August 16th). These tickets were booked in February. Flight to Edinburgh changed already to a later one and although I have not yet had that dreaded email recently, I don't see that flight on the schedule at this time. Difficult times without a doubt!

Marna, what airline are you flying? I plan to book my flight to soon to York/ Edinburgh and am trying to figure out my best options to hopefully limit too many changes once my ticket is booked. At the moment, I’m thinking a nonstop flight from Chicago to London has less chance for disruption and then I can train to York. It does seem it is the flights going into Edinburgh that are getting cancelled or changed.

Carrie - I actually just checked (again) and it appears that our flight on British Airways from LHR to Edinburgh at 16:35 arriving at 18:00 is back on the schedule! This is for our trip booked on American Airlines from Phoenix to Edinburgh. The Heathrow to Edinburgh leg is operated by BA. Fingers crossed, but have to be ready to pivot, right? We will leave Edinburgh after the RS tour ends on August 28th and just booked train from Edinburgh to York; two days later, York to London. Of course, trains are having their strike issues and now heat! I think if you have NOT booked, I would keep with your thought to get to London, and get train to York and Edinburgh. In what I'm reading, the London to Edinburgh short hops are definitely being affected with BA's lack of staff and their trying to give notice to travelers now to avoid losing gates at Heathrow for next year.

Marna, I appreciate the advice. I do think getting to London makes the most sense. Now I just have to wrap my head around that. I watched some you tube videos on the tube from Heathrow and it didn’t look too bad.

Best of luck to us all traveling this summer! We decided to just take a train from London to Edinburgh and enjoy the scenery (or sleep) since there are many trains on the schedule. Hopefully we will beat the strike! Then we have a rental car to get us around after the Edinburgh bit and fly back out of London. Fingers are crossed for no heat waves too.
Hopper app did make it too difficult to add the Edinburgh piece but in future if we do this will definitely do that part at same time. One of us saw there were plenty of commuter flights but didn’t look to see that none of them go from Heathrow. Oh well. Now we have a plan which as we know all good ones go awry!! ;) Happy travels!

Outstanding btmprice! Sounds like a great plan. Yes, fingers crossed for all of us. Seems like there was some good news with BA employees voting to not strike - so we shall see if that helps those flights that we are all looking at. AND with the Edinburgh Tattoo for three weeks in August, I think we need those flights!