I will be flying into Heathrow on July 8th on British Airways. It is supposed to be terminal 5 if it is open then. How worried should I be about getting my luggage? I am looking at taking a flight from Heathrow to Prague 4 hours after the first flight arrives, and it will be booked on a separate ticket, so I will have to collect bags, then check them. Can anyone with recent experience at Heathrow give me an idea if this is possible, or if I may never see my luggage again?! Thanks ahead for any advice.
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9110 posts
Which airline are you taking to Prague? As long as its not a discount carrier you can usually have your checked baggage "tagged" all the way to Prague when you check-in in the US. Call BA to see if they have an agreement with the other airline. This way all you have to do is head to the transfer desk for you connecting flight, pass through security, and head to the terminal/gate of you connecting flight. If the bag can't be tagged, you will have to go through immigration, recollect you bags, transfer to the terminal where your connecting flight departs from, check-in for your Prague flight, pass through Immigration yet again, the security check, and then to your gate..
Posted by
OP
Fresno, CA
30 posts
We haven't gotten the tickets to Prague, yet, but i will be a major airline and possibly even British Airways. I didn't know I could check the bags through if my tickets were separate, so thank you for the info.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, US
519 posts
Seems the baggage handling system is working much better than when T5 opened, though that doesn't necessarily mean your luggage still won't be lost! :-)
BA has put on hold their original timetable to transfer all their longhaul flights into T5 and are issuing an updated timetable. If you're flying out of San Francisco on BA that flight has already moved to T5. If you happen to book your flight to Prague on BA that will also depart out of T5 as all European flights (except Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Nice and Helsinki) are now departing from T5.
We fly into and out of T5 on our trip this summer flying from Vancouver to Amsterdam and returning through T5 from Berlin. We'll have carry-on going to Europe and depending on how much we buy, we may have to check a bag on the return.
Happy travels!
Posted by
west hollywood, ca, usa
1 posts
Make sure you have your confirmation ticket printed up. I just made this mistake with British Airways because I had an e-ticket and no paper proof of my connecting flight with Delta. I did not have the confirm printed up (even though I had a confirm # with me) they wouldn't allow it.
It's a long haul from T5 to the rest of the airport, allow yourself plenty of time.
have fun