Booking a flight to Scotland after arrival into London.

I am assuming that you have bought a ticket to London already.

No big deal. many do this all the time because it is all lot of times cheaper to buy just the trans-atlantic without the 2nd flight at one time.

You should allow at least 4 to 6 hours because USA to London may be late and the airline is not liable when you buy separate tickets.

There are about 8 direct flights to Edinburgh from London Heathrow (I'm assuming this is the airport you are flying into.).

Why not fly directly to Glasgow or Edinburgh ?

If you are arriving at Heathrow, then passport control can be a very long wait in the morning hours - especially as there are many flights arriving from the US in the UK at that time frame. It can take 45 minutes to 90 minutes to get through. From the numerous times I have gone through Heathrow - its has never been quick. You will need to pick up luggage and then go through customs, which unless you get checked, will take no time to walk through. However, once in the terminal, you will likely need to change terminals and re-check luggage with your new airline and then go through the screening process to get to your next flight. (add 30-45 minutes here). Walking to and from gates in London Heathrow can also add on another 20-30 minutes. Have said this, It is OK to schedule another flight on the same day. Just make sure you give yourself enough time for a possible arrival delay and the time it will take you to get through the airport. If your flight is arriving say 9:00 am, I would book a flight for the early afternoon and just plan on eating lunch at the airport. I just don't like to get stressed on a vacation with tight schedules. Also, if possible book with an airline (such as British Airways) that has more than one flight going to Scotland that day, (so it might be possible for you to catch the next flight if you missed your first). Also British Airways is more likely to be on time - and sometimes, considering the budget airline add-ons for luggage and seat assignments etc, can still be very competitive. Also consider just taking hand luggage.

Thank you for the response. We had a change of plans that is why we did not book directly into Scotland so was trying to do the best I could figure with the flight booked. I appreciate the details on this last post, very helpful . And we were looking at a British Airways flight so appreciate that advice. I guess another option that I was throwing around was to hang in London the day of arrival also. Might be the best and catch a flight the next morning. Thank you for your input !

I booked a flight with BA on a separate ticket after arriving from Canada...I gave myself 4 hrs to connect - (we are carry on only, so we can just follow the flight connections and not have to go thru passport to pick up bags) - but I'm pretty sure I paid an extra fee (not much) so that I can make changes up to an hour before our flight - probably for another minimum charge - this was Dec, so it's a little fuzzy now (flight is April)...but I figure if worse comes to worst and our flight is slow, then I can make a change to the flight as they have 3-4 more flights that day to AMS...so def look into that option when booking your ticket.

Go to the Heathrow Airport Flight Connections website, plug in your flights and it will give you step by step instructions on what you will need to do and how much minimum time is suggested. Remember, that is the absolute minimum.

The Heathrow flight connection times are not useful for travel on separate tickets, and the website assumes travel on one ticket---a true flight connection. With separate tickets you bear the risk of a late inbound flight so must build n extra time---four hours minimum but that may still not be enough---or it will be way too much and you will be hanging around the airport feeling like you are wasting time.

If you are willing to go into London and spend the night, you could take the train up to Scotland instead of returning to the airport and spending another two hours of security waiting time. That is what I would do.

I have done this a lot as it's often easier to get frequent flyer seats or cheap deals to London. My rule is at least 4 hours between flights.

I do like it better when I stay in London and move the next day because hanging around an airport jetlagged and exhausted is just not fun :)

If you decide to stay in London on the first day/night, you might consider looking at trains as an option. For example, you can take a train from London to Edinburgh in about 4 1/2 hours. This takes you from city center to city center and you don't have to deal with getting to/from the airport and security.

What you are missing is that you can get burned. I thought I had covered ourselves last year when I booked the changeable EasyJet ticket from London to Edinburgh with a five-hour window. What I didn't count on was the total flight being cancelled for a equipment problem. It was a fully loaded 747. In the scramble to re-book the tickets, the airline was very happy to fly us to directly to Edinburgh because we were two less passengers that they had to get to London. So even though I had changeable tickets from EasyJet and have taken their insurance I still lost the total fare. Situations like that are rare but it does happen.

Last year I flew from London Heathrow to Edinburgh on British Air and I found that the price was much cheaper booking far in advance (six months or more). I tracked the ticket prices and they steadily went up, eventually to three times the original cost for those who bought closer to the day of departure. So, whatever you decide I would suggest buying your ticket far in advance. Regarding staying a night in London, if it were me I would likely spend several nights in London to enjoy the experience. Otherwise you may be exhausted flying into London, getting into town one day and then getting back to the airport the very next day (time and money costs getting to and from the airport each way). When booking your flight keep in mind that there are two other London airports for flying on to Edinburgh (London City airport and Gatwick), make sure you know which airport your flight leaves from and how to get to it. If you are thinking of staying overnight in London to get over your jet lag and to not be worried about immediately catching your next flight to Edinburgh, you could stay at a London Heathrow airport hotel (there are many to choose from nearby). The closest sightseeing from Heathrow airport would be Windsor castle, so that would be easier than staying in London for only one night and yet still provide the possibility of sightseeing nearby.

We did it last year under similar circumstances. I worried all the way, but it turned out fine. We had gotten a super fare on a BA direct flight and then decided, since we were already at the airport, to continue on to Shannon. I didn't think before I did it, and then after reading posts about what could go wrong, really stressed. We allowed 3 hours between flights. We were toward the front of the plane and when we arrived there were no other flights at the same time. We have learned that it pays to move quickly towards immigration once you get off the plane. Once we got through immigration, the rest was a breeze - collect baggage, walk through customs, we had to go from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 so we got on the free Heathrow Express/airport connector, checked in with Aer Lingus and rechecked our luggage (weren't sure our "carry-one" would pass their requirements) and went through security. We had about 90 minutes to stretch/shop.

I will be going to Biarritz France from San Francisco CA and my Parents and I wanted to spend 4 days at the end of the trip in Paris. So by booking our trans Atlantic flights separate as my Mother is visiting a Friend in Paris before she joins us. We found a Round Trip from Oly on HOP for $110+$30 for bags vs $280 from CDG and we will take the AF bus to ORY for $20 each, So we save $100 and we allowed 4 hours for me and 5.5 for my Father to get to ORY. On a Saturday it should be no problem.

Then on the return we fly into ORY a few weeks later also on a Saturday and will take a taxi to our Apartment as its only about 8 miles to Montparnass.

If we had to do it as part of our international airfare it would have costed us more as we all had different dates going to Biarritz and that would have mean for separate international tickets+stop over+three weeks in Biarritz+4 days in Paris.

Its best to allow enough time in between flights especially Paris Orly-Biarritz is a Domestic Flight so in the worst case we could arrive 1 hour before the flight and still make it . I figure I would be at ORY by 12:30 or 1:00 at the latest and still make it.

My Father and I had an even better story. We flew on Delta to Los Angeles and Air China from LAX-Beijing-Bangkok and back. On some days the Delta flight arrived late due to runway construction and we would have missed our Air China flight. But this did not happen we arrived on time into LAX and arrived at the Air China counter as soon as they were opening. We took our bags to Air China as there are no partnerships with Air China.

On the return we arrived LAX at 11:30 AM and within 1 hour we were through Customs, walked over to Terminal 5 checked our bags and went through security and arrived into the SkyClub. I allowed 5 hours on each end just to be safe and it worked in our favor. Our LAX-SJC flight was a bit delayed.