Connecting to a NEW flight to France through Heathrow

Posted by leslyejg on 01/22/23 03:20 AM

I am traveling to France in May, but had to book separate tickets in order to use a companion ticket on BA in business class. I am flying IAH to Heathrow arriving 6:55.

My next flight to CDG (not a through flight) is still Terminal 5 but is on a separate ticket. We are not checking bags to avoid having to collect them and recheck them.

1) Do we HAVE to exit security and re-enter to go on to France? Or can we just show up at the gate? From what I've been reading, I think the former.
2) If we want to take advantage of the BA arrivals lounge, CAN we go out and come back in? I guess I'm asking if this would involve going through border security/customs?
3) If so, will we have time? We have an 11:10 departure to CDG, giving us around 4 hours to work with.

Thanks for any advice!

Posted by Andrew H.

Portland, Oregon

01/22/23 03:34 AM

5687 posts

You will have to go through security again to get to your Air France gate. But you won't have to go through immigration in the UK UNLESS you are unable to check in for your Paris flight on your own. E.g. if you are able to check in on your phone or at home and print out a boarding pass...maybe even with Delta in IAH before you leave.

I recently flew through Heathrow from Dallas to LHR and then LHR to Croatia. We landed in T3 and had to take the crazy shuttle bus through some sort of maze to T5. I didn't have to go through immigration. I also was unable to check in ahead of time...but my onward flight was a BA flight, and BA has plenty of infrastructure at LHR, obviously - easy to find a kiosk to print a boarding pass without having to go through immigration and then find departures to check in etc. If it had been an Air France flight, I might not have been able to do that at LHR.

Posted by Rocket 🚀🧳

San Francisco area

01/22/23 04:08 AM

1888 posts

The BA arrivals lounge is not airside. You would need to go through passport control to get there. Check to see what other lounges are available in the terminals you will be using. Some of them have showers so you can freshen up.

Posted by Carol

Atlanta, GA, USA

01/22/23 12:29 PM

2790 posts

I do this all the time. I’ve done it both flying in with the train. Personally, I prefer the train but since you picked flights here’s what you might want to think about.

Yes, if you want to use the BA arrival lounge, you will have to go out through immigration you may or may not have much time it just really depends. When I was there last year getting into the UK was easy but getting through security when I flew out later that week was over an hour. for that reason I probably wouldn’t risk it was me

If you do not have your boarding pass, go ahead and follow the signs to connecting flights. There are some counters there where you can get a boarding pass

Now be prepared you’ll now be told by a lot of people how you booked this all wrong because they know this was not a good idea. 😂You probably did it for the same reason I do/ it’s a lot cheaper you can use miles you can fly business etc.