Connection seattle to London Heathrow to Venice one ticket

Susanne, can you provide your flight numbers? The SEA to LHR flight is BA52, but what flight do you take to Venice? I don't see an 8:55 departure if I look up flights from Seattle to Venice in late April.

And you mention LGW. If that flight to Venice departs from LGW, you cannot possibly make the transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick in that amount of time.

If your Venice flight departs from Heathrow you should be OK, as you can transfer airside and not go through passport control. You will be first off the plane and have "fast track" through the security check.

Edit: I found that 8:55 Venice flight by looking at a different day. BA578, right? It departs from LHR T5, where your flight from Seattle will arrive. You will still go through security, but you have enough time, provided the Seattle flight is reasonably on time. See if the flight attendant in the Club World cabin can give you the gate number before you land. They were doing that for some passengers in the cabin when we flew to Amsterdam last summer. ( But not for our flight to Amsterdam as it was not available yet.). If the gate number is not available, just follow the signs to "flight connectioms" for T5. You will pass through security and enter the general departures area in T5A, where you can watch the boards for the gate announcement.

Thanks for your quick response. Yes it's BA52, leaving April 30th to London LGW and BA578 to Venice leaving at 8:55 am, arriving VCE at 12:05 pm. Arriving May 1st so the Venice flight is 5/1/19. Maybe I'm being a worrywort but our experience on the same flight but heading to Dublin in October was horrible. We had a long layover at Heathrow for the Dublin flight but passport control was a mess. We will definltey be first off the plane if possible.

Correction, all Heathrow, I meant LHR not LGW!

The connecting flight to Venice from Heathrow will be BA0578 which leaves at 08:55 (there may be a day when it doesn't go).

The minimum connection time for international - international flight at T5 is one hour and this one has 45 minutes more. There is no need to go through immigration only security. Follow international transfer signs.

This is different from the previous situation where you were entering the Common Travel Area in the UK before flying on to Ireland and so needed to go through immigration.

I guessed the reference to LGW is a typo. There are flights to Venice from Gatwick though - actually more than from Heathrow.

You confused me too.
London Heathrow is LHR
LGW = London Gatwick
Just driving between the two would take 1½ hours, possibly more depending on traffic.

"well over an hour in passport control." - "I don’t think that helps with passport control."
You will not go through passport control, you will stay "Airside".

Which airport is this (hopefully the same one), and which terminals?
If it is the same terminal you are in theory OK.

See my edit above.

Thank you all so very much. I didn't realize that the Dublin connection we had last October meant we entered the Common Travel Area and meant passport control in London. I will try to get our Venice gate before we deplane. Grazie!

Since your bags should be checked thru, just make sure you follow the secure connections signs - we've changed terminals a couple times and usually it's done in about 30-40 min (depends on how long you have to wait for the bus)...then you'll have to go thru security again, but I find Heathrow pretty quick.

Now if you were on two separate tickets and checked your bags, you'd have to go thru passport control to be able to collect your bags. We are always on 2 sep tickets when we've done this, but we don't check our bags, and even then I try and give myself about 3-4 hrs (but only because we are on sep tix). But we've always been in the next terminal and eating breakfast within the hour.

There will not be a bus involved, as their connection is all within T5. But they will have to take the train to 5A if they land at 5B or 5C.

But they will have to take the train to 5A if they land at 5B or 5C.

Only if the departing flight is going from A. Otherwise it is better to clear in the B or C satellite security and not get mixed up with those originating from Heathrow (and save the time on the train).

Gates at LHR are not usually available until approximately 1 hr before the scheduled flight... you have to watch the Departure Boards.

Sometimes the gate for a flight to the Continent is not posted until 30 minutes before the flight. We have encountered that several times. Very frustrating!

OK - didn't realize it was all within one terminal - we've always had to go from Term 2 usually to Term 5, which involves a secure connections bus...

Heathrow's website has a wonderful connection tool. Put in all your details, and you'll see all the steps involved and the approximate time it will take: https://www.heathrow.com/flight-connections

Thank you for this link. Works perfectly. We only need an hour to make our connection! Time to stop at the champagne bar. Just kidding.

One of the things I like about Heathrow is enjoying a flute of champagne at 7:30am.

There’s always Prosecco awaiting in Venice!