Hello, I am going on a biz/personal trip and going in and out of London. I wish I had booked it differently but can't change it now. I am visiting a friend in London and then need to get to Amsterdam for a conference and then return to London to fly home to SFO. I am wondering about flying from Amsterdam directly back to heathrow and connecting to my outbound flight to USA on time. My flight is out of Heathrow on 26 November: Virgin Atlantic Flight 19 Heathrow (LHR) London, United Kingdom 10:55 AM San Francisco Intl (SFO) San Francisco, CA
2:00 PM There is a British Airway flight that leaves AMS at 7:40 arriving LHR at 8:00 that morning. Is that enough time to deal with customs, etc and checking into new flight or do I need to come back to London the day before?
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
To see the estimated time that a transfer at Heathrow will take, you can go to http://www.heathrowairport.com/heathrow-airport-guide/flight-connections/connection-guides and put in all the details. However, remember that 1) this is just an estimate, not a guarantee, and 2) if there are ANY problems with this and you miss the connection, YOU are responsible for fixing the problem - not the airlines involved. So the questions are: How lucky do you feel? How risk-averse are you? If you miss your LHR to SFO flight, can you afford to buy a new, last minute, one way ticket on this route? I personally would get to London the night before. I understand that's not what you prefer to do, but I would not want to take the risk. Have you investigated the cost of changing your flight, and compared that to the cost of the separate AMS to LHR flight plus a Heathrow hotel?
Posted by
Bend, OR, United States
1167 posts
Since these are separate tickets and there is so much at risk if there is a problem with the first leg I would fly into London the day before. Much less stress.
Posted by
OP
San Francisco
2 posts
Thank you for both comments! That is what I was thinking would be necessary at this point and appreciate your input.