Heathrow Connection Time from Zurich ?

These types of questions are always so difficult to answer because, honestly, the answer changes from day to day. Everything works as it is supposed to, and yes, this connection while a bit short will work. Something goes wrong, flight delay, unable to find a gate or stand to unload, long line at security, this connection might not work. However, if all those things go wrong, what connection will work?

My question would be, is there another BA or AA flight that would leave afterwards that day that could be the emergency backup? If, the "worst" happened and you had to wait a day for a flight to Seattle, how would that impact your trip?

Ideally, you would land, follow the arrows to flight connections, go through security again, and be on your way to your gate. This is what usually happens, until it doesn't. No one has a magic ball to know exactly what the circumstances will be on the day of your flight.

As long as it is on one ticket, there is nothing to worry about other than some inconvenience if you miss the connecting flight. Over the years, we have missed a few tight connections and that added another three or four hours to our final stop. We have picked up a first class flight and a lunch or two along the way. The European airlines, at least in the past, have been very good at taking care of you if you miss the connection. That doesn't apply to the discount airlines. They are extremely strict about their rules.

Opps, sorry. I miss read the question. My response through you were going Seattle to Zurich. What you are suggesting is too tight. You will have a local flight from Zurich to Heathrow BUT not sure where you would go through exit immigration. Hopefully you would go through exit in Zurick and be intransit in Heathrow and stay behind immigration and security. If not you don't have enough time. And the big risk is missing the flight to Seattle. There is not going to be another flight an hour or two later. Look for middle seats on the small flight the next day. Too much risk.

You guys brought up some great points ! We leaning towards chancing it - Thanks for the Info !

No, not enough time. Went from SEA to LHR on BA connect to flight to AMS in September. Barely made the connection in 1 hour 45 minutes. Security was the issue, not passport control.

Looking at the schedule, it appears you are considering the 13:25/flight from Zurich and the 15:30 flight to Seattle on BA 49. The is the last BA flight to Seattle that day or any day, so if you miss it, they will have to put you on a later flight to a different airport, with an additional connection to get home..

What are the chances of missing it? Hard to say, but we fly BA a lot, like more than ten times over the years, and many flights,
Into Heathrow, especially the short haul flights from the Continent, have arrived late —- they had to circle to wait for a landing spot, or after landing they had to wait for a gate assignment. It is a very busy airport, and things do not always go smoothly.

Even if both flights are in T5, you will likely have to move from one part to another by the transfer train (T5 has 3 separate buildings and it can take 15-20 minutes to move between them). And in any case you will always have to go through security again, even when both flights use T5.

We never fly back on BA from Switzerland or Italy to Seattle all in one day any more; I always build in a night or 3 in or around London on the way home. I just do not trust short connect times at Heathrow, nor do we like long 2-4 hour layovers in the airport. So we always break up the homebound journey with time in our favorite city.

The official minimum transfer time for international - international transfer within a single Heathrow Terminal is 60 minutes. You stay airside so there is no immigration but there is security to go through. Whether this is something you are comfortable with is another matter

It looks like we have a lot to think about, besides they will probably change the flight times after we book it... Thanks Again !