Heathrow Connections changing airlines with checked bags

The minimum connect time assumes flights are on one ticket and bags checked through. That is not your situation. You mayl have to go through immigration in T5 to reach baggage claim to pick up your bags' then transfer to T3 landside and re-check with Virgin Atlantic.

You do not have enough time for that. So you will have to do carry-on bags and use the airside transfer bus.

I just did a Heathrow terminal change this week, but with a carryon bag. I had allowed plenty of time but it only took me about 40 minutes to navigate my way through everything on a weekday. If you can avoid checking bags that could help, but to play it safe allow as much time as you can.

Going with carryon only will give you the best chance of making your connection.

Plug in your flights at the Heathrow connections page and it will describe the process. If you have your VA boarding pass then it looks like you can use the bus to get to T3.

http://www.heathrow.com/flight-connections

If you must check bags you may want to investigate getting to London a day earlier.

Edit: Edinburgh to London is an intra UK flight isn’t it? No immigration check upon arrival?

no immigration

but what if your incoming flight is late/cancelled are you prepared to buy a new ticket with Virgin?

Assuming your flights are BA 1435 and VA 21, here is the response given by the link noted in Rocket's reply

**

Connection time warning

You have less than the minimum time needed to make your flight connection. Please follow signs for Flight Connections to find your airline's customer service desk, where a representative will be able to help.
**

You look to be at (some) risk

You guys are right--no immigration line coming from Edinburgh. But there may be a quick passport check in a different line. And then security again at T3.

Assume you are checking bags without them being interlined (probably since you haven't mentioned this as a single itinerary). Delivery of domestic baggage is usually fairly quick but can't be guaranteed. To get over to T5 landside requires use of the Heathrow Express or London Underground. Both are free of charge, but the latter will require use of an Oyster card or contactless payment method to gain access. Expect this to eat up an hour at best, more at worst. This would mean you would present yourself at Virgin with only an hour and maybe a bit to check in with Virgin, go through security, and go to the gate, which at T3 can be up to 30 mins walk from the Terminal.

Connecting without checked luggage - inter terminal bus and security (which is needed as you are co-mingled with international passengers - if you had been on BA from T5 to the USA you would have avoided that).

I guess you are flying on Sunday as there is an earlier Flybe flight every day apart from that one. Connections from flybe would have been easier as T2 is much closer to T3.

These connections are just way too risky for me, and I do unprotected connections routinely

The problem is if your first flight is late you're going to miss your flight back to the United States. At that point the airline can very well charge you a full fare walk up to get home. If you'd like to see what that could cost go online right now and try to book a flight home from Heathrow today . I just checked New York on Delta and it was $1700

My rule of thumb for the connections like this is minimum of four hours and a willingness to pay the price difference if it doesn't work. In this case I would not be willing to pay the price difference so I would fly to Heathrow the night before

Tomorrow I have a two hour connection thar is not protected in Heathrow. I will not have checked luggage and I already have a back up plan I have a second cheap like two hours after that., (total cost for both flights was under $100. :) ).

If you risk these connections you should not check luggage and you should really hope the airline does not force you to check luggage.

Thank you all. Carry-on it will be. Lessons learned. - Polly

In November we will be arriving from Edinburgh on British Airways at
Terminal 5. Departing Virgin Atlantic Terminal 3 for Washington, DC.
We have 2:15 connecting time, and Heathrow advises 90 min. Right now
we are trying to determine if we should check any bags or do carryon
only. Is anyone familiar with the baggage pickup/recheck procedure if
we were to check bags? Do we have enough time? There is no earlier
flight to Heathrow that day. Thanks. - Polly

Polly, even with carryons only, this is too tight.

You will have to transfer to Terminal 3 and then wait on the security line as you won't be airside anymore when you change terminals. The security line is basically why airlines recommend arriving at LHR 3 hours early for a flight to the US. What if your inbound flight from EDI is late?

What is the backup plan if you miss the connection as you are likely to miss this connection? Find out if there are subsequent flights to Dulles (Washington DC) later on that day. Then you have to hope that those flights aren't overbooked.

When I've had to fly into a European airport (for me it's either Heathrow or Amsterdam) to catch a transatlantic flight, I fly into that city the night before. Your 2:15 connection is really doubtful specifically because of the time it will take to transfer to Terminal 3 and go through security there. And that's assuming your flight from Edinburgh is in time.

We just got back from a Europe trip. We ended the trip in Rome and our tickets had been arranged for us through American Airlines, paying with travel miles (points). We had no idea that Heathrow was a nightmare and assumed that they would not have made arrangements for us that were not doable. Because air traffic controllers in France were on strike, our British Airways flight from Rome to Heathrow was delayed by an hour and a quarter. We would have had to change terminals to get on our American Airlines flight to Dallas. We did not know that or that it would be difficult. We had checked our bags in Rome.

The BA pilot told us that people in purple would meet the flight and tell us where to go when we landed. That did not happen and none of the boards listed our flight to Dallas. The signage in the airport was incomprehensible to me. The arrows point straight ahead and say "All Terminals." They lead to nothing. So confusing. Flights listed said Gates A, B, C or D but did not say which terminal. But ours was not listed anyway. Finally, I accidentally met a kind airport staff member and begged him to help us. He was so nice and told us we would never make our flight. He personally escorted us down hallways and then onto a train and then to a BA problem resolution desk. I guess we would still be wandering around the airport if we had not met him.

British Airways was great! They re-booked us onto a BA flight leaving the next day. They gave us a free hotel room, dinner and breakfast and a little bag of toiletries and a t-shirt to sleep in for the evening. We had to officially "Enter" the U.K. by going through security, which was a very long, slow line. We did not have to get our checked bags though. We were not sure what was happening with them. Then we took a free airport shuttle bus to the hotel. We were so exhausted! The next day was better. We found our terminal, as it was a stop on the shuttle bus. When we arrived in Dallas we were pleasantly surprised to see our luggage on the turnstile. All's well that ends well. I would not go through Heathrow again though.

Reporting back on our actual experience yesterday making the connection from British Airways in Heathrow Terminal 5 to Virgin Atlantic in Terminal 3. It was perfect! Signage was ample and clear, queues were blessedly short, the connection bus was waiting for us, and we had no weather delays. There were many workers stationed throughout the route and everyone we spoke too was very friendly, helpful, and most importantly correct, so we had absolutely no confusion. Made the connection in a little over an hour, with time to spare for wonderful lattes from Caffe Nero in Terminal 3 departure lounge. (Loved Scotland but NOT Nescafe!)

I was a little nervous going into the day, though. The night before I had tried to check in on the Virgin Atlantic app and had my boarding pass, but not my husband's. A visit to the online site and trying to check in with his e-ticket number informed us he would need to check with an agent. Having boarding passes in our phones was a crucial piece of our efficiency strategy so I was anxious! Picking them up turned out to be an easy, quick step as the desk was directly on our route from security to departure lounge and there was no queue. Less than 5 min. The agent told us we hadn't been able to download the pass because Brian had been randomly selected for a security search. Since we'd already been through security, where a pair of toenail clippers in his bag caused some concern ("but the blades are less than 6 cm so they are OK") we figured that was the search. However, at the gate there was ANOTHER very thorough search, as there was for quite a few other passengers. Apparently these are some of the new security steps announced earlier this month. Being at the gate, however, we weren't worried the plane would leave without us. Lesson learned: don't redistribute your liquids or put things back in your pockets until you are on the plane!

In our favor: boarding passes downloaded the night before, correctly sized carry-on baggage (We had to place them in the frame prior to boarding British Airways in Edinburgh. Thank you, Rick, and the Rolling Carry-on and Ravenna Backpack!), seats in Row 15 of the arriving plane for an early 'off', and studying maps and a YouTube video of the transfer process. There were a number of things that could have gone wrong, of course: weather delays, long lines, bus waits, lots out of our control. Overall, we've learned our lesson about booking with a single airline and arriving in your departure city as early as possible.

Thanks to the RS community for the advice and encouragement. We're ready for the next adventure! - Polly

Good to hear it worked out.

Since your guardian angel was working overtime yesterday, be real careful today. Your angel may be taking a 'day of rest' today. :-)

Not sure a cup of coffee is what I would have chosen to have at LHR. I think I would have picked more of a 'celebration' beverage.