HELP! Your opinion on these layover times...

My first impulse is that the Heathrow layover is too tight. But why fly to London and then to Amsterdam? There must be a flight directly to Amsterdam from Rome.

I'm not necessarily going to actually take that flight. that's a sample that I got from Mobissimo and Orbitz. So am right to be concerned with those layover times. I would have to go thru customs at each airport right?

Let me add to the chorus- I'd be very worried about only 1:25 to spare at Heathrow. Sometimes, planes arriving at Heathrow do not even park at a terminal. They stop somewhere out on the asphalt, and bus the passengers back to the terminal. There are many choke-points along the way until you finally reach the large shopping concourse, where passengers wait for their connecting flights. In my experiences, this is NOT a fast process.

There should be a more direct flight from Rome to Amsterdam - probably back through Frankfurt if you choose Lufthansa. Don't go all the way to Heathrow (and especially not with that connection time). You should be ok with the first layover at Frankfurt, but their passport control in my experience is SLOW, so move right along to your next gate. They also park planes on the tarmack and bus you out to them, so your "departure" time from the gate is much earlier than your actual flight time.

Also, try using kayak.com or sidestep.com for better searches. There appears to be an SFO-AMS direct flight that may save you tons of time.

I kid you not on the following. "They" will board you on the plane at Heathrow just to lessen the congestion on the concourse and you can set on the plane for truely hours. The Wall St. Journal ran an article this past fall describing how British Airways will put luggage on an outgoing plane, any plane, in order to clear the luggage area (no joke, it happened to my mail carrier). I go to Europe at least twice a year and always go via London but I ALWAYS plan on a 3 hour connection and never ever fly British Airways (even if it's cheaper).

Hazel

Another option to check is whichbudget.com, (to find your flights within Europe.) You will find budget prices! on good airlines, and possibly some better options. (......make sure that you check Lufthansa's and Air One's inter EU flights)

You could also find direct flights from Rome to Rotterdam, visit there, and take the 1 hour trip to Amsterdam.

Approx three hours is usually safe for a layover...anything less and you can have problems. BUT, when we fly into FRA on Lufthansa they have special lines set up to wisk you thru customs and help you transfer. On our trip this X Mass they had a line that we used for "less than 30 minutes". They also had one for "less than 1 hr."

As a rule of thumb, we cut our initial "coming into the EU" thru FRA layover times close, but on our return flights thru FRA we ALWAYS allow at least three hours. ( and we have almost missed flights when we had that 3 hours for our FRA return!)