International connecting time at Heathrow

I don't know about current regs or times, but I will comment that my one experience connecting through Heathrow was a "Never again!" moment. Had to transfer between terminals and they literally kept us prisoners, as in guards escorting the transfer passengers to a bus with a curtained chute from building to bus door. Food is unbelievably expensive, even for airport fare. They also keep you in a central hall until the last minute when your gate is assigned, resulting in a nervous rush to find your gate. Bottom line is, what would have happened if our ongoing flight was canceled that evening? Guess we would have spent the night in the terminal since they clearly weren't going to let us escape! In these times with all of the flight cancellations and trying to rebook on already full flights, I would NEVER transit through an overseas airport like Heathrow where you could get stuck.

The UK leaving the EU has not changed the way passengers transit at Heathrow.

You will not enter the UK, you will stay airside not passing through immigration or customs. You will go through security.

As part of the booking process, BA will calculate the time you need to change planes.

Bottom line is, what would have happened if our ongoing flight was canceled that evening? Guess we would have spent the night in the terminal since they clearly weren't going to let us escape!

It's quite easy to "escape", all you do is go through border control like every other arrival and then you're free to do whatever you desire.

Don't stress - you have a protected connection, so if you don't make it due to circumstances outside your own control, BA is on the hook for getting you on a new flight.
Our experience of transiting at Heathrow was our inbound flight was delayed, and yes, there was a very long bus ride to another terminal. We ran but we still missed our flight to Prague. No issues - we just went to the transfer counter and they put us on the next flight. They even gave us meal vouchers. And I didn't find the food particularly expensive, at least not for an airport. And don't worry, if you are delayed overnight you can just pass immigration and find a hotel.

I almost always use British Airways and Terminal 5 Heathrow as my connection airport/terminal. Before finalizing your purchase verify only terminal 5 is being used by your flights. Note: my information is precovid. The last times traveling thru Heathrow I just ran my passport thru a reader and lined up for security. Even without that improvement, my time back into the departure section took 45 minutes…60 minutes on the worst day. Of, course you then need to add on the time to your next gate…15 to 20 minutes to be safe. This being said, I always allowed 2 1/2 to 3 hours for the transfer. It gave me time to stretch, relax and have breakfast at the Pilots Bar.

Go to this website...

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

plug in your flights information and it will give you step by step instructions. (Make sure you scroll down the page to get more information on transffering.)

No need to go through passport control. And if there is a problem, BA has to fix it.

@Frank II

11110 posts ... you're amazing :)

We have never had any problems transferring through LHR which we do on most of our trips to and from Europe

Frank II

11110 posts ... you're amazing :)

No.....it means I need to get a life. Well, at least one away from cyberspace.

And there are others who have a lot more postings than I do.......

@Frank II

Haha, I need to do the same. Just came across the other Frank who has 21678 posts :)

Give it 3 hours minimum. Things are a little dysfunctional at Heathrow now. Flew Brit Air from Amsterdam (see post on Schiphol is a Mess) to Seattle through Heathrow on June 18th. Per above post I made sure both flights went through terminal 5 and gave myself 3 and a half hours. First off the flight to London was delayed because there was no ground crew to push the plane off, scratch 30 minutes. Second when we got to London we parked at a remote spot on the tarmac, not really terminal 5 and,,,, there were no buses to take us to the terminal. Eventually one bus showed up to shuttle us off, scratch 45 minutes. Third you do have to go through passport control and security all over again, scratch one hour. And note security is very stringent. You have to put everything through the x-ray including wallet and passport and you even have to take iPads out of their cases. Then you go through the full body scanner and if you flunk (many did) you get grouped by the guards. Fourth terminal 5 is really several terminals remote from each other. In our case we had to walk a fair distance to the B gates (or was it C? long day) only to find that you had to take a subway to get to those gates. Once off the train a long walk to the actual gate, scratch 45 minutes. And finally there is a major failure of the baggage transfer system in terminals 2 and 3 which cascaded to all the terminals because of limited staff, bags did not make it even with 3 hours buffer. Took two days to get them.
So, be prepared for a chaotic process that will take longer than you expect and take essentials with you on your carry on. Good luck!

If you are still planning a late September trip air travel may have sorted out some of the current issues. Having been stuck overnight once in the airport at ORD, we prefer to transfer overseas so we use LHR as our transfer point. I can’t tell what US airport you use, but that can make a difference in your arrival and departure terminals. Make sure you know which ones are assigned to your flight and that may mean double-checking the monitors when you get off. I would recommend 3 hours and maybe a bit more given the current conditions. Our April/ May flights through LHR ate up a good portion of our layover time as all initial departures were delayed. On our BA flight from Rome to LHR, staff knew some passengers were going to miss their connection and had already booked them on new flights.

. In our case we had to walk a fair distance to the B gates (or was it C? long day) only to find that you had to take a subway to get to those gates.

You can walk T5A-B-C in either direction instead of taking the transit. If you are reasonably agile it is quicker too on average. The corridor is one level further down.