Passport Control when changing planes in Europe?

Hi Barbara. When I changed planes in the UK to arrive in Paris on one trip and Brussels on another, I have gone through passport control in both the UK and my destination city's airport. Can I ask why you're flying through Paris to get to Heathrow?

Having a carryon has nothing to do with passport control. It's immigration. What's in your luggage is customs. Most of the countries on the continent are members of the Schengen treaty, which abolished immigration between signing countries. When you enter the Schengen zone (ie, into France), you must go through passport control, but never again as long as you stay in Schengen. (They might have an isolation zone set up in Paris for people who are going on to a non-Schengen country, so they don't have to go through passport control for just a few hours.) The UK is not a party to Schengen, so when you enter the UK from France, you must go through passport control again. . . . . . . ¶ Both France and the UK are EU nations. The EU established free flow of good within the Union, so there is only customs either when you get to Paris, if you get your bags, or in the UK, if your bags were checked through. With carryon bags, it's probably in France. But in 11 trips to Europe, I have never had my bags checked in customs. There is always a line for "nothing to declare". I go through that line, and I've never been questioned.

I know exactly why Barbara is flying to Heathrow via Paris: to save a lot of money. From Seattle there aren't many choices on nonstops across the pond and BA is by far the most expensive of the four options. I just flew to the UK by Paris on the way over and Amsterdam on the way back and saved about three hundred dollars over the BA nonstop. Absurd but true.

That's funny. It used to be that the least expensive way to Frankfurt was through Heathrow. But you got to Frankfurt in late afternoon vs morning. I never bit on that one, despite the cost difference.

JER - that IS crazy! It's like flying from New York to Chicago via Denver. But thanks for the tip - I'm hoping to spend a couple of weeks in the UK on my next trip so I'll definitely look into getting there via Paris or another city on the Continent.

Thank you all! And JER got it exactly right. It is less expensive for us to fly nonstop to Paris and then on to Heathrow than it is to fly nonstop to Heathrow.