Transferring through LHR

In 2019, we had a one hour change of planes thanks to a late arrival from the US. We were flying Business Class and both flights were on British Air but we were terrifyingly close to missing our connection. We had to almost run and were very stressed by the time we landed in our seats to Milan. I would not do it again and in fact we have pledged, as a result, to spend at least two nights in London before connecting anywhere. We had checked luggage due to trekking sticks therein and we were very nervous about that showing up in Milan after the second flight but the luggage did arrive. Whew!

Would be coming in with United, and flying out with Lufthansa.

Is that a single booking or are you piecing together separate tickets?

If the former, the airline sees it as doable, but there will be no free time; if the latter your chance of failure is probably greater than your chance of success.

Looking at a random date in Oct from US to Munich, via London, I see a trip that has a 60 minute connection time. You should be able to make it with no more than a jogging pace; no sprint required :-)

Hi D,
To piggyback off what has already been said, I would never have a layover in LHR unless I had a minimum of 2 hours and that would still stress me out. We had a 2 hour layover on a recent trip to Rome. We were in business, so we were off quickly and had an express pass through security. It still look us over an hour. So to answer your question, 75 min is not enough time.

Amanda

I wouldn't risk it. LHR isn't as hard to negotiate as some other European airports (I'm looking at you Madrid), but IMHO, that is just cutting it too close. And, LHR is not that bad of a place to hang out during an extended layover. Fingers crossed that you can fly to Munich in October.

LHR has a tool for estimating flight connections: www.heathrow.com/connecting-flights

We booked flights last month for a September trip, with a 75 minute connection time between our arrival flight from the USA and the transfer departure to Italy. Providing no delay arriving from the U.S., we would just make it.

But less than 2 weeks after our booking, British Airways cancelled that Italy flight, and moved us to the next flight, several hours later. Now we’re looking at a lengthy layover, and having dinner at Heathrow, rather than in Bologna. So nothing’s guaranteed. We’re waiting to see if, just maybe, that early afternoon flight gets put back on the schedule before September, and maybe our original plans will be restored!

Have a great trip, however/whenever it happens!

I think the Heathrow staff believe people need 90 minutes at least to make a connection that involves changing terminals,
which I find frustrating, because I've been involuntarily rebooked to a later flight there more than once, since they, of course, don't know that I happen to be ok with running to catch a plane, especially if it means that's several hours less time that I need to spend in LHR.

If this is one ticket and not some travel site stitching together two separate tickets, it should be doable. But still, it is very close and I would personally prefer a bit more time. The drawback of Heathrow is also that you always have to go through security again which takes extra time (and hassle).

And if you live somewhere that has direct flights to London with United, you most likely have direct flights to Munich as well.

Are the flights in the same terminal? We have made a one hour connection when returning to the US but I would prefer more time.

Lufthansa and United both use Terminal 2.

I made a 75-minute connection at T5 but with no time to spare. And that was from a flight within Europe to a transatlantic flight, so delayed arrival wasn't as much of an issue. Didn't have to run, but barely had time to pee!

I haven't been in T2 but I think it's smaller and therefore maybe easier. And since United and Lufthansa are partners, I'm guessing the OP is on one ticket. The big unknown is whether the inbound flight will be delayed enough to mess up the connection. That's a bigger risk with a transatlantic than a "local" Europe flight.

Here's the well-designed LHR website with info on connections. I think the main thing is to follow the purple signs.