90 Minute Layover in Heathrow - Too little?

Exclamation Marc

Hey all,

Just hoping someone can give some advice on a travel query I have.

Booked a BA flight to San Francisco through Lastminute.com. Flight is an Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow and then BA to SF (all on the BA ticket).

We arrive in Heathrow at 10.15 on a Sunday and our flight out is at 11.45... Not only that but we arrive in Heathrow in Terminal 1 and our flight out is Terminal 5.

Granted, it was our stupidity for booking the flights and not inquiring if 90 minutes was enough time (I thought it was, but should have paid attention to the terminals). The Heathrow website and BA both say on their website that 90 minutes is the minimum time permitted to make that connection.

Two parts to this really, will we make it? And what happens if we don't?

Lastminute.com are quoting us €200 to change our first flight... And I'm almost considering it on the risk posed.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

schemingbohemia

The part on the site that recommends 90 minutes
http://www.heathrowairport.com/heathrow-airport-guide/flight-connections/terminal-1-republic-of-ireland-connecting-to-terminal-5-international

includes reference to going to the airport desks which you won't have to do as you'll have checked straight through in Dublin.

It's certainly do-able but obviously if your flight from Dublin is late you could well be snookered. The time that you're flying from Heathrow might be helpful as I'm presuming security won't be quite so bad as earlier in the day. The only thing is that BA would have to put you on the next flight as they allowed that flight connection on the one ticket.

munchkin_utd

BA also have a flight to SFO at 14:00 which is only just over 2 hours later, so if you miss the first flight you will be transfered onto that for free seeing as youre on the same ticket.

BuffyBot

You'll be fine. It's not an overabundance of time, but having made the same/similar connections multiple times it is perfectly doable.

coylemj

The Aer Lingus timetable is currently allowing 1hr 25m for that flight (depart 08:50) so on a Sunday morning you could arrive up to 30 minutes before the scheduled arrival time meaning you may have up to 2 hours to make the connection.

ptogher14

Hi fireball
If you leave Dublin on time and everything thing runs smoothly you should make it. It's gonna be tight though.
I made that trip myself last Sunday(well LA) andit took us the best part of ttwo and a half hours. Que for security was terrible

SantryRed

FireballPitcher wrote: »

Hey all,

Just hoping someone can give some advice on a travel query I have.

Booked a BA flight to San Francisco through Lastminute.com. Flight is an Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow and then BA to SF (all on the BA ticket).

We arrive in Heathrow at 10.15 on a Sunday and our flight out is at 11.45... Not only that but we arrive in Heathrow in Terminal 1 and our flight out is Terminal 5.

Granted, it was our stupidity for booking the flights and not inquiring if 90 minutes was enough time (I thought it was, but should have paid attention to the terminals). The Heathrow website and BA both say on their website that 90 minutes is the minimum time permitted to make that connection.

Two parts to this really, will we make it? And what happens if we don't?

Lastminute.com are quoting us €200 to change our first flight... And I'm almost considering it on the risk posed.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Did the exact same thing to Chicago this summer with just 90 mins between.

You don't even go into Terminal 1, you are picked up on a bus straight off the plane and driven airside across to Terminal 5. We were there with a good bit of time to spare. If it's all the one BA ticket, I'm positive you'll be grand.

Exclamation Marc

Thanks everyone for your advice. Really appreciate it.

jjbrien

Make sure to get a seat at the back of the Aer Lingus plane they take everyone who have a connection via the back door of the plane by bus to the flight connection center

H2G2

jjbrien wrote: »

Make sure to get a seat at the back of the Aer Lingus plane they take everyone who have a connection via the back door of the plane by bus to the flight connection center

Since when? This is news to me. Never happened to me in LHR over the years and I've done lots of transits. But its been over a year since I did one.

BuffyBot

Since when? This is news to me. Never happened to me in LHR over the years and I've done lots of transits. But its been over a year since I did one.

It's been going on for a while now, long over a year.

Felexicon

Did this exact flight early last month. The 90 minute layover is loads of time. You won't have to collect your bags so you have a 5 minute walk to get a bus to the other terminal which is only a few minutes away. We had more than enough time and were delayed 15 minutes in Dublin.

Exclamation Marc

Phew thanks. Great to know. And it was the little delay we were worried about! We were agonizing over what to do!

endofrainbow

just want to point out that if it is booked on the one ticket BA have a duty of care to look after you. When people say you will be put on the next flight - they should say the next AVAILABLE flight.

They are not going to bump already confirmed passengers.

Quin_Dub

BuffyBot wrote: »

It's been going on for a while now, long over a year.

I can confirm this - Traveled to Houston via Heathrow last week-end and the AL flight took all transit passengers off via the back-door to a separate bus.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

roundymac

Yes, went to Cape Town two weeks ago, took nearly 105 mins to clear through to the other side in T5. Part of the reason for the delay was that there 27 passangers to transfer off the Cork flight the majority of whom seemed to be seated at the front of the plane. Coming back it was even worse, at border control the Irish passengers were put into the same Q as non EU passengers, add to that a group of about 30 Americian "Grannies" who could'nt figure out what all the fuss was about," but we're American, we're on the same side as you guy's", it would have been funny but after 20hours on the go I was not in the mood for that.Also at the biometric scan there was only one desk operating and that caused major backlog. So my flight landed at 6.30, my Ei connection to Cork was at 9.30, we just had enough time to buy a bottle of whiskey for the Father in Law and grab a quick cup of coffee before boarding at 9.15 so all in all it took between 2-2.5 hours to transfer from T5-T1.

Exclamation Marc

Thanks guys! My mind is a lot more at ease now

Exclamation Marc

FireballPitcher wrote: »

Thanks guys! My mind is a lot more at ease now

We just made it, only for the fact that one girl put us in a priority line very late on and our gate was very close after security. (Survived a ridiculous delay when this idiot person in front of us, despite hundreds of 'no liquids' signs, and her spending the entire time in front of us from terminal to security reading a paper or talking loudly on the phone had, no word of a lie, about 30 things in her bag, which she took out slowly and one by one! Idiot)

Anyways, for any future readers, it ain't worth it and I'll never book with only 90 minutes again, I really feel like we got lucky.

mopi

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I can confirm this - Traveled to Houston via Heathrow last week-end and the AL flight took all transit passengers off via the back-door to a separate bus.

I have not used the service myself but I did query for another on my last SNN-LHR flight. The bus works for passangers who are pre-checked-in for the flight that is outbound from Heathrow. As OP as 2 separate bookings he will not automatically qualify for the bus, indeed getting the bus will ensure he misses this flight to the states.
Try checking with Aer Lingus if they can check you in on the BA Heathrow-USA flight while you are still in Ireland, afaik they have access to the BA system to do this but it's not a given so be nice.
Remember if you are not prechecked in your bags end up in T1 while you are over in T5.

BuffyBot

They don't have access to the BA system.

They can only assist with bookings which are made jointly (i.e. Aer Lingus onwards to BA) on the same ticket. This is because the information is sent by BA's reservation system to Aer Lingus to enable them to check the passengers in etc.

Exclamation Marc

I should state that our flight was a British Airways flight to London operated by Aer Lingus so it wasn't two separate bookings. We were checked in and everything for both the UK and US flight. They had a bus for connections but it only dropped us at the Flight Connections center and we had to queue from there.

rebel girl 15

H2G2 wrote: »

Since when? This is news to me. Never happened to me in LHR over the years and I've done lots of transits. But its been over a year since I did one.

Not just Aer Lingus, but British Airways as well. Be careful though, sometimes the transit is through the back door of the aircraft, sometimes you have still have to exit through the front of the aircraft and take the steps down from the airbridge to the bus

mloc123

We had 2hrs to make a connection in Heathrow a few weeks ago, including getting from T1 to T5... Just about made it.

The travel time on the bus from T1 to T5 is 10mins alone, then you have to get through boarding pass check and security which took an age. I think you would want to have 3hrs to feel comfortable.