Heathrow - Terminal 3 to 2

Citygirl1

Hi

Has anyone a fairly recent experience of transferring from Heathrow terminal 3 to 2, or vice versa? If so, are you able to say exactly how long this took?

I recently booked flights from Dublin to Sri Lanka, return, for December, using Vayama.ie. The flights are all on one ticket
Dublin - London - Colombo
Colombo - London - Dublin

Originally the return flights (Sri Lankan Airlines and BA) were booked with a transfer time of just over two hours in London, with the London-Dublin (BA) flight being the last flight of the evening. I've now been advised that this flight has been cancelled by BA.

Taking the London-Dublin flight previous to that means a window of 1hr 35mins (ie 95 mins) to transfer from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2. I'm trying to work out if this is doable.
- Heathrow's website shows a minimum time of 75 mins for this transfer.
- The Vayama agent says this should be fine.

So, I just want to ask the experiences of anyone doing this recently?

My other option is to book a hotel for the night in heathrow, and fly back the next morning.


On a related note, I asked Vayama what would happen if I missed the second flight, due to a delay in the International flight? They have informed me that I would be responsible for paying for a new London-Dublin ticket the following morning. Is this the norm? My understanding was that, if you have booked the flights all one ticket, and there is a delay, the agent/airline is responsible for re-booking you onto the next available flight.

Appreciate any input!!

goingnowhere

Its a legal connection sold as a single ticket, anything goes wrong the airline will rebook you free of charge on the next available flight and/or provide a hotel overnight. That holds unless the agent is doing something dodgy with the ticketing

BA fly T5 to Dublin, not T2. Check if the flight number is BA59XX, thats actually Aer Lingus from T2


T3 and T2 are quite close to each other, take the connection bus, should take only a few minutes

VG31

Citygirl1 wrote: »

The flights are all on one ticket

Your booking is not all on the one ticket. It's only the one ticket if you book with BA (or another oneworld alliance airline). This is why you should always book directly with the airline.

Citygirl1 wrote: »

On a related note, I asked Vayama what would happen if I missed the second flight, due to a delay in the International flight? They have informed me that I would be responsible for paying for a new London-Dublin ticket the following morning. Is this the norm? My understanding was that, if you have booked the flights all one ticket, and there is a delay, the agent/airline is responsible for re-booking you onto the next available flight.

The agent is correct in saying if you miss your flight you will have to pay to rebook it. You will have to exit the airside area and reclear security as you are changing terminals as far as I know. You may have to collect and recheck your bags also.

This is why you should always book direct with the airline as they will book you on the next flight free of charge (and a hotel if necessary) if you miss your connecting flight).

goingnowhere

It depends

You can certainly book tickets through agents on a wide combination of airlines. I've managed, BA-BA-JL-EI, EI-B6-UA-EI etc one ticket, three airlines.

In fact a travel agent may be the only way to obtain such tickets

Some online agents do dirty things with tickets to exploit the IATA fares system which could leave you exposed

Each flight is a separate ticket number, even if sold as one but under a single reference, the question is if you ask BA's website (of even the Aer Lingus one if you have a reference number beginning with 2) about the booking does it show all the flights, if it does then its considered a single ticket

Citygirl1

Hi - thanks for both your feedback. Actually, the BA flight is operated by Aer Lingus. T2 is correct.

I had confirmed already, that the flights are on one ticket (at least one booking number), and that my luggage will be transferred through etc. (I confirmed this directly with the airlines).

goingnowhere wrote: »

Its a legal connection sold as a single ticket, anything goes wrong the airline will rebook you free of charge on the next available flight and/or provide a hotel overnight. That holds unless the agent is doing something dodgy with the ticketing

Goingnowhere - Interested in your comment. This is what I had understood, also. However, now wondering does this position still stand as I booked the two separate airlines with an agent. Wondering who would be responsible - surely the agent? The airlines won't care...

The agent have said they would not be responsible (although they sold the ticket).
I've a feeling they are messing around on this. I was a bit nervous booking through Vayama, but I couldn't book the connecting flights I wanted through a single airline....

goingnowhere

If your luggage is going through its a single ticket, you are fine

The agent is never responsible for delays, the airline has to sort you out

Srilankan Airlines is a one world carrier so will sell through tickets involving other one world carriers like BA, looks all legit

Citygirl1

goingnowhere wrote: »

If your luggage is going through its a single ticket, you are fine

The agent is never responsible for delays, the airline has to sort you out

Srilankan Airlines is a one world carrier so will sell through tickets involving other one world carriers like BA, looks all legit

Interesting...so you recon if Sri Lankan airlines were to run late, causing me to miss the next flight, they should be responsible for booking me onto a new BA or Aer Lingus flight to Dublin.

Thanks for the input.

steve-o

VG31 wrote: »

Your booking is not all on the one ticket. It's only the one ticket if you book with BA (or another oneworld alliance airline).

Utter nonsense. As goingnowhere notes, there are many combinations of tickets across multiple carriers.

VG31

steve-o wrote: »

Utter nonsense. As goingnowhere notes, there are many combinations of tickets across multiple carriers.

You're taking a big risk booking with on online agent. If you look at the TripAdvisor Air Travel Forum you will see lots of bad experiences with sites such as Vayama, GoToGate etc.

As already mentioned, if you input your booking reference on the carrier's site and this shows all the flights then it is one ticket.

It's always best to book directly with the airline. The majority of these online flight booking sites have bad reputations.

killbillvol2

VG31 wrote: »

You're taking a big risk booking with on online agent. If you look at the TripAdvisor Air Travel Forum you will see lots of bad experiences with sites such as Vayama, GoToGate etc.

As already mentioned, if you input your booking reference on the carrier's site and this shows all the flights then it is one ticket.

It's always best to book directly with the airline. The majority of these online flight booking sites have bad reputations.

A number of sweeping statements there and topped off by referring to that pillar of truth and accuracy, Tripadvisor, to provide "evidence".

killbillvol2

Citygirl1 wrote: »

Interesting...so you recon if Sri Lankan airlines were to run late, causing me to miss the next flight, they should be responsible for booking me onto a new BA or Aer Lingus flight to Dublin.

Thanks for the input.

Sounds like you'll be fine. You probably spoke to an intern in Vayama or just someone having a bad day.

jackinthemix94

Some rubbish being spouted by a poster on here. I booked with Vayama to San Francisco, and flew BA-Virgin-Virgin-EI, and it was all 100% fine, no problem. Your luggage will go through to your final destination, they'll print all your boarding passes most likely when you're checking in, and you'll just transfer terminals. I think my connection was T5 to T3, then T5 to T2 - I think I had to take airside buses but they're frequent and quick so no problem there.

VG31

jackinthemix94 wrote: »

Some rubbish being spouted by a poster on here. I booked with Vayama to San Francisco, and flew BA-Virgin-Virgin-EI, and it was all 100% fine, no problem. Your luggage will go through to your final destination, they'll print all your boarding passes most likely when you're checking in, and you'll just transfer terminals. I think my connection was T5 to T3, then T5 to T2 - I think I had to take airside buses but they're frequent and quick so no problem there.

Sites such as Vayama are fine until something goes wrong.

jackinthemix94

VG31 wrote: »

Sites such as Vayama are fine until something goes wrong.

I've booked United codeshares on eBookers that have gone wrong (flight was cancelled due to bad weather / delayed, oversold etc.), and they never treated me any differently to somebody that booked on United.com.

Yamanoto

I connected T2 to T3 flying SNN-BUD last week.

I decided to come out landside and head for T3 rather than going through flight connections - so exited T2, over to the lifts & down to level -1. It's then less than 10mins walk to T3 departures.