Heathrow Customs and International Connection - Different Airline/Reservation

Heathrow Customs and International Connection - Different Airline/Reservation - Contemporary airplanes with red beacon parked on airfield near airport service vehicles and terminal at night

I need advice regarding the time it takes to get through customs at Heathrow in order to make a connecting flight on a different airlines/reservation out of Heathrow on the same day.

I am attempting to merge two travel itineraries/ideas. The short of it is that I am hoping to climb Kilimanjaro this August and then fly home to the U.S. using an existing reservation that I have from London Heathrow. My dilemma is how to best match up a flight from kilimanjaro to London Heathrow so that I can make that existing flight.

It looks like I could fly via Kenya Air from Kilimanjaro through Nairobi on August 27th-28th and arrive at London Heathrow at about 6:30am on August 28th. My flight from London to the U.S. is on U.S. Airways (Amer. Airways reservation) leaving London at about 10:00am on August 28th.

Does this give me enough time to get through customs at Heathrow, check in with U.S. Airways, and make my flight back to the U.S.?

Does this cut it too close?

Is this too risky?

THANKS!!!



Best Answer

Personally, I think you can do this with no bags with a 95% success rate ... but what is your plan if you fail? Are you willing to take that risk if you might have to buy a new walk-up ticket?

KQ (Kenya Airways) arrives at Terminal 4 so you have a terminal change to Terminal 3 for your US Airways flight. KQ might through-check your luggage, but I would not rely on that.

If they do through-check (or you have no checked bags) then you can use the internal transfer bus, which will be much quicker than exiting via immigration and taking the Heathrow Express. It takes about fifteen minutes, and runs quite frequently. Once you arrive in T3, pass through security and pick up your boarding pass at the transfer desk: no customs or immigration. You are looking at less than an hour plane-to-plane.

If you have bags, and need to collect them: 0630 at Heathrow is an extremely busy time because it is just after the landing curfew has lifted (0600). Aircraft which arrive ahead of schedule are required to wait in a holding pattern until then, so you get a lot of aircraft bunching up early in the morning. And of course, this is the best time of the day to arrive in London ready for a full day of work, so there are a lot of flights getting in at this time; immigration is always busy. Baggage delivery is slow, the public transport between terminals is busy ... I would not try this with checked bags.

You suggested that you could change your flight. There are hundreds of flights between the USA and the UK every day. I don't believe they can all be full. AA should be willing to move you to another BA/AA/US flight on that day for a small change fee. If I were you, I would get an evening flight instead.




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Do I have to go through customs at Heathrow for a connecting flight?

Unfortunately it's not possible for you to go through customs and passport control to meet the person transferring flights unless you're also checked-in for a flight leaving that airport terminal that day.

Can I book connecting flights on different airlines?

Technically, you're flying on separate point-to-point tickets with separate airlines \u2014 but virtual interlining services fill in the gaps. With search sites like Skyscanner, DoHop, and Kiwi, you can get to more destinations around the world that include mixing and matching low-cost and full service airline schedules.

Do I have to pick up my luggage on a connecting flight with different airlines?

If your bag is tagged to your next or final destination, you may need to pick up your bags and place them on the connection drop-off belt. If it is not tagged to your next or final destination, then you will definitely need to pick up your bags and check them in for your next flight.

Do you go through customs twice on connecting flights?

You only go through once. If you connect through another country, you will just have to go through security and not customs. Incorrect, it all depends on the country and the airlines you're traveling with. Remember customs and immigration are different things and in some cases you'll clear then in different airports.



British Airways Arrivals \u0026 Connections In-Flight Video for T5




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