When we booked our flights back in January for our October 10th trip to Rome, we were only able to get as far as London on mileage (British Air). I then purchased our flight on British from LHR to Rome. I find out today that we have to claim our bags and clear customs in London, then go from terminal 4 to terminal 1 and check the bags to Rome. Our connection is 2-1/2 hours Are we OK for time?

I'm sorry I don't know the answer to your question, because claiming and rechecking your luggage could be a long procedure.
If this was not necessary, your connection time would have been more than ample.

But I have a question of my own.
The flight from London to Rome, is it also booked on BA?

What if you had booked through to Rome origianlly, would you still have to go through the claiming and rechecking?

Maybe someone has the answers to these question.

Debra, Thanks for the reply. The flight from Faitbanks to London was booked on British through their mileage partner, Alaska Airlines (where my mileage account is). The flight from LHR to FCO was booked directly with British. I am told that since they are two separate itineraries, that I must do the check and reclaim. I hope this helps. John

quote:

Originally posted by JohnN:
since they are two separate itineraries, that I must do the check and reclaim. John

Thanks, John.
Could someone at BA answer your question about the connection time, given your circumstances?

John, we've done the same thing in the past, and our baggage was always checked through to our final destination, IF the 2 airlines have a baggage agreement. Recent events may have changed this policy, though.

I am pretty sure you will be able to check your bags right through to Rome - show your purchased ticket LHR-FCO when you check in at Fairbanks. I wouldn't put it out there as a question, just show you tickets and ask them to please check you right through to Rome. They should check you bags and print your boarding passes for both flights. Just to be sure you can email BA here

Under normal circumstances 2-1/2 hours is loads of time. Right now it might be a bit tight, but things are improving daily so by the time you go in October you will probably be fine. In June we did the same journey with 1-1/2 hours between flights, and arrived at T1 with lots of time to spare.

Thanks for all the advice. Will try to check straight through although British told me they can't. I have good friends at Alaska Airlines. Maybe that will pay off. John

On our last trip we flew BA Denver to Heathrow, then home Gatwick to Dallas. We purchased a separate one way from Dallas to Albuquerque on American. They partner with BA and we were able to check our bags through.

Do you think the new restrictions are affecting this? Some people have said that when changing planes in London, they have to claim their bags and do a separate checkin for the connecting flight.

Flying Alitalia from FCO to Heathrow, then Virgin, LHR to LAX, on October 8. Does anyone know for sure whether bags will be checked through from FCO to LAX or must they be reclaimed in LHR and re-checked? I have a two-hour stop-over between planes, iffy if I have to claim and re-check. Thanks.
Yrs, Robert

I think I have the same issue. I'm flying to London and then switching planes to BMI to Naples. I get into Heathrow at 8:50am and leave at 11:25am. I didn't even think about having to claim my bags, in London. Anyone else go this route before?

We flew BA to London in October, then another flight to Rome. We had about the same time frame for the connecting flight. There was no problem with us making the connection at that time. We did not have to claim our luggage and clear customs in London though, just went on ahead to Rome w/ our carryons. Now you probably can't do the carryons and will have to check everything.

You will take a bus to Terminal 1 from Terminal 4. It's about a 5-10 min. ride. We then had to go through the security clearance and find our gate for the connecting flight. It may be totally different this time due to all that's been happening in London. You should be fine though.

The only really weird thing that we found was that we didn't know what gate to go to for our flight because they don't post then up on the board until the last minute. We had about 10 min. to get to our gate once we saw it posted. Just be on the lookout for the flight posting as your departure time gets near. We kept asking the information desk if they had a time yet.

Have a great trip. You will be fine and everything will work out ok.

I prefer BA. I purchased my Detroit to Rome ticket through British Airways this past spring and I only found out later that it would continue to Rome with an Alitalia connection via Heathrow. My bags were checked all the way through to Rome from Detroit International. I asked twice to make sure.

For my flight, the 2 1/2 hour limit was just enough time because there were many flights coming into London at 7 am. First, the BA shuttle picked us up from the plane and took us through to Terminal 4. Secondly, at Terminal 4, and since I didn't have to retrieve any luggage, I waited in a large mass of people to get on a bus that would take me over to Terminal 1 for the Alitalia connection. If the buses filled up you would have to hang out until the next one arrived. The time in between buses was only a few minutes. Luv2Travel15, mine was the same way. I was sweating it because the Alitalia flight didn't post until a few minutes before it was due to take off. It's all part of the journey, and it quickly became water under the bridge.

I was really surprised by the overall largeness of Heathrow. Not only were the bus lines long, but the security lines were pretty long as well. So, whatever BA will allow you to carry through to your flight on your trip-go lightly. I learned the hard way that two hours is way too long for me to haul around a shoulder carry-on in that huge place.

It'll work out!

For what is it worth, I just got off the phone with Virgin Atlantic. They said that my bags could be checked through to LAX from Rome, and that I did not have to claim and then recheck them in London. She said that 2 hours would be time enough to transfer from Alitalia to Virgin; things have calmed down at Heathrow, according to her, and I just must remember the very restrictive hand-baggage rules now in effect there.
Yrs, Robert