Revealed: the British Airways flights moving to Terminal 3 in two weeks

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• Anna says:

  27 Oct27 October 03:30

  We have Prague booked for next April with the last Lloyds voucher – let’s hope the Cathay or Qantas lounge is open by then (and that those privileges aren’t withdrawn in the meantime!)

• meta says:

  27 Oct27 October 03:53

  And yet some of those routes are cancelled at least for November (possibly the whole winter schedule). For example Krakow, Zagreb both stop after 7 November.

  • 1ATL says:

    27 Oct27 October 05:45

    Zagreb starts again at the beginning of December – 3 days a week

    • meta says:

      27 Oct27 October 05:54

      Yes, I think this is until they cancel it as they currently run it 3 times a week.They did it last year and I think they’ll do it again. Why would you stop a service for about a month and then resume? They also now have to compete with Ryanair on that route.

• Ayearinmx says:

  27 Oct27 October 05:43

  Very annoying. Fly to BLQ from T5… Return to T3… Not happy about the parking situation in the slightest.

  Advice/tips welcome…

  • 1ATL says:

    27 Oct27 October 05:44

    Take public transport or a taxi to/from Heathrow?

    • Ayearinmx says:

      27 Oct27 October 06:13

      Unfortunately coming from the southeast, and having an early flight out make public transport not viable.

      Will public transport between the terminals be running at 5am?

      • tony says:

        27 Oct27 October 07:00

        1) Park in T5 short stay then take the HEX for free back there on your return. Given the early departure time, this would be my call.

        2) For about half the price, park at a hotel on the Bath Road between T5 and the tunnel under the runway. Both the Thistle and the Holiday Inn offer hefty discounts if you book via yourparkingspace.co.uk. The local bus, whilst no longer free, will connect you with either terminal for £1.55. The buses do run that early but you may want to splurge on an Uber or use an app to hail a black cab as presumably at that time a number will be heading to the airport empty.

        3) Stop and consider how this is a positive turning point from the situation 18 months ago.

      • jjh4yb says:

        27 Oct27 October 07:11

        I often park at Hounslow West, it’s cheap for long stay parking. If the Tube isn’t running, there are night buses.

        Best to avoid parking in the area used by weekend market though. It is clearly signed.

        When Tube is running, I think it quicker than buses from long stay car parks.

  • chris says:

    27 Oct27 October 06:24

    use valet service from a third party or Heathrow meet and greet both will handle a terminal switch

  • Liam J says:

    27 Oct27 October 06:41

    I’ve been in this situation before a few times (flying BA one way and CX the other). The T5 Long Stay and T3 Business long stay car parks are right next to each other (assuming nothing has changed since 2019). Annoyingly it looks like they’ve replaced the pavement height separator between them so now there’s a proper fence meaning needing to walk down the exit lane. The best solution was to:
    Park at the T5 along stay. Park at the end closest to the exit barrier, which is only a few seconds walk to the other car park. Take the bus to T5 as usual on the outbound. On the return to T3, take the “business parking” shuttle and get off as soon as the bus enters the car park. You can then walk a few seconds over to your car. The solution looks less elegant now they’ve extended the fence.
    https://goo.gl/maps/c6otiYgzuLkALPkg9

    • John says:

      27 Oct27 October 07:03

      This is the correct answer. Thanks for update about fence

      • tony says:

        27 Oct27 October 08:20

        Except the T3 business parking remains closed for now and isn’t taking bookings for April 2022 so it’s not really the correct answer at all….

        • John says:

          27 Oct27 October 08:35

          Oh right thanks for that info too

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    27 Oct27 October 07:07

    If you don’t have luggage to collect then it’s possible to take Flight Connections to T5 and exit immigration there. Of course there’s a risk that T5 might be busy and you have a long queue. Other option is to take the tube or HEX free of charge between terminals

    • ayearinmx says:

      27 Oct27 October 08:10

      Thanks for everyone’s advice about this…. i knew there would be some options i hadn’t considered. I’m leaning towards T5 parking, then HEX on return. I just not a fan of the bus from long stay

    • John says:

      27 Oct27 October 08:37

      I don’t think you can do it in that direction? Land T5 exit T3 is definitely possible though

• Susan says:

  27 Oct27 October 07:01

  Would anyone know if Marrakesh (when it restarts) is more likely to be T3 or T5?

  • Jeff Greene says:

    27 Oct27 October 15:25

    No idea

• Andrew says:

  27 Oct27 October 07:04

  I wouldn’t say the AA lounge is inferior to the BA lounge. The AA First lounge had a better section of food and drink including bottles of Evian to go. My T3 circuit included only the briefest of stops at Galleries First to pick up a copy of Business Traveller (and to look at people in there in bemusement that they didn’t know they could be sat in Cathay First lounge!).

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    27 Oct27 October 07:09

    If everyone who used the BA lounge knew they could use the CX lounge then the CX lounge would become an overcrowded hellhole. Be happy that most people use the lounge that their airline tells them to use.

    • Andrew says:

      27 Oct27 October 07:13

      Oh I don’t disagree – just surprised that people don’t equip themselves better with information. But absolutely glad that most casual BA First passengers think that’s the only lounge they can access and aren’t aware of the wonders of the a la carte dining room in CX First.

      • meta says:

        27 Oct27 October 07:21

        I love how at check-in the agent used to ask, do you know where the BA lounge is? This is why most people don’t know.

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          27 Oct27 October 07:30

          AA do the same. First time I flew AA they gave me directions to their lounge and I automatically headed there. I should have known better! This was before the CX refurb. It was still a nice lounge then, but it was in a smaller space

• HBommie says:

  27 Oct27 October 07:11

  I got all excited with the headline thinking my Miami fight would be switched to lovely T3 and the plethora of decent lounges, oh well slumming it in BA it is then.

  • Andrew says:

    27 Oct27 October 07:15

    Except the other lounges aren’t open, so you’re better off at T5 where the BA lounges are less worse than the T3 ones.

    • HBommie says:

      27 Oct27 October 07:50

      Is the T5B lounge open? That wouldn’t be too bad.

      Just checked BA for my outbound date in Nov. and x3 flights are showing, x2 from T5 and one (BA1525) from T3?

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        27 Oct27 October 08:00

        The T3 one is a codeshare operated by AA

      • John says:

        27 Oct27 October 08:37

        Yes it is but only Thursday to Sunday or something like that

        • Rob says:

          27 Oct27 October 12:32

          Thu-Mon IIRC

      • HBommie says:

        27 Oct27 October 08:54

        Thanks

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    27 Oct27 October 07:25

    I don’t think Miami is considered a T3 flight anymore. When BA announced that Bologna was going to be a T3 route back towards the end of last year I thought at least my Miami trip (then booked for May 2021) would be a same terminal connection. But my booking showed BLQ-LHR as T3 and LHR-MIA as T5. Now that booking has been moved a few times and is now November it means at the end of the month I’ll arrive in T5 from MIA and will have to make my way to T3 and hope at the very least the Flounge is open (last I checked only the BA business class lounge is open).

    I disagree that the BA lounges are worse in T3 though. It just depends how busy they are. Back in 2012, before I discovered the CX lounge, I was flying LHR-PRG regularly and the times I was flying there was not many oneworld flights departing, because of this it was much more pleasant in the BA lounges in T3 than it was in T5. The main issue back then was all BA shorthaul from T3 always used a bus gate. This improved somewhat when Star Alliance moved to T2

    • HBommie says:

      27 Oct27 October 07:53

      CX is my preferred but I’m just getting ahead of myself and the current situation.

  • Anna says:

    27 Oct27 October 07:39

    We had 3 F seats booked to MIA – 2 weeks after Trump closed the borders 😥. We shall never see the like of this again, I imagine.

    • Andrew says:

      27 Oct27 October 08:02

      A380 is back on MIA so First will be available on that route and actually flying from T5 in First is preferable as you have First Wing and CCR

      • Anna says:

        27 Oct27 October 14:55

        I thought the Cathay F lounge was supposed to be the best?

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  27 Oct27 October 07:18

  Bologna has always been a T5 route. It was then announced last year that Bologna would be moving to T3 when it reopened. It’s frustrating for me because the pre-COVID timetable BLQ flights connected well with NCL flights but now with the extra connection time that will no longer be the case.

  I wonder if BLQ had been planned to move to T3 in summer 2020 prior to COVID or if it changed for some other reason.

  When I lived in London I was always happy to see a T3 departure due to the better lounge situation, but it’s a pain if you have to connect between BA flights or for people without lounge access (it looks a nasty place to wait without a lounge, plus regular security forces you through a duty free shop)

  • ChrisC says:

    27 Oct27 October 12:54

    Security does not force you through DF!

    In T3 I’ve only gone through DF because I wanted to do some ahopping. Plus it’s quicker to get to the lounges by cutting through.

    Easy to avoid by turning right just before you enter DF and there is a corrirdor there that takes to past the WH Smiths into the main seating area just where the bureau de change is.

• Sam G says:

  27 Oct27 October 07:31

  https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qantas-opens-pop-up-international-transit-lounge-at-darwin

  Mentions here that London lounge will reopen in December. May be that it’s a bit more restricted especially around the times of the Qantas flights though especially to begin with

  • Pete M says:

    27 Oct27 October 11:04

    You’ll probably need a PCR test 48hrs before, a lateral flow on arrival and to sit in your own cocoon not eating or drinking 🙂

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