British Airways tries to fix its Heathrow problems by increasing Minimum Connection Times

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• Chris says:

  23 Jun23 June 11:31

  Made a 15 minute connection through Schengen to non Schengen passport control in Munich last year. Never been happier to get on a Lufthansa flight.

  • John says:

    23 Jun23 June 12:38

    Yes German efficiency applies to MUC but not other German airports

    • Chris says:

      23 Jun23 June 16:46

      Well aware of that; didn’t write about the 3 hours getting through passport control at FRA more than once in last year

• peterjgwilliams says:

  23 Jun23 June 12:15

  If you are sitting at the back of the plane it can take 20 minutes just to get into the terminal. More like 40 if there’s a bus involved – and in that case everyone has to wait for the last passenger to disembark.

  • Rob says:

    23 Jun23 June 12:48

    A few weeks ago we had to leave a short haul BA flight by the back door as the airbridge broke. I was in my usual Row 1. I admit I was shocked how long it took to get off.

    Of course, the real issue was people sat at the back who had put their luggage into the first empty bin as they boarded. These people had to push through 100 people to get to their bags ….

    • Harry T says:

      23 Jun23 June 13:19

      That will serve them right. I personally think it’s poor form that BA don’t disembark business class first in these scenarios.

      • Rob says:

        23 Jun23 June 13:47

        This would require a level of ingenuity from BA cabin crew that is rarely seen …..

        Similarly, telling people whose bags were at the front to remain seated rather than push past 100 people in the aisle would have been useful.

      • Ken says:

        23 Jun23 June 14:00

        As if British people would take any notice of an instruction to stay seated where people at the front waltzed past them.

        • Kevin says:

          23 Jun23 June 14:50

          Exactly. And if “German efficiency” is a myth, they do tend to follow rules and instructions better.
          One example of this was BA’s LHR-DUS leaving from T5 Gate B36 last week. I arrived at the gate to see everyone seated awaiting the boarding announcement. Pre-boarding, then Group 1, then 2 and so on. No one hovering around the Tensabarriers. As each group was called, the relevant people in that group stood up and walked through the gates. It was poetry in motion!

    • lumma says:

      23 Jun23 June 14:32

      Once paid for row one on Ryanair and could only put my bag about 6 rows back. Literally had to wait until everyone had got off before being able to get it. Never again

• Hardpack says:

  23 Jun23 June 12:18

  I get MCT and conformance mixed up. I had a short-haul then connection to domestic T5 recently on a single ticket. Incoming short-haul was on time but by the time the bus arrived at the remote stand, we couldn’t get on the departing domestic because we missed the 35 min conformance at LHR. When I asked about compensation for the long delay (more than 6 hours IIRC) , I was told that we had missed the 60 minute MCT and no compensation was due. As far as I was concerned I had bought a through-ticket and missing MCT wasn’t my problem

  • Andrew says:

    23 Jun23 June 17:13

    UK261 surely payable? Letter before action then MCOL.

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  23 Jun23 June 12:29

  Currently in the air flying AY LHR to HEL with a 40 mins connection to ARN.

  The IFE shows the gate of the ARN flight as well as an airport map so I know where I’m going. There is also a video of the connections process.

  Screen is being regularly updated with the arrival time.

  If I had baggage (I don’t as these are last legs of a BA Holiday) I’d be pretty confident they’d make the ARN flight as well.

  • Harry T says:

    23 Jun23 June 13:20

    AY are in a different, far superior league to BA in my book.

  • jjoohhnn says:

    23 Jun23 June 14:15

    If you were on an AY A320 on the otherhand, you wouldn’t have that information available via IFE!

  • Numpty says:

    23 Jun23 June 14:27

    Emirates do that for connections at Dubai, the IFE shows you the gate numbers.

    That said I did arrive once into one terminal and then got shepherded to security at the other terminal to then find my gate was back at the first terminal.

• Kevin says:

  23 Jun23 June 15:34

  This will only make T5A more crowded than it already is, especially at peak times. More people will have more time in the terminal as they wait for their next flight. The lounges will also be busier. The area around T5A Gates A1-A7 is disgraceful at the moment with overcrowding. As far as I am concerned, the more flights that BA move to T3 the better.

  I would love to work for BA in their Operational Control Centre. Of course we, the general public, are not privy to all the details of what’s going on and I appreciate running an airline and terminal is not an easy thing, but surely there is room for more common sense? Utilising B and C gates more often for the A321 flights would be a big help.

  I always wondered why there was never an extra access corridor/travellator/lifts etc. built from T5A South side where First/Concorde Room is, directly to T5B and T5C. There is a real steady flow of people from this area down to the lifts and Automated People Mover tracks. More so as it caters for the International OW passengers with status, who are more likely going to be heading to T5B/C anyway.

  I do have to give BA some credit however. I flew BHD-LHR recently and the passenger beside me had a 90 minute connection to JFK onto BA113 to JFK. We were a little delayed en route and several other passengers in the Club Europe rows who might now miss their connection. The crew were excellent and told them not to worry. Funnily enough, the Captain of the 777 which was due to fly to JFK was also on the plane with us. Just as the seatbelt sign came on and we were preparing to land, a crew member brought a receipt-style piece of paper to several of the passengers stating they had already been booked onto the next flight to JFK. I met them in the lounge and they said this was the best experience they had in 30 years of flying. No anxiety and no queuing at a CS desk. One gentleman was an AAdvantage Executive Platinum status holder too.

  • Stuart says:

    23 Jun23 June 20:09

    They need to announce if it will be depart from a satellite a lot sooner to relieve 5A. I was on a short haul that went from 5C last week, if they said that before hand we would have gone to the 5B lounge upon arrival at the terminal

    • Londonsteve says:

      23 Jun23 June 21:43

      +1
      Invariably when they announce a B or C gates departure and you’re in either of the A lounges, you’ve missed the priority boarding opportunity by the time you’ve made it to the gate.

• dougzz99 says:

  23 Jun23 June 17:17

  @Kevin. I’m BA gold (no idea if relevant) and have on a few occasions been met on the airbridge at JFK by AA staff with my onward boarding passes and an ‘Express’ jacket thing to queue jump. I’ve never needed it as GE is a huge advantage in time and ability to make connections. But I’ve often thought AA do a better job at proactively helping people make tight connections.
  Once again I’ll beat the GE drum, travel to USA even once a year and it’s worth every penny, about £120 or £24/year. The TSA Pre that comes with it is so slick compared to regular US security.

• Derek Scott says:

  25 Jun25 June 18:45

  They need to fix the root cause, not plaster over the cracks. Today alone 8/9 EDI-LHR flights were late in departure (so far) minimum of 49 mins up to 1:28. Regardless of which end caused it they need to do something different to get a different pattern of outcome. The boarding process by group doesn’t work either as it hasn’t made any clear difference to boarding start to doors closed and I’ve never understood why they don’t board front and back to speed things up… even if just on flights where to avoid delay that would risk missing the landing slot and added holding pattern.

  BA need to work on these basics to reduce passenger annoyance and impact… get these right and you are halfway to passenger satisfaction

  • Chris Pocock says:

    29 Jun29 June 14:18

    Yes indeed. They cancelled my CDG-LHR last-flight-of-day last week. Nearly all hotels in Paris fully booked thanks to the Paris Air Show. No sign of the BA station manager to try and help. Many pax spent night in CDG. Next day, my flight was delayed two hours. No explanation as to why from BA fo either flight, so I presume it was their fault, and probably caused by the over-extended operational issues described here.

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