Any tips on how to make a tight connection from T3 to BA flight departing T5
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Asking for my wife who has to make a tight connection early (ie. 5.45am) Wednesday morning from her incoming CX flight arriving in T3 to BA1324 departing for NCL from T5 100 minutes later. Its all on one ticket with luggage checked straight through and just inside the MCT (albeit only by 10 minutes) but still pretty tight, especially for someone who’s never changed terminals before and so is pretty nervous about whether she can make her connection on time.
Any advice to help allay her fears? The last time I posted here (about a tight connection that didn’t involve changing terminals), many of you were kind enough to offer some really helpful advice, including Froggee’s excellent guide to tight connections within T5. Anyone kind enough to offer similar advice for tight connections that do involve changing terminals?
In particular, how does conformance work if you’re an international arrival at T3 transferring to a domestic connnection from T5? Presumably she will clear immigration at Flight Connections in T3 before boarding the bus to T5? But how about security? Is that done at T3? Or T5? Or both?
Unfortunately, she’s travelling in economy on a Hong Kong passport (i.e. no e-Gates), which rules out two obvious ways of speeding things up. And while I know some advise going landside and hopping on the Heathrow Express to T5, I don’t think she’d be keen on trying that at 5.45am with a Hong Kong passport.
I do this once or twice a year but haven’t found any shortcuts, sorry! It is fairly doable in the MCT unless there are unforeseen issues, and next week shouldn’t be a particularly busy period.
One thing to bear in mind is if your wife does miss her connection BA will move her to a later one so she will get home eventually. It’s worth having a look what other NCL flights there are that day and which ones have availability.
Tip – my in-laws missed a T3-T5 connection last year (travelling in PE), and BA gave them lounge access for the whole day as there wasn’t another MAN flight for 9 hours, so I would gently enquire about that it if she misses the connection and has a bit of a wait!
*Also tell her not to be scared about telling a member of staff she’s on a tight connection and they might be able to take her to the front of the security queue at T5 if it’s busy.
Personally I would never consider going landside and using public transport between terminals, unless there was a clear advantage in doing so which I’m not aware of here. If you follow the due process, it doesn’t really matter where you have to clear immigration or security – it is what it is and as @NorthernLass says there aren’t any real shortcuts.
If you follow the official route and miss a valid connection you will be looked after. If you go ‘off-piste’ and worse case there’s a problem with the public transport which causes you to miss the connection it becomes your responsibility. It may not be your fault, but it isn’t the airline’s fault either. While BA would probably still accommodate you, why risk complications?
I’m afraid I can’t offer a blow by blow guide for this one. I went landside when I did this connection last year but I would not be doing it landside with a Hong Kong passport, and with luggage checked in the hold, for the reasons @AndrewT points out.
In terms of allaying your wife’s fears, the Hong Kong flights are rarely late. And if they are late it will most likely be properly late. From many such experiences I can say it is much better to comprehensively miss a flight than to narrowly catch one.
So follow the signs. If her inbound flight is on time then she will be fine. If things get squeaky then do the ask the purple-happy-helper thing although this likely won’t make a huge difference.
And please report back as in July, I’m having Mrs Froggee do this route airside with the boys while I’m going landside at T3 to collect bags from our Virgin Atlantic flight, take the Heathrow Express to T5, and check in for a BA connection.
And the funny thing about this is, because I’m a complete idiot, I could have booked a connecting flight up to Edinburgh on the same PNR for myself at no additional expense (as I was on a cash booking) but it didn’t occur to me to do so as I was trying to mirror the redemption I had booked for Mrs Froggee and the boys! So unnecessary self-inflicted pain.
Sad face.
There is often a misunderstanding what the MCT is.
It’s not the minimum time for passenger to switch terminals but a time where airlines and airports are comfortable in selling connections and enabling both the passenger snd bags to get from A to B. The vast majority of people day in day out make the switch with no problem and a lot quicker than the 90 minutes. If they didn’t the MCT would be increased until that happened!
The simplest advice to give her is to follow the yellow arrivals / purple flight connections signs and take the bus to T5. She needs to have scanned her BA boarding pass no later than 35 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Immigration and security will be done at T5. This is not a case where she needs to be Usain Bolt but equally she shouldn’t dawdle either.
She should not enter the UK at T3 and go landslide to T5.
Security will happen at T5 and conformance is checked just before that. Immigration should be at T3 I think. Follow the purple signs after disembarkation. No point of going landside if she doesn’t know the way
Wonderful advice, many thanks all. And yes, Frogee, I will definitely report back after she (hopefully) makes her connection.
I was recently travelling to GIB (from T3) with a coworker who came straight off a flight from Dallas (in to T5) which had been delayed. After discussing his short connection with everyone who would listen, he was driven in a car (airside) to T3… and I have no clue how his hold luggage made it through, but it did! My take away from this was – don’t be afraid to make a fuss if the connection is really tight! As above, you can get whisked through immigration etc.
I was recently travelling to GIB (from T3) with a coworker who came straight off a flight from Dallas (in to T5) which had been delayed. After discussing his short connection with everyone who would listen, he was driven in a car (airside) to T3… and I have no clue how his hold luggage made it through, but it did! My take away from this was – don’t be afraid to make a fuss if the connection is really tight! As above, you can get whisked through immigration etc.
Which class?
I think the chances of an economy pax getting a car from CX to BA are close to 0%.
Came in travelling in Club on BA metal, next flight Euro Traveller (Gold member).
Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Find the next flights, and if you’ve got status/flying Club you should easily make the next one. Meantime, as said, blag some free lounge access and get a shower!
Just to report back as promised (with many thanks once again for all the helpful advice). On arrival at T3, transit passengers (even to domestic flights) go straight to the airside bus stops (one for T5, the other for T2 and T4) without any need to clear immigration or security in T3 (which all takes place in your onward terminal). And the inter-terminal transfers can be pretty fast. Even though she was travelling in economy, she made it to T5 within 30 minutes or so of touching down in T3, with plenty of time to satisfy conformance. So I guess BA Flyer hit the nail on the head, and the 90 minute MCT only represents the minimum time airlines feel comfortable selling a connection which in reality can usually be done much more quickly than this.
BTW: Tracking my wife’s flights, I noticed again that both the Heathrow app and Flightaware treat the runway touchdown time as the arrival time. Fair enough I suppose. But since you can’t exactly disembark on the runway (and there can sometimes be delays on the way to the gate) its the arrival time at the gate which is far more useful (and what the Cathay, and I think also BA, apps show). This also means, especially if you’re on a tight connection, that historical data on Fightaware about flight arrival times has to be treated with some caution since it doesn’t reflect the time passengers were actually able to disembark.
@dannyhk – glad your wife made the connection comfortably. Heathrow does distinguish between ‘landed’ and ‘arrived’ with the latter being at the gate or remote stand. The BA app shows the ‘arrived’ time which is the gate time and equally on departure the time the aircraft left the gate rather than takeoff time.
Just to report back as promised (with many thanks once again for all the helpful advice). On arrival at T3, transit passengers (even to domestic flights) go straight to the airside bus stops (one for T5, the other for T2 and T4) without any need to clear immigration or security in T3 (which all takes place in your onward terminal).
Ah yes that makes sense as T3 has no domestic flights, and people on the airside buses can’t be inside the UK (as biometrics happens on entry to security).
Flightstats will show gate arrival time, but if it takes the door 20 minutes to be opened that wouldn’t be recorded.
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