LHR Minimum Connection Times changing from Jan 2024

[No Longer Entitled]

I have just received an email from BA advising me that my connection in Feb next year will not met their revised connection times coming into force in Jan. My booking is currently 1hr for a connection from Capetown to Manchester at LHR. There is no mention as to what the revised timing is. Has anyone had the same?

The next domestic flight would result in a 4hr connection at which point it would be quicker to drive so I am reluctant to make any change. The way I see it if I missed the 1hr connection I would be on the next flight anyway so I am more than happy to risk it although I can see why BA are not.

[Annie]

My friend has had the same email. She is flying from NCL the night before for a late morning flight from LHR!
No idea what on earth BA are up to.

[NorthernLass]

1 hour has been unrealistic for a long time. By the time you’ve done passport control and collected your bags and car it’s very unlikely you’d get to Manchester within 4 hours of landing, especially if you’re arriving when the traffic is bad.

My in-laws missed their connection last week, said it was 3 hours from landing at T3 to clearing security in T5 at 8 am. There was no MAN availability until 9 pm that night, so I would strongly advise getting yourself booked on an earlier alternative!

Hopefully this doesn’t mean staffing issues are going to get even worse and BA is just bowing to the inevitable!

[SamG]

Looks like it’ll be 1hr 15min as of 9th Jan

There is also currently a specific exception for summer involving connecting to Edinburgh on the BA1434 which is 1hr 30!

[SamG]

Domestic to short haul (flights numbered BA300-BA999) will remain at 1hr

[NorthernLass]

SamG wrote:

Domestic to short haul (flights numbered BA300-BA999) will remain at 1hr

That’s ok for outbound, but on the return having to clear security again at T5 makes 1 hour extremely tight.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

NorthernLass wrote:

1 hour has been unrealistic for a long time.

I’m commenting based on this thread not anything BA have promulgated.

It is probably a bowing to reality that if far more people are missing connections these days it opens up BA to a lot of rebookings and even more delays for passengers.

Then there is the issue of delayed baggage which is a huge cost ro BA.

It will please some but annoy others but BA and HAL will go with what helps to reduce delays on flights.

Most passengers won’t even notice if there is a longer connection period as they aren’t specifically looking at it when booking just the departure and ultimate arrival time.

[SamG]

NorthernLass wrote:

SamG wrote:

Domestic to short haul (flights numbered BA300-BA999) will remain at 1hr

That’s ok for outbound, but on the return having to clear security again at T5 makes 1 hour extremely tight.

It’s 1hr 15 on the inbound

Agree with @BA Flyer IHG Stayer they’ve presumably analysed the data and realised that the connection time was causing a lot of missed connections and in the case of connections to long haul it can be expensive for them to fix & compensate

Leaving domestic-short haul at 1hr makes sense as likely as likely a misconnect causes less disruption & they need to remain competitive on shorter flights

[NorthernLass]

There’s always an option to pick a different domestic flight anyway, so I would always build in plenty of wiggle room on a flight booking.

BA haven’t helped themselves by slashing domestic sevices so pax have less choice when booking connecting flights and less chance of getting re-booked within a reasonable amount of time if they do miss a connection. In the case of my in-laws, if there had been an earlier flight to rebook them on, they may have been back in MAN within the delay compo period, but because they had to wait so long, they will be claiming the full 600 euro equivalent each from BA.

[Stu_N]

I think 1h coming into LHR on anything other than a domestic to T5A is ambitious. You’ve basically got a 20 minute buffer which isn’t sufficient if anything goes wrong and this is LHR after all.

We typically aim for 1h30-2h on outbound (EDI-LHR – onward) and 2h-2h 30 on inbound. We’re back to 10 flights a day EDI-LHR so you can fine tune it quite nicely – I appreciate not all routes have this frequency though.

[NorthernLass]

Night before is our default option if our connecting flight is before 2 pm! LHR hotels are cheaper than MAN ones these days so it’s no hardship and a lot better for peace of mind, and breaks up the journey.

[No Longer Entitled]

We are going into and out of T5 at 7-8am on a Sunday so I would still be inclined to risk it if BA allow.

The next departing flight would get us in 2h45m after our scheduled arrival time so I would be confident of BA finding room for us on this to avoid compensation but if not I should do very nicely out of it as a family of four.

I’ll try and push back on the change and see what BA do although I am not confident this far out that I have much choice.

[BJ]

Earlier this month I connected T5-T3 in under an hour, a bit of a miracle for LHR where it usually takes them 20m+ to get the doors open. I think I may have a 70 minute connection from HKG to EDI but no email so far so will double check. Thanks for posting.

[AJA]

I wonder how BA will handle this. The obvious thing is for their systems to automatically move your connecting domestic flight to a later one but would that be a technical cancellation of your booking? Which would open up a lot of options to change the entire booking per EC261 and potentially mean paying compensation depending upon how close to the flight they make the change. Which is why I guess they are issuing the emails now.

[No Longer Entitled]

Here is the text of the email I received from BA so they are presumably working through lists of impacted passengers whilst providing plenty of notice:

“From 9th January 2024 we are changing our connection times at London Heathrow. Due to this change, your upcoming British Airways connection at London Heathrow will no longer be possible. We are in the process of reviewing your booking to ensure you can make your connection and if required we will look to rebook your connection/s free of charge on your behalf.”

[NorthernLass]

You can cancel for a full refund if BA moves you to another flight but of course you would then be on the hook for paying for an alternative flight. As compo only kicks in 2 weeks before departure, it’s unlikely to apply to these changes.

This far out they can move you to another flight citing “operational reasons” and there’s not much you can do about it. We’ve had this numerous times over the years as they tinker about with schedules a lot on some routes.

[JDB]

AJA wrote:

I wonder how BA will handle this. The obvious thing is for their systems to automatically move your connecting domestic flight to a later one but would that be a technical cancellation of your booking? Which would open up a lot of options to change the entire booking per EC261 and potentially mean paying compensation depending upon how close to the flight they make the change. Which is why I guess they are issuing the emails now.

These changes don’t meet the EC261 definition of a ‘cancellation’ – “Article 2(l) of the Regulation defines ‘cancellation’ as the non-operation of a flight which was previously planned”

There is a further clarification of the definition relating to what is effectively changes of flight number which some erroneously suggest is always a cancellation.