Question about Heathrow Airport in London

[Ro_Laren]

I'm planning a trip later this year and am looking at my various ticket options. I'm gonna pay for a ticket to London (Heathrow) and will then be using American Airlines frequent flier miles for the rest of my trip. Unfortunately, if I am correct, that means I will need to pick up my bags from baggage claim and then go to whatever terminal handles outgoing flights. Does that mean I am going to have to go through immigration and customs? If my transatlantic airline is in the same terminal as the one I use for the rest of my European trip then do I have to go through immigration and customs? FYI, right now I'm looking into flying to London on Virgin Atlantic and then taking American Airlines the rest of my trip. I don't know if it makes a difference if I fly American Airlines to London and then also on the rest of my trip.

 

[Pingfah]

If you are buying two separate tickets from two different airlines, then yes I think you'll have to go through Customs and Immigration and then check-in again.

 

[Lindley]

If the two airlines have a code-share----and I don't think Virgin Atlantic does code-shares with American, but I'm not positive----then you might be able to ask the agent to check your bags all the way through even though you didn't buy the tickets together. It's worth a shot, but don't count on it.

 

[auntiehill]

Too bad Mr. Coaster's not around...


But, yeah, it sounds like you might just have to go through Customs and THEN go check in again.

 

[Holdfast]

If the two airlines have a code-share----and I don't think Virgin Atlantic does code-shares with American, but I'm not positive----

I'd be astonished if they do. American is part of the oneworld alliance, as is BA, and BA and Virgin don't exactly play nicely with each other. So I highly doubt American would codeshare with Virgin.

BTW, don't sweat the details of transfers, and things like where and what you need to go. Heathrow has excellent signage and directions, and more importantly, the passive herding they use is such that you can't really go wrong. In fact, I sometimes think that that airport systems work best if you actually just disengage your brain...

 

[auntiehill]

^I think it's a requirement for airports, actually.

 

[Ro_Laren]

Well, I bought my ticket and went a completely different route. I found an economy ticket that I was able to get with 30,000 miles to Helsinki, Finland. It just took another 10,000 miles for an economy ticket to my final European destination!!

I have to spend the night in Helsinki and I know absolutely nothing about Finland. I know the official language is Finnish, but I sure hope some people know English!! Maybe I'll find a Russian immigrant that I can speak broken Russia to!

 

[keksy]

Here is some useful info http://airports.posterous.com/avoid-spending-money-at-heathrow-terminal-4 for when you decide to visit this rather beautiful, but shockingly expensive airport. Wish you all the best with your flight.

 

[SmoothieX]

^I think it's a requirement for airports, actually.

Also a requirement to work for the TSA.

 

[Lindley]

^I think it's a requirement for airports, actually.

The big ones anyway. Small airports can be a lot of fun to hang out at.

 

[cultcross]

I had to do this on a change in Minnesota on my way to Canada, and that was on the same airline. Seriously got stamped into and then back out of the US.

Please direct 4 carbon copies of this post to the central bureaucracy.