FLIGHTCONNECTIONS AT LHR

If you arrive at LHR and follow the signs 'flight connections', do you end up in the check in area on the 1st floor, og the departure area upstairs?

Was told at OLCI that I had to present my baggageticket at VS' desk since i was on a connecting flight, and do not know if i have to go to VS check -n counters?

[honey lamb]

Flight Connections is only available if you have checked your bag all the way through to your destination from your home airport. If you are travelling on two separate tickets you will not be able to use Flight Connections and will have to collect your bag at LHR and schlepp through the airport via the underground subway to T3 and check in with VS there. However having just read the last part of your post, it would suggest that your bags will be through-checked.

To use Flight connections, here's how it works. You will follow the signs and walk forever until you come to the place where you go downstairs and will catch a bus to take you to T3. This will trundle you through the innards of LHR and deposit you at T3 where you will go upstairs and find yourself in the transfer lounge where all the various airlines have check-in desks - Virgin Atlantic included. You will not arrive in the ordinary check-in area in zone A, as at some point you will have already gone through security before getting on the bus and you will remain airside the whole time. You do have to go to the check-in desk as they need to get your baggage tags and log them into the system and they will also do the usual security questions. When you leave the transfer desks you will be in the shopping and duty free area of the departure lounge. Hope this helps.

Enjoy your trip

Couldn't have asked for more:-) Thnx a lot. The general idea was to get the bags checked all the way through, as we do only have one ticket for the entire journey. And even better, my plane arrives at T3, so it won't be that long of a walk anyways.

And I guess that if u would like to leave the airport due to the many hours wait, you will just have to leave through immigrations as if you were only going to London, and then go to the ordinary check in area a good two hours before our VS flight, which will of course be our maiden journey with VS...

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by stale
Couldn't have asked for more:-) Thnx a lot. The general idea was to get the bags checked all the way through, as we do only have one ticket for the entire journey. And even better, my plane arrives at T3, so it won't be that long of a walk anyways.

And I guess that if u would like to leave the airport due to the many hours wait, you will just have to leave through immigrations as if you were only going to London, and then go to the ordinary check in area a good two hours before our VS flight, which will of course be our maiden journey with VS...

If your originating flight arrives in T3 then [url=http://www.heathrowairport.com/portal/controller/dispatcher.jsp?CiID=2b66488779273110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____&ChID=217fbf54776d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____&Ct=B2C_CT_GENERAL&CtID=448c6a4c7f1b0010VgnVCM200000357e120a____&Ch=Flight+Connections&ChPath=Heathrow%5EGbl%5EHeathrow%5EGeneral%5EAirport+information%5EFlight+Connections&ChIDPath=9a485109350d3110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^d7b3b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^e734b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^7544b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^8454b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^217fbf54776d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____]this[/url] is the way to go. You won't have to go on a bus - that is only for inter-terminal transit but to be honest I don't know which way it pans out in T3. I probably would have gone through customs and Arrivals and walked over to the ordinary check-in

Originally posted by honey lamb
[If your originating flight arrives in T3 then [url=http://www.heathrowairport.com/portal/controller/dispatcher.jsp?CiID=2b66488779273110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____&ChID=217fbf54776d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____&Ct=B2C_CT_GENERAL&CtID=448c6a4c7f1b0010VgnVCM200000357e120a____&Ch=Flight+Connections&ChPath=Heathrow%5EGbl%5EHeathrow%5EGeneral%5EAirport+information%5EFlight+Connections&ChIDPath=9a485109350d3110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^d7b3b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^e734b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^7544b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^8454b727436d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____^217fbf54776d4110VgnVCM10000036821c0a____]this[/url] is the way to go. You won't have to go on a bus - that is only for inter-terminal transit but to be honest I don't know which way it pans out in T3. I probably would have gone through customs and Arrivals and walked over to the ordinary check-in

You've saved yourself a good part of the bother by through checking your luggage. Beyond that, it's anyone's guess as to what the best strategy would be. IIRC, transfers within Terminal 3 happen on the right as you approach the immigration area, usually a line is formed near where the transfers to other terminals are managed (the latter get the bus treatment). Sometimes, the line for inter T3 transfers has been brutal, usually when busloads of US flights have arrived with a lot of folks transferring onto middle east/India flights. In which case HL's option of just walking through to regular T3 check-in would be the way to go. If you were transferring onto a Virgin UC flight, I'd guarantee HL's option would be far quicker with any kind of line at T3 transfer security, and not too much in the way of immigration crowds.

It's the same in T1, I've done the T3-to-T1 transfer, gotten on a bus, arrived at the connection center security line near the T1 passport control, which happened to be empty, while the line to get through security into the old T1/T2 connections centre was brutal. No brainer especially if you had been holding a BA Club boarding pass from T1.