V-Flyer

Going to be flying into LHR from EWR and I'm considering catching a domestic BA flight from LHR to Man rather than taking the train.

Got no idea which terminals these fly from for a start (need to check this). Also, being different airlines, I assume there's no transferring of bags?
Would like to use the arrivals lounge for a bit before leaving the airport in whatever way, so how much time is recommended for any neccesary tranfers?

What's the situation on the amount of baggagge anyway? Will probably just one case and my laptop bag, but depending on how much rubbish I bring back, a second small bag may be carried.

virgin fly into T3, the BA will most likely fly out of T5 although they still have some flights out of T3 i believe.

for baggage transfer it depends if your tickets were booked as a single through trip or separately. if they were booked singly you will have to collect your bag on arrival at T3 which means you wont be able to use the flight transfer centre & will have to exit T3 as an arriving passenger. This is fine though as you need to do this to get to the arrivals lounge anyway which is in the arrivals hall at T3.

To get from T3 to T5 its a 5 minute walk to the Heathrow Express station, known as Heathrow Central, followed by a 2 minute ride to T5. overall i'd say give yourself 15 minutes to get between the two terminals, 30 if you're not sure exactly where you're going.

for directions, leave the arrivals lounge back into T3 arrivals hall, go outside to the plaza & head for the black monolith in the middle. this is the stairway & lifts down to the underground passageway that leads to the underground station, heathrow central & T1. then just follow the signs for heathrow express. make sure you get on the correct train or you could end up in central london! there are staff to help on the platform

you'll be fine on baggage allowance.

Manchester flights go from T5.

While hat is quite correct in saying that if your tickets were booked separately you will have to collect your bags on arriving at LHR. However the last time I flew from EWR I asked about having my bags through-checked to Cork which they did, no problem, even though I was on separate tickets

If you are flying MAN>LHR, look at BMI as they are consistently cheaper than BA on this route.

BMI are also more VS friendly so even on separate tickets, there's a better chance BMI will through-check your bags for you.

BMI also fly into T1 at LHR and BA use T5. It's easier and quicker getting to/from T3 from T1 than T5 as you can just walk rather than having to use the HEX.

As for transfer times, I always leave about 3 hours between landing at LHR and departing for MAN which gives me plenty of time for Revivals and then the 1 hour check-in required for domestic flights.

Here's another question.

Assume I have 2 pieces of hold luggage and carry on bag, well with UC / CW guidelines.
Then I fly BA domestic which only allows 1 piece of hold luggage plus my carry on bag.

How much am I likely to be charged for the additional bag?
Added: Seems to be £35 if done at the airport.

Since the flight is only £45 in the first place, is it possible to purchase a second seat for the extra £10 or would having 2 seats under the same name cause problems? Worth a massive 5 tier points and 125 miles!

If you show BA your UC ticket, they *may* allow you to check more than 1 bag in for you at no extra charge.

Don't bother purchasing an extra seat as empty seats don't get a baggage allowance, miles or TP's.

BA charge £28 for extra bags if you do it online before you get to the airport.

I think you'll have to pick your bags up at LHR as the flight to MAN will be domestic meaning you have to go through customs at LHR.

RDM,
Unless regs have changed in recent years, I often have had my bags checked through internationally to my domestic arrivals airport. I have seen customs officers in the domestic arrivals hall at Newcastle before now.

rdm wrote:I think you'll have to pick your bags up at LHR as the flight to MAN will be domestic meaning you have to go through customs at LHR.

No bags can be checked straight through to the final destination in the UK unlike the USA where you have to clear customs at the first point of entry.

Yep, no need to re-collect in the UK - and I can second HL's comment that out of NY, JFK in this case, they through-checked luggage for the family with no probs at all even on a separate tickets only a couple of months ago. Seems to depend on the stations, as SFO were always huffing and puffing and a whole lot less cooperative about this in recent times.