V-Flyer

Next week I'm doing my 1st ex DUB trip. Business trip to LAS, flying into SFO and back via LAX (trying the new clubhouse!).
Flying to DUB night before and getting into LHR at 9.05 for the 11.50 VS19 to SFO.
My question is about check thru baggage. I've only checked thru twice before (admittedly years ago) and both times have lost bags.
Obviously nervous about it. Any one had any problems with this?
If I ask to check bags in myself at LHR will it take longer? Would they let me do his?
Clearly want to max time in CH so any advice much appreciated.
Thanks

Yes you can check bags in yourself at LHR but it will add to the time because you will have to collect them at LHR and then schlepp them over to T3. You don't say which terminal you are arriving into from DUB but if you're on BA then it is fairly time consuming. T2 to T3 is easier and faster if you're on EI.

Quite honestly, I've checked through bags from Cork, Dublin and Amsterdam and have never had a problem with them and, if you want to maximise your CH experience, I would advise you do that.

^ +1.

If your luggage is checked through from DUB-SFO you can stay airside at LHR, using the flight connections bus to get to T3 which will invariably save time.

My luggage was checked through from DUB via LGW to MCO

If you want some reassurance, just ask at the desk in the Clubhouse if they could check for you.

My tags were photocopied and she phoned the gate to enquire.

Once an answer came through, so sought me out in the Clubhouse to confirm my bags were indeed in the hold.

Nice customer service

David

gumshoe wrote:^ +1.

If your luggage is checked through from DUB-SFO you can stay airside at LHR, using the flight connections bus to get to T3 which will invariably save time.

Thanks gumshoe think I'll check through. Like the idea of checking once I get to the clubhouse.

mswadley wrote:

gumshoe wrote:^ +1.

If your luggage is checked through from DUB-SFO you can stay airside at LHR, using the flight connections bus to get to T3 which will invariably save time.

Thanks gumshoe think I'll check through. Like the idea of checking once I get to the clubhouse.

A wise decision.

I was looking at your flight times and recalling a time I was flying from Cork to SFO via LHR. Now regular users of V-Flyer know that wherever I go, disaster follows (although my last couple of trips have been worryingly disaster-free! ). The early morning flight from Cork was due to land in LHR at 9am but generally speaking arrived early - often by 30 minutes, so well was that flight time padded. In those days, the SFO flight left at 11am and in the past I had made the connection with ease and plenty of CH time.

On this particular day however, we were on board the aircraft and ready to leave Cork but because of bad weather in the US, ATC in the UK held the aircraft on the ground in Cork rather than have us circling interminably around Heathrow. As a result we landed dead on the dot of 9am but by the time we had taxied and disembarked this had eaten massively into my connecting time. In those days (and I'm talking about days with poorer connectivity) my bags were tagged through but I wasn't checked through so that by the time I had gone through Flight Connections and had checked in there it was 9.50am before I reached the CH and only 20 minutes before the flight was called!!

Now at this stage, I suppose I have scared the living daylights out of you but:
1. This flight was 10 years ago and the flights were not on the same PNR.
2. I wasn't on the same PNR (but I had managed to get the flights linked - now no longer possible) but even if I was, then 10 years ago I would have had to check in at a Flight Connections desk in T3. You will have your boarding passes from DUB and you have no idea how much easier this makes the whole process.
3. LHR have upped the ante with regard to Flight Connections and it is much smoother now. Believe me! If you look at my trip report to Las Vegas on BA when, having taken a very smooth connection to T5, I discovered I had left my purse on my flight from Cork, you will see that when I went to retrieve it from T2, the trek via the HEX to T5 made it more convoluted. If you're on a BA flight from DUB, don't even think about doing it that way - it is time-consuming. On EI I would still take Flight Connections as I would still be airside.
4. Don't panic about the 20 minutes in the CH! In those days I was young and innocent and V-Flyer was in its infancy - in fact was only teething! I left at the first call. Today that is the signal to order another drink and you have plenty of time before the final call. Go on the first call and you will often find that boarding has not yet commenced and (what has happened on a couple of occasions), although you will have been told by the CH staff to go to the head of the queue, a jobsworth employed by HAL who is manning the gate will try and send you back to the end of the queue regardless of your priority boarding status. The last time that happened yer man threatened to stop the queue full stop unless I complied!! ( I moved away and then snuck in to the line much to the fury of a chap who had witnessed the altercation but as I was going UC and he economy, it didn't impact on him. However, to avoid such unpleasantness, wait thill the next call.

Finally, finally don't worry or panic. You'll be fine. Where are you staying in DUB and what plans have you for that night? I'm well used to being in and out of DUB during my working years and since Aer John started working at the airport I have acquired a few ideas of places to eat within striking distance of the airport.