5-Hour Layover at Heathrow?

[HapiFeet]

We're flying into Heathrow from SFO and have a 5-hour layover before getting on Alitalia to Rome. Since I booked 2 separate flights, we have to pick up our luggage from British Airways and re-check it into Alitalia. It's probably better this way to prevent lost luggage. We're arriving in Terminal 1 and departing in Terminal 2. Does anyone have suggestions about what we can do with ourselves for 5 hours while dragging our luggage? I see a "left luggage" location on the terminal map but it doesn't look very big. I don't want to check our luggage into Alitalia early for fear of them being lost. Also, does anyone know of an airport lounge where we can buy a 1-day pass?

[Host CJSKIDS]

We're flying into Heathrow from SFO and have a 5-hour layover before getting on Alitalia to Rome. Since I booked 2 separate flights, we have to pick up our luggage from British Airways and re-check it into Alitalia. It's probably better this way to prevent lost luggage. We're arriving in Terminal 1 and departing in Terminal 2. Does anyone have suggestions about what we can do with ourselves for 5 hours while dragging our luggage? I see a "left luggage" location on the terminal map but it doesn't look very big. I don't want to check our luggage into Alitalia early for fear of them being lost. Also, does anyone know of an airport lounge where we can buy a 1-day pass?

 

Holideck is a great lounge but it's located in Terminal 4. By the time you get off the plane and through immigration (unless you're flying business or 1st class) you won't end up with the 5 hour layover. You'll then have to get your luggage, go to a different terminal, recheck you luggage and go through security again. Lines at Heathrow can be incredibly long.

(Left luggage isn't where you leave your luggage, it's where luggage goes that doesn't get picked up by someone usually.)

 

I wouldn't worry about giving them your bags 4 hours ahead of time as you have to be at Heathrow 3 hours prior to your flight coming back to the states anyway and check your luggage on the other end.

 

There is great shopping at Heathrow so once through security you can shop or stop off at a restaurant and have something to eat.

[Kindlychap]

We're flying into Heathrow from SFO and have a 5-hour layover before getting on Alitalia to Rome. Since I booked 2 separate flights, we have to pick up our luggage from British Airways and re-check it into Alitalia. It's probably better this way to prevent lost luggage. We're arriving in Terminal 1 and departing in Terminal 2. Does anyone have suggestions about what we can do with ourselves for 5 hours while dragging our luggage? I see a "left luggage" location on the terminal map but it doesn't look very big. I don't want to check our luggage into Alitalia early for fear of them being lost. Also, does anyone know of an airport lounge where we can buy a 1-day pass?

 

I'm not sure you'll have that much time to kill. It'll take a while to get through immigration and luggage reclaim. You've then got to get from Terminal One to Terminal Two. You'll be checking in about a couple of hours before your second flight one way or another - and then you'll have the security queues......

 

One thing to remember is that the luggage limit on Alitalia is likely to be lower than the transatlantic portion. When we flew they were very lax about weighing things, but you can't guarantee that of course.

 

Try the BAA site - www.baa.com - for further information. There are links there to be able to book a pass for a lounge in terminal two.

 

Best of luck. Heathrow is a dump.

 

Matthew

[Kindlychap]

There is great shopping at Heathrow

 

Is there?

 

Which Heathrow are we talking about? - I thought that there was only one and that was in West London....

 

Matthew

[HapiFeet]

Thanks for the responses. It looks like we won't have that much time on our hands after all. I checked into the reserved lounges.... $70. I don't think we want to pay that much for drinks and snacks. We'll probably find a restaurant and park ourselves for a while. After a 10-hour flight, a recliner chair would be nice.:)

[Host CJSKIDS]

Is there?

 

Which Heathrow are we talking about? - I thought that there was only one and that was in West London....

 

Matthew

 

There were great shops in Terminal 4, from MAC cosmetics to Burberry. There are enough decent shops that you can kill some time walking through them. Much better than JFK, that's for sure.

 

As far as Heathrow being a dump, compared to many of the airports that I've been in, especially in the Caribbean it's pretty nice.

[HapiFeet]

I was born without the shopping gene, so we'll have to find another way to kill time.

 

By the way, the "left luggage" is actually a luggage storage facility. There's one in each terminal. We'll have to check it out.

[Globaliser]

We're flying into Heathrow from SFO and have a 5-hour layover before getting on Alitalia to Rome. Since I booked 2 separate flights, we have to pick up our luggage from British Airways and re-check it into Alitalia. ... Does anyone have suggestions about what we can do with ourselves for 5 hours while dragging our luggage? I see a "left luggage" location on the terminal map but it doesn't look very big. I don't want to check our luggage into Alitalia early for fear of them being lost.

By the time that you have got yourself to Terminal 2, you'll only have something like 3½ to 4 hours left. So you probably won't have as much spare time left as you think.

 

"Left luggage" is indeed somewhere that you can deposit your luggage and collect it later. It is not a lost property office. But it's something like £6 per bag per 24 hours, so you may find this very expensive if you have several bags and only want them looked after for an hour or two.

 

If you're only waiting for an hour or two before checking-in with Alitalia, your best bet may well be to go to the first floor of Terminal 2 (one floor above check-in, which is - unusually - on the ground floor) and sit in the coffee shop there with a paper and some breakfast. But, personally, if I were in your shoes I would check-in with Alitalia as soon as I could and be shot of all the luggage.

Also, does anyone know of an airport lounge where we can buy a 1-day pass?

Here is one source for pay-as-you-go entry to a lounge at T2. But if you want to check-in for your Alitalia flight later rather sooner, you may find that £18 is not worth paying for the amount of time you actually have in the lounge. One other thing: It is unclear whether the lounge has showers, which I personally think are one of the most important features of a good lounge.

 

You might also want to have a look at this thread, where a very similar question was asked.

[Globaliser]

There is great shopping at Heathrow so once through security you can shop or stop off at a restaurant and have something to eat.

Is there?

 

Which Heathrow are we talking about? - I thought that there was only one and that was in West London....

Go on, then, tell us which airports have better shopping than Heathrow!

 

One of the biggest complaints about Heathrow is that it's too much to do with the shops and not enough to do with the business of getting people on and off aircraft - or, in other words, that it's a shopping mall that happens to have some airliners attached to it.

Heathrow is a dump.

Any suggestions of better airports (from which you can actually go to places beyond the Costa Wotsit-type Mediterranean resorts)?

[HapiFeet]

I guess I'm afraid that if we check our luggage in too early, Alitalia will lose it. We'll be gone for 23 days including a 12-day cruise.

[edinburgher]

Had to smile at this post. That 5 hours will disappear. Unfortunately not in comfort if our past experiences are anything to go by.

 

We gave up on both Heathrow and Gatwick last October, almost a year now, and so far for next year too. Both were equally bad. All we ever did was stand in line. Then stand in another. Then another. Then a mad run to get to the gate before the flight left without us. Always horrendous. As much as 2 and 1/2 hours standing in line.

 

The finally thing for us was arriving back into whichever terminal it was at Heathrow, getting off the plane, walking a couple of hundred yards.....then standing and standing and standing. waiting for coaches to transfer us to T1 for our connecting flight. It wasnt ashortage of coaches. T1 had such enormously long lines for security that the terminal was full to capacity. They would only move passengers from other terminals to T1 in small groups...as and when space freed up. Of course, once we actually reached T1 we were right at the back of the lines all over again. You have been warned.

 

PARIS CDG has some beautiful shops in the departure areas.:)

[Kindlychap]

Go on, then, tell us which airports have better shopping than Heathrow!

 

Rome. It has a Ferrari shop, at which I bought a gorgeous wooden Ferrari model for my 18 month old nephew.

 

And some seriously nice shops according to my wife.

 

Any airport that has a Ferrari store beats Heathrow.

 

And the airport itself is nicer.

 

Matthew

[HapiFeet]

Had to smile at this post. That 5 hours will disappear. Unfortunately not in comfort if our past experiences are anything to go by.

 

We gave up on both Heathrow and Gatwick last October, almost a year now, and so far for next year too. Both were equally bad. All we ever did was stand in line. Then stand in another. Then another. Then a mad run to get to the gate before the flight left without us. Always horrendous. As much as 2 and 1/2 hours standing in line.

 

The finally thing for us was arriving back into whichever terminal it was at Heathrow, getting off the plane, walking a couple of hundred yards.....then standing and standing and standing. waiting for coaches to transfer us to T1 for our connecting flight. It wasnt ashortage of coaches. T1 had such enormously long lines for security that the terminal was full to capacity. They would only move passengers from other terminals to T1 in small groups...as and when space freed up. Of course, once we actually reached T1 we were right at the back of the lines all over again. You have been warned.

 

YIKES!!!:eek: And this was during October and not summer travel time? This is just what we will want to do after being on a plane for 10 hours. Ugh!

[edinburgher]

Heathrow does not have "summer time" peaks and quiter periods at other times.

 

Heathrow is working at full/over capacity year round. Thats why anything at all going wrong, no matter how seemingly trivial, has a knock on effect which causes delay and disruption.

[kazover40]

A bit late for this trip, but for the future, try checking out flying to Dublin or Belfast for onward flights to Europe. A far more pleasant experience and a shorter flying time.

 

This is the route I choose when going to the States and Europe.

[kazover40]

A bit late for this trip, but for the future, try checking out flying to Dublin or Belfast for onward flights to Europe. A far more pleasant experience and a shorter flying time.

 

This is the route I choose when going to the States and Europe.

[Spikesgirl]

We'd heard a lot of horror stories about flying in and out of Heathrow. our flight in and luggage claim was absolutely painless. Customs was a walk through and everyone was friendly and chatty. Then people said, "Oh yeah, arriving at Heathrow is great, it's when you leave that the horror begins."

 

Gotta say, it wasn't as bad as the International terminal at LAX. We were held up because I travel with a pair of FAA approved scissors, but they always have to check them anyway. It was crowded, but the flow was fairly smooth. Guess we just hit it right or something.

 

As for shopping, there were a ton of duty free shops in Terminal 4, but I thought the shopping was better at the Beijing Airport and it's really hard to beat the shopping at the Portland airport - IMO.

 

Charlie

[Globaliser]

YIKES!!!:eek: And this was during October and not summer travel time? This is just what we will want to do after being on a plane for 10 hours. Ugh!

And then there was May, when I arrived from Berlin on a delayed flight and got off the aircraft at just after 9.30pm at a remote stand, having to be taken by coach to Terminal 1. And then I made my 10.00 pm flight to Sydney from Terminal 4. No worries.

[troywest]

Even if you purchased the tickets separately, if the airlines have a baggage agreement, (and often, even if they don't) you can get the bags checked through to your final destination.

 

This is particularly true if you can find a sky-cap that still has manual baggage tags that can be handwritten. a $20 bill works wonders.

 

If you do go to the counter, they can manually enter your continuing flifo, and print the bag tags.

 

 

It's much better to check the bags through, and then carefully follow the "connecting passengers" exit & instructions so as to avoid many (but not all) hassles.

[Globaliser]

Even if you purchased the tickets separately, if the airlines have a baggage agreement, (and often, even if they don't) you can get the bags checked through to your final destination.

 

This is particularly true if you can find a sky-cap that still has manual baggage tags that can be handwritten. a $20 bill works wonders.

The OP's first flight is on British Airways. Because the second flight is on Alitalia, and is on a different ticket, BA will not through-check the bag onto Alitalia. This is a rule that has now been in place for a couple of years.

 

And it is not possible to get a skycap to check the bag onto the BA flight, however big a bribe you want to pay, because baggage must be checked at the BA counter.