LHR Terminal 3 arrival ?s

[mina]

Thanks to all for the input on our first class BA flight from LHR to PHX. Now, we just have to get there via an economy flight!

 

I am now trying to plan for our American ECONOMY flight from PHX - PHL - LHR arriving in Terminal 3. We will be seated in the second row of economy on the port side from PHL to LHR. We arrive on Saturday May 28 at 9 am. It looks like there are a number of other international flights that arrive around the same time. So, what can we expect for a wait to get through immigration? We are from the United States and will have no special status to go through speed lanes.

 

I am trying to decide if we should carry on our bags to save time on arrival or just check them through. If we are looking at a long time for immigration queues (I have read that two hours is not atypical), then we might as well check the bags as they are likely to be delivered by the time we get through.

 

Any additional tips for going through immigration and customs would also be appreciated. Thank you.

Edited February 23, 2016 by mina

[6rugrats]

Lots of information here:

 

http://www.heathrow.com/arrivals/immigration-and-passports

 

I don't know how long it will take. If I remember, you aren't making a connection, are you? If you want to check bags, I'd just do that.

[mina]

No connection. Just trying to figure out how busy it typically is during this arrival time at Terminal 3. Our first goal is to minimize wait time for our luggage on arrival. If the immigration queue does take up to two hours as I read in a FEW internet posts, then we will check. If the queues at Terminal 3 often go faster, then we will carry. I have not been able to get a lot of info on typical wait times for Terminal 3 arrivals. A lot on transferring and on Terminal 5 arrivals, but can't find experienced flyer comments on arriving at Terminal 3. Thanks for the link.

[Gardyloo]

There's really no way to say for sure. AA has a lot of gates at T3 that are very long walks from the immigration kiosks, but also some that aren't that far, and it's anybody's guess which one you'll get.

 

Immigration queues can be long or short. They're not as bad as a couple of years ago when HM border people were conducting a "go slow" over working conditions, but T3 gets a lot of big jets, so again, it's a bit of luck-of-the-draw.

 

As for waiting for bags, virtually every time I've been through T3 in the last decade, the bags were waiting for me by the time I got through the immigration controls. You go to the carousel where your flight's bags are assigned, put them on a (free) trolly, walk to the customs exit, and badda bing, welcome to Britain.

[mina]

Thanks, GardyLoo. I think we will check the bags through then. I just remember waiting in Barcelona for about 45 mins for our bags to come out after we got through immigration. We were exhausted, no place to sit and just wanted to leave:).