Heathrow Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 Jaunt

[HappyMe_]

We arrive at Heathrow 8:05 am, Terminal 4 and must get to Terminal 1 for 9:25 am flight to Barcelona.

 

Have printed out the map off British Airways site, called Connecting at Heathrow which shows us the path which we must take, which includes a transfer bus. They suggest allowing 75 minutes for this, which is just about the time we have.

 

Has anyone else gone this route, Terminal 4 to 1? It looks a tad tight to me, :D . We won't be dragging our luggage, hopefully. Perhaps I will just send the long legged members of the party ahead.

 

Your experiences would be appreciated.

[JXR]

I did Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 last year, and it took me a while. I had 2 tickets though. You will need to take the tram from one terminal to the other. That is really not bad, just follow the signs.

 

Hopefully, you will not have to clear customs, if you do, you will not make it in 45 minutes. Just clearing customs took me 2 1/2 hours. The lines were that long.

 

Don't lose time, 45 minutes is not a whole lot of time to try and make that connection.

 

Good Luck,

 

Joanne

[pog27]

I've transfered between terminals 1 and 4 before and it will be a tight connection, but assuming your flight arrives on time I think you will make it without a problem. When you arrive, follow the signs for flight connections instead of customs and you won't have to clear customs. They have buses that run regularly between the terminals airside (to get to the "tram" you would have to clear customs). Last year I was on a transatlantic flight transfering to a flight to Rome (with a transfer from T4 to T1). I had a choice of a 1 1/2 hour connection or a 3 hour connection, chose the latter and it wasn't necessary. I made the connection in about 40 minutes.

[ab0si]

TGhat flight is jointly opperated by BA and Iberia. If Iberia equipment is being used, bot to worry. They haven't taken off on time in years. :)

 

Seriously, depending on all sorts of things, the flight into Heathrow can land anywhere from 40 minutes early to whenever. As mentioned above, you do not need to clear customs. You will need to clear passport control.

 

Worst cast, there are later flights to Barcelona including one leaving at 11:15 am (arrives BCN at 2:15 pm).. that should still get you to the ship (if you are boarding that day) in plently of time.

 

I hope, though, you are spending some time in Barcelona. Great city.

 

Paul

[HappyMe_]

Thanks all, appreciate everyone's experiences, a few questions please:

 

JXR, you mentioned '2 tickets' not sure what that is. My situation is, we are connecting to another British Airways Flight, therefore, I 'assume' we have '1' ticket. Correct assumption on my part? Also your comment, hopefully not clearing customs, how can I avoid that? We will have carryon (1 pc each) as our friends will too. Is this the luck of draw? I do check diligently the directives of carryons and will be most careful in not packing anything that is not allowed.

 

Pog27, I think I understand what you mean here. When first off plane you do not need to clear customs, however, we will at one point? However, on map I printed from BA site, it shows Transfer Bus and then up an escalator to Customs. Just a different order.

 

Ab0si, Your post made me laugh, (in a good way), re Iberia having never taken off on time in years:) . Our connecting flight says it is BA as well, however, I know they could be 'partnering'. You mention just clearing passport, not sure that would work with carryon, however, guess we will find out when we get there! We are indeed spending a couple of days extra in beautiful Barcelona. But we have made arrangements for pickup at airport and would be nice to notify our driver if this arrangement falls through. Also, we need 4 seats for next flight, that has not been pre-arranged, so that may cause another problem.

 

After all is said and done, methinks I need to have a chat with our TA, once tickets are in to discuss this situation.

 

Thank you again everyone.

[741323]

As your flight to Spain is leaving from the UK it will need to comply with the hand baggage requirements of the UK (not the same as the US). Check out www.baa.com for information on this. I came through T4 last week and they were dividing up passengers into lines for T4 connections and T123 connections to cut down the queues but you WILL be delayed if your baggage doesn't comply with the UK rules even though you are in transit.

[DonLou]

HappyMe_,

I can relate our experience about two weeks ago going from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 (From Rome FCO, transit through Heathrow to New York). We used British Air and it arrived in Heathrow about twenty minutes late. At that point we had about 75 minutes to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4. The problem occurred when we got to the Security Checkpoint. The line was at least an hour long. After that we still had to board a bus to get to Terminal 4. There was no way we were going to make the plane.

 

Luckily, I spotted a British Air Express line which was dedicated for First Class and Premium service passengers. We were only coach class but I went over to the BA rep, showed her that our flight was going to leave in about an hour. She took pity and let us use the express line. It still took us about ten minutes to get through security. We rushed, waited for the bus then hurried over to the gate at Terminal 4. We had twenty minutes to spare.

 

Bottom line, going through Heathrow, I would allow at least 2 hours to transit through there unless you have a priority boarding ticket. The security check lines are horrendous.

[edste]

We went from terminal 4 to terminal 2 and had to clear customs first. Check if that is the case for you because you won't make your connection if it is. We had 2 hours and barely made it in time.

[Globaliser]

We arrive at Heathrow 8:05 am, Terminal 4 and must get to Terminal 1 for 9:25 am flight to Barcelona.

On the assumption that you're flying next northern summer (ie April 2007 or later), then it looks like you're on BA484 from Heathrow to Barcelona. That is indeed a BA-operated flight. (And Terminal 1 confirms it: the Iberia-operated flights go from Terminal 2.)

 

As you are flying BA-BA, your baggage should be checked through whether you're flying on one ticket or two. However, if you booked it as one trip from xxx -> BCN and back, you should be on one ticket anyway. You should also be issued with both boarding passes. Then you will not have to clear immigration or customs, and your baggage will be automatically transferred.

 

When you arrive at Terminal 4, follow the signs for Flight Connections. There is indeed a split between Flight Connections Terminal 4 and Flight Connections Terminals 123, but this is nothing to do with cutting down the queues. It's simply because T4 passengers go through security screening and walk upstairs. Everyone else has to go on a bus.

 

You need to go to Terminal 1. You will be taken by bus to the Flight Connections Centre. There, you take the escalator to the top floor (it's the only way you can go) where you're tipped into the security screening area.

 

After security screening, you will pass the airline transfer desks (in case you do need to stop off to pick up a boarding pass).

 

Then follow the signs for T1. This will take you down one level into a seating area. Check the monitors here for the gate number for your onward flight and then head towards the appropriate gate. If your flight goes from gates 36-56, you can save yourself a wasted walk by not rushing towards the T1 shopping area, as there's a much shorter walking route from the seating area to those gates. But the other T1 gates are reached from the shopping area.

 

80 minutes is not long for this connection. If you have a significant inbound delay, you will probably miss your LHR-BCN flight. But there are plenty more during the day, so it's not really much of a problem.

[Lise Dagenais]

We arrive at Heathrow 8:05 am, Terminal 4 and must get to Terminal 1 for 9:25 am flight to Barcelona.

 

Have printed out the map off British Airways site, called Connecting at Heathrow which shows us the path which we must take, which includes a transfer bus. They suggest allowing 75 minutes for this, which is just about the time we have.

 

Has anyone else gone this route, Terminal 4 to 1? It looks a tad tight to me, :D . We won't be dragging our luggage, hopefully. Perhaps I will just send the long legged members of the party ahead.

 

Your experiences would be appreciated.

 

 

We just arrived from Heathrow and it was easy

I had print the same map for the connecting terminal but it was much quicker

than they said, they are saying 75 min it is from getting out of your plane and getting to the other terminal

Usually if you are late someone will wait for you with a card so they will guide you and you will make it. It took us 20 min.

Have a nice trip

[canadiansnowbird]

Happy Me:

 

We just returned from our Med cruise yesterday and to save yourself some stress, make sure you go on line 24 hours before flight time and check in on line, secure and/or confirm your seats and print out your boarding passes. We had the exact same flights as you have and had the same amount of time before our flight to Barcelona. We could have missed our flight except for 1. checking in on BA website before and having boarding passes 2. The quick pass lane (and it is not just for first class passengers - used it for both in and out bound flights). 3. Stopping a BA stewardess who was looking for a Madrid passenger and asked her (while we were in the quick pass lane waiting to go through the security) what departure gate our flight was leaving at because you don't know what departure gate you have until you pass through security and locate the screens in the airport that tell you what gate. I knew we wouldn't have much time, and as it turned out we had 10 minutes to get through and run down the concourse to our gate. We just made it.

 

Also, make sure you have only one bag per person. That means if one of your party has a purse, make sure it goes in the carryon. It was a little hectic at the airport yesterday going from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 as many returning tourists had one carryon and purses or bags extra that they were making them put all in their one peice of luggage. Thankfully my purse fit in my small carryon. (Which we were only allowed on September 16th and since relaxed the rules on now)

 

Good Luck

Snowbird

[HappyMe_]

Hello All, many thanks to all that took time to post here.

 

It is so very much appreciated and gives us hope :) .

 

We have been able to glean wonderful tips from all your posts and, at the very least, we have a better understanding of how the system works, let's hope it's ON TIME, lol.

 

Definitely going to go online and get boarding passes printed out and be pro active in the passing lane. P.S. Snowbird, we are almost neighbours, Grimsby here.

 

Thank you all again