Anonymous wrote:Although Heathrow has eGates for US passport holders, you will walk Miles to get to immigration. I’d give at least a 2.5 hour layover to be safe.

And those won't work if traveling with children.

Although Heathrow has eGates for US passport holders, you will walk Miles to get to immigration. I’d give at least a 2.5 hour layover to be safe.

You could pull off that short of a connection in other European airports but absolutely not at Heathrow.

Anonymous wrote:That will be tight at LHR just because of the movement between the C gates where the US flights arrive (assuming BA) and either the A gates or another terminal for Europe. Added to that the frequency with which the IAD-LHR flights are delayed.

And good luck getting your luggage through Heathrow if you check that in.

At Heathrow last summer there were very fancy new automated scanners with self open/close doors for passport control. It was smooth and did not take too long.

Anonymous wrote:Agree that 2 hours is better. Even the taxiing to the gate can take a long time at Heathrow.

Note that the UK now requires an ETA visa ($13 for 2 years) even if you are just transiting. Supposedly they are trying to change that but not sure they have or will.

Correction - they have changed it for transiting if you are not going through border control. That may depend on whether you are changing terminals.

Agree that 2 hours is better. Even the taxiing to the gate can take a long time at Heathrow.

Note that the UK now requires an ETA visa ($13 for 2 years) even if you are just transiting. Supposedly they are trying to change that but not sure they have or will.

Not at Heathrow

On the way back, give yourself PLENTY of time. Last time I connected via Heathrow, I had 2.5 hrs connection. My flight was delayed an hour and apparently so was everyone else's in Europe because Heathrow was a disaster. The guy at the last security point took pity on me because even though I had 45 min until my flight took off , I never would have made it through the main line in time. He took me through some special back line and that line was 20 min and I still had to hustle another 10 min walk to my gate.

I love London. Heathrow is the devil.

That is super tight for Heathrow. You have to take a little bus to get to the terminal so you can’t just sprint if your plane is late.

I had a scheduled hour layover once at Heathrow and made my flight but just barely, and I was alone, moving as fast as I could, and I was directed to go through a special tunnel rather than the main concourse to save time.

Heathrow is a beast. Maybe others have had better luck than me, but I would not do a connection less than 2 hrs. No matter when I travel, what class I travel, and what kind of skip the line passes I may have, it always takes at least an hour.

I try to avoid Heathrow as much as possible.

That will be tight at LHR just because of the movement between the C gates where the US flights arrive (assuming BA) and either the A gates or another terminal for Europe. Added to that the frequency with which the IAD-LHR flights are delayed.

It depends. Since you are flying into a non-EU country, you will go through customs at your final destination. If your layover is in Germany and your final destination is Italy, you'd go through customs in Germany.

You should look up that info specifically for the UK. I've done stopovers in Europe (Vienna, Zurich, Frankfurt) with less than an 1 hr and have made it through the EU transit checkpoint in that amount of time, but I heard Heathrow can be messier and it's not EU.

in Europe, do you have to go through immigration/customs at your layover location, if it’s a different country than your final destination? Layover is Heathrow, and final destination is Athens, so trying to determine if 1 hour, 15 min. layover is enough time to do whatever it is we’ll have to do.