Panic!! Connecting between Heathrow to Gatwick

[Freehugs]

Hello

I booked a package holiday through British airways which includes a connecting flight and hotel etc.

I land at Heathrow at 08.35 and need to get to Gatwick for my next flight which leaves at 12 with check in/ bag drop off closing at 11.

Having always flown direct from Scotland I’ve never done this before. And I assumed BA’s system wouldn’t let you book something that wasn’t feasible.

So exchanging cash for my trip next month at a different travel company and the travel agent asked about my holiday. She was of the opinion that the connection time is a bit unrealistic.

We will have checked in luggage to collect and have arranged private transfers from Heathrow to Gatwick.

Started to panic so called BA holidays to be told we only have two options 1) we take our chances and hope we make it.
2)we can pay over £900 for our family to get on the earlier flight.

And that if our Glasgow flight was delayed which causes us to miss our connecting flight then BA would then take responsibility.

But if we were delayed by say bagged delays/road works etc we would need to pay for new flights to Punta Cana ourselves.

Please someone reassure me this is doable?

This (and make sure BA know what you’re doing, so you’re not down as a no-show)

if you are not in and or around the gate at the prescribed time then you can be denied boarding. If you are in the gate area then that’s all good, you are ready to board the aircraft when your group number is called (that’s another thing BA do these days).

For an A380 boarding of the aircraft often starts around an hour prior to departure. This is also due to security checks and other checks that are made. Short haul departures usually cease boarding around 15-20 minutes prior to departure.

I’ve seen passengers suitcases offloaded because of late arrival at the gate.

I've kind of got a bit of a grasp of how it works, timings etc, most of the above sounds very familiar and is no change from my days tbh (including bag offload)..

If boarding started on time 🙄you'd expect to mostly done by STD -15 on a good day and even so latecomers got accepted at the gate down to maybe STD-5..and you could still get away on time.

A firm closing of gates at STD -20 has the potential to clobber connecting passengers (big business at LHR), hence some of my surprise.

Some airlines seem to allow v fast connections which is massively anxiety provoking. We had a choice recently of a 35 minute or 4 hour transfer. I took the latter as it was cheaper and i didn’t want the stress. We had people on our flight who has that transfer and they were sprinting off the plane.

I don’t think a 3 hour transfer between Gatwick and Heathrow is reasonable for a leisure holiday. I think they could just about get away with doing that for business travel where hand luggage was more likely but even then it’s a bit tight. last time we landed at Heathrow it took at least an hour to get to the exit from landing. That stretch of the m25 also clogs up easily. We once nearly missed a flight from Gatwick (despite planning to be there 3 hours before departure) due to an accident on the m25. We didn’t have time to get to our booked parking and had to pay something extortionate for last minute valet parking on site and we’re running through the airport to get the flight.

Ok update

After sending a message to their customer/complaints team yesterday, checked the status of our case and it said closed! So DH called them this evening and the person he spoke to agreed to make the change free of charge because my mil is elderly and youngest child is autistic. Very relieved! I won’t make the same mistake again assuming that getting from one airport to another is quick.

That’s a good outcome. I don’t think they should have suggested it in the first place so I’m glad you’ve pushed them and got it changed. You can relax and enjoy the holiday now.

Good news OP!

Excellent OP, but such a shame that you had to go through all this to get there. Enjoy yourselves.

@notimagain what is STD? I feel i should know!

Sorry, my bad.. Scheduled Time of Departure..which is the time the brakes should be released at the start of pushback (or start of taxi if no pushback required.)

So pleased you got the correct outcome. Happy holidays!

Great result! :D