Transit LHR terminal 5 to terminal 3

[Saintly]

I'll be arriving into LHR terminal 5 from Madrid on BA483 at 21:00 and transit to terminal 3 for my BA7310 flight to SIN at 22:30 on a Sunday. Is one and a half hour enough to achieve a successful transfer, the LHR website seems to indicate that is adequate.

- How do I get from T5 to T3 ?
- Do I need to go thru immigration at T5 and then security at T3?
- If my leg from Madrid is delayed what would happen?
Any advice, instructions or tips would be welcomed and thanks in advance.

 

[Princess Fiona]

90 minutes is the minimum connection time from T5-T3.
IMHO that's pretty tight, but you could be lucky.
On landing at T5 follow signs for flight connections and you will get on a bus to T3. You will clear security on arrival at T3, no immigration as you have arrived from the EU.
If possible I would catch an earlier connection from MAD.

 

[Traveller1955]

Also depending on UK Customs / immigration; whatever you do make sure all your liquids are less than 100 ml are shown in the plastic bag and your other travellers on your flight do the same otherwise you will not get thru on time!

 

[Saintly]

To put me in a better position to understand what are the critical points that impact on this connection from T5 to T3, can someone comment on the following:

1. Time from arrival gate at T5 to the airside bus. (best & worse case scenario).
2. Frequency of transit bus (10 minutes worse case scenario?).
3. Bus journey time from T5 to T3.
4. Time from bus stop to security in T3.

5. Time thru security (Big ?? - how long is a piece of string) on Sunday night.

6. Time from security to Qantas gate.


Is Sunday evening/night a busy time at LHR T5/T3 ?

 

[redmussie]

Agree 90mins is a min. T5 is a bus ride from T3 then you have T3 security. We recently did it in 30mins and only saved as the QF flight was delayed. I would allow as much time as you can, especially if you have bags. You might make it but the bags may not, mine did not.

 

[Kraken]

Another pointer for you - to speed up your journey, try to make sure you have your BP LHR-SIN-MEL. If you need your BP, you'll need to collect it at T3 once you come off the bus. So you may queue. I had a late inbound, could have caught my flight had it not been the queue to collect my onward BP.

You're protected if you're on a single PNR.

 

[redmussie]

See comments in the body of your post

To put me in a better position to understand what are the critical points that impact on this connection from T5 to T3, can someone comment on the following:

1. Time from arrival gate at T5 to the airside bus. (best & worse case scenario). allow 25mins
2. Frequency of transit bus (10 minutes worse case scenario?). 10 mins is good
3. Bus journey time from T5 to T3. 15-20mins
4. Time from bus stop to security in T3. close

5. Time thru security (Big ?? - how long is a piece of string) on Sunday night. every nite is big at Heathrow

6. Time from security to Qantas gate. 10mins fast walk you have to go thru the shopping area and that can be crowded


Is Sunday evening/night a busy time at LHR T5/T3 ?

 

[bismarck]

Qantas have ticketed myself and SWMBO on BA471 from Barcelona (landing Terminal 5) through LHR Terminal 3 onto QF10 to Melbourne and then on to Sydney.

We land 8:55pm and depart LHR 10:30pm.

Personally, I find 1hr35min a pretty tight turnaround time, but I just want to check that if they've ticketed it they'll put us on the next flight if we miss the connection? What would be the next flight back to Australia?

 

[Canny man]

Oh boy. Wouldn't like to chance that. Last time I did a 5 to 3 transfer BA couldn't park the plane into LHR at 5, so they offloaded us at 3. Bingo you think, more time in Flounge. No chance. They insisted on quarantining us, and then bussing us from 3 to 5 where we should have landed. We then had to to do the reverse transfer with all the time requirements above. 3 security was the slowest and rudest I've experienced in years, worse than LAX.

 

[cgichard]

When are you travelling? If after 30 March, consider changing booking to BA for LHR-SIN-onwards, as from that date BA will be using T5 for flights to and from Australia. No change of terminal would then be involved.

 

[bismarck]

Travelling on a whY ONE ticket in January next year. I didn't think you could change ONE tickets?

 

[simongr]

Personally, I find 1hr35min a pretty tight turnaround time, but I just want to check that if they've ticketed it they'll put us on the next flight if we miss the connection? What would be the next flight back to Australia?

The next (and only) flight after that is a direct flight (single flight number) is VS200.

Interestingly the Heathrow website shows QF2 departing at 21:30 in April.