Connection a Heathrow?

[Le Piou]

I am going back to France next summer. Usually, I fly with Air France as it's the only direct flight form SFO to Paris...
But this year, it's way too expensive...
So I am considering taking British Airways with one stop at Heathrow airport...
The problem is that I heard that this airport is one of the worst for connections... That said I only heard about people switching companies there...
But for people who do SFO/London, then directly London/Somewhere-else, still on British Airways, how is it?

Any opinion/advice will be very appreciated!

thanks!

[johnc]

heathrow sucks donkey dongs ... it is the WORST airport in the entire galaxy. 

the TSA wonks working there are even more brain dead and slow than the TSA employees here in the states.

and, if you have a connecting flight, and there is a delay ... you cannot exit the arrival area at heathrow ... so you are stuck in hell for the duration of your layover.

avoid heathrow at all cost.

[cduarte]

agreed, heathrow is a shitty airport, shit, even Sao Paulo has a better one as much as it does suck.

[somegirl]

CDG is worse but Heathrow is impressive for its inefficiency.

Can you connect in Frankfurt or Munich or Amsterdam?

[Le Piou]

Everything else is too expensive...
2 adults, 2 kids... It adds up very quickly... I think I'm gonna go with BA. The SFO flight lands in the terminal 5, and my connecting flight to CDG is also in the T5... So that should not be too hard... I'll make sure to have plenty of time between the flights and few backup flights later on, just in case...

[cduarte]

CDG is worse but Heathrow is impressive for its inefficiency.

Can you connect in Frankfurt or Munich or Amsterdam?

I don't know, CDG has kind of grown on me, even though they aren't using the habritrail for humans terminal for international flights anymore.

[Michael Moore]

I can only imagine with all the latest hysteria, Heathrow is going to be even more fun.

[gojira]

If you have a transfer between terminals, expect to walk. A very LONG walk.

Flying into and out of the same terminal for international arrivals and onto the Euro countries was rare in the past, but if you managed to get an arrangement that way, cherish the luck.

I take it Virgin Atlantic was pricey? The seatback videos on each seat came in very handy for killing the time ... built in videogames, movies, music videos, you name ... all because of the Virgin connection.

I don't know, CDG has kind of grown on me, even though they aren't using the habritrail for humans terminal for international flights anymore.

That's a bummer ... brought back memories of those Habitrail commercials every time I walked through those.

[cduarte]

pretty much all the good foreign carriers have the seatback videos now, at least Singapore, Thai Airways and Korean Airlines have them.

[Le Piou]

pretty much all the good foreign carriers have the seatback videos now, at least Singapore, Thai Airways and Korean Airlines have them.

Yep. I can confirm also for Luftansa and Air france at least.
Last time I flew on United they did not... 

[Desmostro]

Heathrow isn't bad if you like being yelled at every step of the way like cattle, strip searched including cavity checks, then having to empty every single item you brought with you for inspection, scrutiny, and confiscation. They live for that shit at Heathrow.

Its the cold hands I mind. That's rude.

[sroberts152]

I flew into and out of Heathrow last September. I did a business trip last year that took me to London for a week, then flew out to Frankfurt then a connecting flight at Heathrow back to the US. 

I stayed in the same terminal for my connecting flight and had to go back through security.  Like we magically found bombs between the efficient and effective German security check and making it to Heathrow.  None of us understood that.  And we were yelled at, packed into small areas, forced to wait around.  One person was yelled at because his English wasn't that good.

I don't think flying into and out of it was that bad, but the connecting flights were a PITA.  Also, the information for the departing flights is pretty poor.  I ended up waiting in one area, thinking I was near my gate and then had to run to catch my flight at the far end of another area in the terminal. 

On a side note, British Airways is awesome.  Wine with meals, wine after takeoff, more wine if you ask for it.  Good times.

[Desmostro]

On a side note, British Airways is awesome.  Wine with meals, wine after takeoff, more wine if you ask for it.  Good times.

+1 on that

Us air companies absolutely bite these days. Almost every other airline beside the little tiny ones are way better than any US airline company. American, United, Delta, US Air, ...gawd they suck compared to Virgin, British, KLM, Singapore, Luftanza, Alitalia, etc etc. wtf?
Virgin America being the exception, though, V America isn't really a US company is it.

[cduarte]

Virgin is a british company and it's always been that way since Pan Am bit the dust back in '93. I've flown on Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Air Afrique, UTA (now defunct),Virgin Atlantic, British Midlands, Air France and Varig (which sucked) and they all were great. Every time I've flown an american carrier overseas it has sucked. Thai Airways and Singapore were fantastic.

[somegirl]

Yeah, there are a lot better options than United or American.

However, if you try some of the other European and Asian airlines, such as RyanAir, SleazyJet (I mean easyJet), Aeroflot, or any of the domestic Chinese airlines, you'll feel a lot better about our US airlines.