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If you’re traveling with British Airways and connecting at Heathrow Terminal 5, you may need to check your booking to make sure that everything is still in order because thanks to a small change that the airline has made, some passengers will need to be rebooked on to an alternative connecting flight.
Yesterday, British Airways sent out an email to travel professionals saying that it has increased the minimum connection time for some of its flights passing through London Heathrow and that as a result, some passengers will need to be rebooked.
Specifically, British Airways has increased its minimum connection time from 60 minutes to 75 minutes and this may impact you if you’re connecting at Heathrow because based on the list of connections that British Airways has highlighted as being affected …
- BA long haul to BA long haul
- BA long haul to BA/Iberia short haul
- BA long haul to BA domestic
- BA/Iberia short haul to BA long haul
- BA domestic to BA long haul
… every type of BA connection at Heathrow could be affected.
The airline says that it has made this change “following customer feedback” and to allow customers more time to connect onto their next flight and reduce the risk of passengers missing their onward service.
It has also told travel professionals that bookings that now breach this new minimum connection time have been highlighted (in the booking network) and that affected passengers should be rebooked on to connections that comply with the new requirement.
If you have booked directly with BA and are affected by this, you should expect to receive an email telling you that your flights have been changed (at no charge) in the very near future, but it may be worth checking your bookings just in case that has not yet happened.
If you have booked through a 3rd party and are affected by this, you should also expect to be contacted about this and you should also expect to be rebooked automatically (at no charge), but the efficiency with which this is done will probably vary from agency to agency.
The key thing here is not to wait to hear from the airline or from whichever agency you used to book your flights. Be proactive and check your bookings as soon as possible as the earlier you deal with this the better chance you have of getting rebooked on a connection that works well for you.
Bottom line
British Airways has increased its minimum connection time (MCT) at London Heathrow to 75 minutes and that means that some customers will find that their bookings are now in breach of the airline’s MCT rule.
Most customers who are affected should find that BA or the agency through which they booked will automatically rebook them on to a new compliant connecting flight, but just in case something isn’t quite right in the systems, anyone who thinks that they may be affected should check their bookings as soon as possible and get their itinerary altered if that has not already happened.
