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I am booked from Perth Australia to Leeds Bradford all on one ticket. Qatar from Perth to Doha and onto London Heathrow, and then British Airways from Heathrow to Leeds Bradford.

Will I need to collect my luggage in Terminal 4 at Heathrow and take it to Terminal 5 to pass through Customs, or will my luggage automatically be transferred from Qatar Airways (landing at Terminal 4) onto the British Airways flight departing from Terminal 5?

I have a 2 hour time frame between landing at Terminal 4 and my domestic flight out of Heathrow to Leeds Bradford, is this enough time?

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  • Can anyone estimate how long it takes to walk/bus/maglev/etc from the worst T4 gate to the worst T5 gate?
    – Fattie
    Sep 25, 2014 at 14:32

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If it's all one ticket, you won't have to worry. When you check in at Perth airport, they should check your luggage all the way through to Leeds, as it's one ticket, but check with them that they do. The baggage tag receiptss you'll be given will then show them as going to Leeds.

On arrival into Heathrow, follow the Purple "Flight Connections" signs, then "Flight Connections Terminal 5". This will lead you to a bus to T5. When you get to T5, you'll then follow "Flight Connections UK Domestic", which will take you through UK Immigration. Then it's up stairs and through security, and into the terminal. If you don't already have the BA boarding card, there's a BA connections desk just before immigration who can issue it to you.

When you get to Leeds, you'll collect your bags, then exit the baggage claim area, probably through customs. (I'm not completely certain how they do it in Leeds). If you need to declare something, there should be a customs phone there, assuming there's no customs people manning the "something to declare not from the EU" line.

If for some reason your flight is late, the cut-off at Terminal 5 is to go through "conformance" (just before the immigration) 35 minutes before the flight departs. If you miss that, you go to the BA flight connections desk, who will re-book you onto a later Leeds flight. If you miss the last one of the night, they'll sort you a hotel too. Note that this is only because you'll be on one ticket, if you booked it as two different tickets you'd be out of luck...

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  • Exactly. Ensure that your baggage is "Checked through to Leeds.". You have to say that phrase over and over and over and over and over when you check in. Just keep asking as clearly as possible "Are you ABSOLUTELY sure this is CHECKED TO LEEDS?"
    – Fattie
    Sep 25, 2014 at 14:31
  • I don't know about Leeds, but it's often the case that there's a separate baggage reclaim belt for people whose journeys have started outside of the EU (and typically there's just a phone for customs by there).
    – gsnedders
    Mar 5, 2015 at 16:35
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The standard IATA minimum transit time is 105 minutes however if you do have to collect your luggage that does not apply.

So, between terminals is 20 minutes average journey time including wait by Bus 482 or 490.

Minimum check in time is 45 minutes.

That leaves about 55 minutes for all else, including Immigration, collecting baggage (if not checked through) and further screening.

Or put another way, you have 15 minutes more than the IATA minimum. But Qatar Airways and BA are oneworld alliance partners and I expect your baggage will be checked through. Anyway, if you were to miss your connection BA should make alternative arrangements for you (they have three flights a day and there is a train service). So I'd say "Yes (very probably)".

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