On this page (5 sections)
Airline or airport? Who handles what
This is the distinction that saves the most time, because most people instinctively call the airport and get sent to the airline. At Heathrow, the airline you are flying owns your flight; the airport owns the building. Almost every flight problem is therefore an airline matter.
Contact your airline for: bookings and fares, seat selection, check-in and bag-drop times, baggage allowance, lost or delayed checked bags, flight changes and name changes, delays and cancellations, UK261 compensation, and requesting special assistance.
Contact Heathrow the airport for: lost property found in a terminal, parking and drop-off, terminal facilities, and general airport queries. Even here there is overlap: special assistance is provided in the terminal but booked through the airline. The airport's own channels are on the contact Heathrow page, which deliberately routes flight-specific issues back to the airline for exactly this reason.
How to reach your airline
There is no single Heathrow airline phone line; each airline has its own contacts. In rough order of speed:
- Manage my booking and the airline app. The fastest route for changes, seat issues, and rebooking during disruption, with no queue.
- The airline's website contact page. The authoritative source for the current phone number, web form, and live chat. The table below links each major airline's site.
- Social media. Many airlines answer fastest on their X or messaging channels, which is worth trying during a delay when the phone lines are jammed.
- The desk at the terminal. The check-in or ticket desk is a last resort for an issue on the day, once you are at the airport and the other routes have not worked.
Have your booking reference, flight number and travel date ready whichever route you use; it speeds up every channel. If you are not sure which terminal your airline uses, the airlines by terminal lookup has it.
By problem
The four issues people most often try to phone about, and where each actually goes.
A lost or delayed checked bag. The airline, through its ground-handling agent, not Heathrow. Report it at the airline's baggage desk in the arrivals hall before you leave, and you get a reference to track it. The full process is on baggage reclaim.
A delay, cancellation or compensation claim. The airline, under UK261. Keep your boarding pass and receipts and claim in writing after the trip. The bands and the how-to are on passenger rights.
Special assistance. Book through the airline at least 48 hours ahead, even though the help is delivered in the terminal. Detail on special assistance.
Check-in and bag-drop times. Set by the airline and vary by carrier and route; the general pattern is on check-in times, but your airline's confirmation is authoritative.
The one thing that is genuinely the airport's, not the airline's, is something you left in a terminal or on the landside: that goes to Heathrow lost property, run by a contractor, not your airline.
Major airlines: terminal and contact
The busiest airlines at Heathrow, with the terminal they use and a link to the carrier's official site, where the current contact details and manage-my-booking live. For any airline not listed here, the full terminal lookup is on airlines by terminal, and Heathrow keeps a complete airline contact directory (linked in the sidebar).
| Airline | Terminal |
|---|---|
| British Airways | T5 |
| Iberia | T5 |
| Virgin Atlantic | T3 |
| American Airlines | T3 |
| Delta Air Lines | T3 |
| Emirates | T3 |
| Cathay Pacific | T3 |
| Qatar Airways | T4 |
| Etihad Airways | T4 |
| KLM | T4 |
| Air France | T4 |
| United Airlines | T2 |
| Air Canada | T2 |
| Air India | T2 |
| Lufthansa | T2 |
| Singapore Airlines | T2 |
| Turkish Airlines | T2 |
| SAS | T2 |
Airline names link to the carrier's official site, where the current phone number and contact options live. Terminals follow the airlines-by-terminal lookup and can change at short notice, so the airline's own confirmation is authoritative on the day. External links open in a new tab.
Practical tips
Three things that make contacting an airline less painful.
Pick the channel for the job. For a routine change, the app or manage-my-booking is faster than the phone. During mass disruption, social media and the app often beat the jammed phone lines, and a same-day rebooking sometimes appears in the app before an agent can do it for you.
Have the details ready. Booking reference, flight number, travel date, and the names on the booking. Every channel moves faster with these to hand, and the airline will ask for them first.
Know what is not the airline's. Lost property in the terminal, parking, and drop-off charges are Heathrow's, on the contact Heathrow page. Everything attached to the flight is the airline's. Getting that split right first time is usually the difference between a five-minute fix and an afternoon on hold.