sylbea

We are booked on the Blue Danube River Cruise with Avalon for June 2006. They have us flying from Tampa to London, with a 7 hour layover and then to Budapest on British Airways. They have told us there is nothing else they can offer us. Has anyone else had this situation? Is there anything we can do for 7 hours? This is my first post, if there is another place that is better to post please let me know. Thanks.

rkkwan

Here's your problem:

BA's TPA-London flight arrives 9am at Gatwick LGW.

BA doesn't fly LGW-BUD. It has 3 daily flights LHR-BUD. You can't make the morning flight, so the one you'll be taking is at ~3:10pm. After going through immigration/customs, collecting your bags, find the bus from LGW to LHR, and actual travel time, you probably only have about 3 hours in Heathrow.

Now, your tour company probably has a deal with British Airways. I would see if they can route you TPA-JFK-LHR, as the earliest BA flight into LHR arrives 6:45am, and you can probably make the early flight to BUD at 8:25am. [But then, the only non-stop TPA-JFK flights are on Delta and Jetblue. Neither is a partner of BA, so they may not be able to get you that.]

Or you can consider buying your own easyjet flight from LGW to BUD. Or have the tour operator pay for that instead. It leaves at 12:15pm, so gives you more time in Budapest and save you a LGW-LHR transfer.

sylbea

I'm sorry. I posted an answer in the wrong place. I have it figured out now I think. My response is in the European Board under a new listing. That is the reason I never logged onto these boards, I was afraid I would do something wrong!
Thanks again.

rex

Fear not. Everyone was new once. Your "other" ("misplaced&quot post will float "to the bottom" and cause no one any consternation. When your heart is in the right place (saying thanks)... your post won't be considered in the "wrong" place...

Keep on posting...

Best wishes,

Rex

Where2Travel

Definitely consider Easyjet from LGW to BUD is this saves you transferring between London airports. I would try and avoid a transfer between LGW and LHR at all costs (although people do seem to do this transfer regularly). Plus taking Easyjet, you will (all being well) get to Budapest much sooner. The main downside is you won't be be flying all your trip on one airline but with a 3 hour gap between your flights at LGW, you should have no problems at all.

However, you won't be able to book seats on Easyjet for next June for another month or so when they will release the schedules for next summer.

rex

Bringing your message back up "to the top" - - to help you understand "where messages are". Before I post this message, this could be found, "dropped down", adjacent to any other post with a reply around 1:11 pm on November 4.