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Gatwick-Heathrow Transport; Day rooms to rent at Heathrow?

Gatwick-Heathrow Transport; Day rooms to rent at Heathrow?

Old Aug 13th, 2004, 07:06 PM
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Gatwick-Heathrow Transport; Day rooms to rent at Heathrow?

Hi, all,

A cousin of mine is going to start working in Africa later this month. Her company travel agent booked her to transit in London to get to Africa. Unfortunately, the agent arranged for her to fly into Gatwick and out of Heathrow (with 12 hours in between flights). Two questions:
- What are the options/best options for getting from Gatwick to Heathrow, and at roughly what cost?
- Does Heathrow have any "sleeping rooms" that can be rented for less than a full day? If not, what low- to moderately-priced hotels would you recommend at Heathrow for getting some rest during this layover?

Many thanks.

John H.
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Old Aug 13th, 2004, 07:17 PM
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There is an inexpensive direct coach service between LGW and LHR. Absolutely no problem and it is really the only practical way to do the transfer.

As for day rooms - there are some hotels that offer them but they tend to be almost as expensive as a regular room. What time is she landing?

If it is very early in the morning. Does she really want to sleep all day? and then be up all night on the next flight?

If she is arriving in the afternoon - I'd either book the LHR Travel Inn -- £49 on weekends, £70 on weekdays. Or bid priceline for a 4 star - people often get hotels for $50 to $75 more or less.
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Old Aug 13th, 2004, 09:07 PM
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Another possibility is to see if she can get lounge access at Heathrow. Then she might be able to take a shower and rest up there, and consume the free food and drinks that are available there. If she doesn't have sufficient frequent flyer privileges to get complimentary access, she may be able to pay for a lounge pass.
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Old Aug 14th, 2004, 08:03 AM
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Thanks for the responses. Is it still possible to check luggage at Heathrow? I made the assumption that it is, but wanted to confirm. Also, are any hotels particularly convenient to getting to and from Terminal 4 at Heathrow?

Thanks.

John H
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Old Aug 14th, 2004, 08:10 AM
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Buy lounge access - this is far cheaper, and more benficial than having a day room at an hotel. It also saves you having to worry about transfer times to the airport etcetera.
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Old Aug 15th, 2004, 07:46 AM
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Thanks for all of the advice.

M_Kingdom2, I checked lounge access on the Heathrow Airport site and it appears that if you are purchasing lounge access for a day they only allow that access 3 hours before flight departure time. So, that may not work. But, thanks for the suggestion.

John H.
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Old Aug 15th, 2004, 10:47 AM
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For $42 on Priceline, I got the Holiday Inn Ariel at Heathrow. Free transport from the airport on any city bus ( no need to pay 5 pounds for the Hoppa Shuttle bus).
You might want to check out biddingfortravel.com. She is probably on an expense account, but we were thrilled with the value. Only 3 miles from the airport, at most.
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Old Aug 15th, 2004, 10:51 AM
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The difficulty with a Priceline hotel in this case is that she might not be able to check in until 2 or 3 PM. It's quite likely an early check-in would be granted, but it couldn't be guaranteed.
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Old Aug 15th, 2004, 10:54 AM
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The problem with lounges is that while you can shower and hang out, it's not as though you can really sleep there. Sure, you can stretch out on a couch for an hour or so, but it's not like a room where you can really rest.
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Old Aug 15th, 2004, 11:50 AM
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The Hilton at Heathrow is connected by covered walkway to Term 4 and is extremely convenient. They do rent day rooms as well and while they can be expensive at times you cannot beat the convenience for Term. 4. If I were your cousin I would most certainly ask the company to pay for this, they made the arragements that necessitate such a long layover.
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Old Aug 15th, 2004, 12:23 PM
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jh6000...you are correct, trying to stay for more than 3 hours in the lounge will be a problem. you generally cannot enter the lounge more than 3 hours before your scheduled departure time...well posted at the entrance to just about every lounge i've ever been in.

if it were me, i would probably just tough it out in the airports....spend maybe a couple hours at gatwick, then move on to heathrow. i would have a book some magazines and my laptop, look in the shops, eat 2 meals, etc, and the time will fly by (ok, it won't fly by but it won't be *so* bad).

the lounge is still an idea for the last 3 hours but buying lounge access is never good value.
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Old Aug 15th, 2004, 01:53 PM
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At both Gatwick terminals there's reasonable shopping landside (ie you can access it after coming through immigration and customs). And both terminals have a reasonable hotel (better in the south terminal) connected by a short walkway. So time can be killed having a few cups of tea in the airport hotels.

Alternatively, she could get the (frequent) train for 20 mins from Gatwick to Brighton. A walk along the Prom - or a quick quest for the municipal pools - should wake her up (there are left luggage facilities at Gatwick).

There's a bus to Heathrow roughly every 5/10 mins at this time of the year from Gatwick (approx £20: official time 75 mins, but assume it'll take longer)

Alternatively, it's a fast train into London, there's tons to see and do round Victoria (including left luggage facilities) where the train arrives, and she should allow an hour from Victoria to LHR

There's limited stuff to do at LHR landside (though it's OKish at T3, which some African airlines use, though BA and Kenyan are mostly T4 and SAA is T1. Both almost devoid of landside shopping, though there's an OK bookstore at the domestic end of T1). Airside, and it's a different matter. All four LHR terminals airside are shopping malls half-heartedly pretending to be an airport

I labour this because if she's with BA, the pointless pain they've invented this year (they pride themselves on always coming up with something new)is that you can only check your bags in (I think) 3 hrs before. Any earlier and they make you hang around till the witching hour.

So if she's with them (and do double check what I'm saying), she can't actually go airside till 3 hrs or whatever before.

So she may as well have some fun, or at any rate brisk exercise, in London or Brighton before delivering herself up to LHR's tender mercies. There are other suggestions on this board about killing time from LHR.
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