Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - GATWICK-WHERE&HOW

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GATWICK-WHERE&HOW

Is there a real problem flying into this airport and then transfering to Heathrow for a flight to the states?BA says 3hrs minimum.

The only real problem is they are many miles apart via one of the most congested motorways in Europe.

Hundreds of people make this connection every day - but I personally would not do it w/o at least a 4 hour window. Traffic can just be too bad and queues very long at both ends.

There is a direct LHR/LGW coach so the connection is simple - just time consuming.

If there is any way to avoid doing this I'd say try to find it. I think a min. of 4 hours is necessary in case there are traffic problems, etc. Of course, it can be done in less, but I would not risk it..just my personal way of traveling.

Pared to the bones, it takes less than an hour enroute to get into London on the Gatwick Express (25 min), cross town to Paddington Station (15), and ride the Heathrow Express to the airport (15).

As a practical matter, however, it always takes almost twice that time due to connecton times and delays. But never more than two hours any time I've done it.

Robespierre,

can you explain why you want to do the transfer the most expensive and troublesome way???

The www.nationalexpress.com takes ~1 hour and 15 minutes and its probably 1/3 total cost of your suggestion. No running through different train stations, taxis, etc...

If you do have the cash to spend, hire a private car and it will still be cheaper than the LGW EX-taxi/underground-LHR EX.

There's no real problem as such but the main hassles are the length of time to transfer and additional cost.

The time it will take you to get from LGW to LHR (assuming you travel between the two by road) will depend crucially on the day of the week and the time of day you will be making the transfer.

It's not a transfer I would choose to do unless absolutely necessary but if you describe your flight circumstances someone may be able to offer alternative. For example, do any other aiirlines fly from XXX to LHR instead of XXX to LGW to avoid the transfer. Obviously, you need to tell us what airport XXX is.

AAFrequentFlyer - A careful reading of my post will reveal that I did not advocate one method over another; I merely stated the approximate time enroute of the train-taxi/bus-train option.

For anyone with a compressed time frame, it is the fastest way having predictability. As the other posters noted, a three or four hour window is good to have when going by road.

The expense of the train is irrelevant when you're pressed for time (and can frequently be mitigated by two- or four-for one coupons).

Do you already have a plane ticket? I know my last trip the first option on BA's website showed a Heathrow/Gatwick connection as the cheapest ticket. But reading carefully on down the line a similar but Heathrow/Heathrow flight was only a few dollars more.

Robespierre: You have suggested this complicated route before and I don't see how it works at all for this poster (or most others for that matter). As you say - it can take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours just in transit. When you factor in 30 to 45 mins at the LGW end and 1.5 hours plus at LHR, it is VERY unlikely your route will work for a 3 hour connection.

The coach option at least gives one a CHANCE of making it - by road it has taken me anywhere from 50 mins to nearly 2 hours. Usually right around 75 mins.

Plus if someone is at all unfamiliar w/ getting around London your idea would be a nightmare.

Sure, you say you aren't advocating this route over another - but since you have posted the same suggestion several times in the past it really looks like that is exactly what you ARE doing.

I honestly don't think it is useful to suggest a convoluted route like that and have some poor unsuspecting traveler get stuck in the middle of London.

I realize that since your suggestion has been challenged, we are now in for it -- but I just don't think it is fair to send folks off on wild goose chases across London.

Robespierre: You have suggested this complicated route before and I don't see how it works at all for this poster (or most others for that matter). You can't know that. This poster only asked if there was a problem.

As you say - it can take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours just in transit. No, that's not what I said. The enroute time is less than an hour. But it's only fair to add worst-case queueing delays (for the monorail, for the Express, for the bus/taxi wait, etc.) which typically add a half-hour to the portal-to-portal time.

When you factor in 30 to 45 mins at the LGW end and 1.5 hours plus at LHR, it is VERY unlikely your route will work for a 3 hour connection. The amount of time you spend at GTW and LHR is the same regardless of how you travel between them. But the train is less unpredictable, because the terminals "are many miles apart via one of the most congested motorways in Europe."

The coach option at least gives one a CHANCE of making it - by road it has taken me anywhere from 50 mins to nearly 2 hours. Usually right around 75 mins. By train it has taken me anywhere from 45 to 90. Usually right around 70.

Plus if someone is at all unfamiliar w/ getting around London your idea would be a nightmare. I don't get that. What would be nightmarish about exiting Victoria and telling either a TfL employee at the bus stand or taxi driver you want to go to Paddington?

Sure, you say you aren't advocating this route over another - but since you have posted the same suggestion several times in the past it really looks like that is exactly what you ARE doing. This comment is both irrational and irrelevant. If one has plenty of time between flights, I suggest the coach because it's more economical.

I honestly don't think it is useful to suggest a convoluted route like that and have some poor unsuspecting traveler get stuck in the middle of London. Repeat after me: "I'd like to go to Paddington."

I realize that since your suggestion has been challenged, we are now in for it -- but I just don't think it is fair to send folks off on wild goose chases across London. I stand by my position that the train is typically (not always) faster, and more likely to get you there timely.

I might add parenthetically my opinion that anyone who can't find the way from Victoria to Paddington shouldn't be traveling unsupervised.

You still have not explained why you would want to spend ~40BPs, drag your luggage through all these connections and finally get there about 70-80 minutes later?

The bus will accomplish the same thing for ~18BPs with door to door service.

First of all, to say it costs £40 is an exaggeration verging on the ridiculous. The full fare on both trains is £13 (twofers often available), and you can get between stations for £1.20 on the bus. If you've got ten minutes to spare, the Gatwick leg is £9 instead of £13.

The reason I prefer trains was stated in janis's first paragraph at 6:51 yesterday. It's more predictably timely, making the differential in fares good value for money.

Besides, walking from train to bus to train is good for your circulation. :)

Strong feeling! appreciate the response.Our situation is that we wll have been in London for 3-4 days visiting our daughter(no car)then off to somewhere in Croatia or like Mediterranean island -suggestions appreciated.It seems that the inter Euro to smallar destinations seem to flow out and in of Gatwick-our LA-London -Heathrow.The connection is the problem.Its somewhat vague as one can see but we have till June.Thanks

Of course there are intra-European flights from Heathrow. It's just that Heathrow doesn't serve a lot of secondary locations (like anywhere in Croatia) and that, at present, there aren't any flights to California from LGW. If changing airports worries you, then use the baa.com/heathrow and baa.com/gatwick sites to find European destinations served from Heathrow or US airports served from Gatwick.

Assuming you still need to change airports, you have three problems:

1. As Janis says, the motorway connecting the two is Europe's busiest. It's also congested, so hiring a Ferrari won't speed you up. 90% of the time a bus or a racing car wil take somewhere between 75 mins (LGW North Terminal to LHR T4)and 100 mins (LGW South to LHR T1-3 central station). The buses are every 10-15 mins, except in the middle of the night. Occasionally (far, far rarer, in my experience over the past 4 years, than posts here imply), the whole system seizes up.

2. London's airspace is also the world's most congested (London's airports handle as many international passengers every year as the whole of the US put together): incoming delays are common, and ground handling isn't always slick. If if it were, walking distances at every stage are considerable. To connect between LHR and LGW you have to go through immigration (for non-Europeans, often time-consuming), collect your bags and hoick them to the bus stop. Even if everything goes smoothly, you can't get from touchdown to checkin desk, even from LGW North to LHR T4 (which is what you do on a BA-BA connection) in less than 100 minutes. The same LGW South to LHR T3 journey can't be done in less than 130.

3. That's touchdown to checkin. You then need to allow whatever checkin time your airline imposes. If you're connecting to a flight on a US airline to the US, this can be formidable.

You have to do the maths for your connection. So:

1. For an ongoing connection to the US, even on a BA to BA connection, allow at least 4 hours. There really isn't a short cut for this.

2. That's on a same-airline or codeshared connection. Important, because if things go wrong, the airline will reroute you, and because you'll have an ongoing boarding card when you leave LGW so at LHR you'll just drop your bags off at a dropoff point. If you're really changing airlines (eg from a low-cost intra-European flight), add another two hours.

3. If you're running a bit late and you know the motorways are screwed when you get to Gatwick (something that, in practice, is impossible to find out), your journey time will be slightly shorter, and more reliable, if you almost follow Robespierre's route. First train to Victoria, Victoria Line tube to Oxford Circus, cross platform connection to Bakerloo line to Paddington (be in the third car from the back), Heathrow Express to Heathrow. DO NOT get a taxi: the queues and traffic congestion will destroy all your saving. But the savings are marginal, and you'll be pushing yourself and your bags a pretty long way through quite a few dense crowds.

PS: To explain BA's minimum.

BA's minimum applies, obviously, to the simplest possible connection. A passenger checking in at, say, Aberdeen with only handbaggage has neither immigration nor customs to deal with at Gatwick. On a BA-BA connection, he'll have his ongoing card so can just walk through security at LHR for a connection to Moscow.

A non-European arriving from abroad with checked bags will probably take an hour longer at Gatwick: some airlines will impose much longer advance checkin times at Heathrow for some destinations.

Whenever possible, same airline, same terminal (and therefore on international to international connections, customs and immigration free) is the hassle-free way.

Hi FredMadcel!

For such a small island we have huge and busy airports, ha ha! The road between the two is similar to the L.A. Freeway, if you've ever travelled on that..?

I might have misunderstood but are you going to be staying in London, then flying out from Gatwick, flying back in to Gatwick and then needing to fly out of Heathrow on the same day?

How have you planned on getting to Gatwick from London? Seeing how that journey goes will hopefully give you some insight in to how difficult the return journey might or might not be..

For my personal opinion (no flames please!) I think there are 2 options:

1) take the LGW - LHR train and connect through London using the tube out to LHR. Although there is more changing involved, it could well be quicker than the bus.

2) take the National Express bus; it is a simple get on at one end and get off at the other. It can get delayed in traffic and if there is a big accident on the M-25 motorway, the bus is just as stuck as any other vehicle whereas the train doesn't have this disadvantage.

If you have been in London already will you have been using the tube? If so, then the change at Victoria/Paddington shouldn't be any problem for you if you decide to to take the train option.

Hope you work it all out!