4 of us booked a flight on a Sunday from Rome to Heathrow from 7:45 to 9:30 am and then we depart from Gatwick at 12:35pm, 3 hours later! Realistically, do we have any chance of making the flight out of Gatwick to the US? If so, what would be the quickest way to get from one airport to another? Thanks!

yes, I think it is possible, and I think I've done it in just about that time frame. I took the bus between the two, but those buses were somewhat disorganized the last time I was there, and they had changed companies. I remember the signs and information as to exactly where the bus was and how to buy a ticket, etc., weren't as clear as I would have hoped.

<b>http://www.nationalexpress.com/destinations/airports.cfm?t=air</b>

The only advantage seems to be you are trying this on a Sunday. Other than that, there's a lot stacked against you (and I'm normally happy to take these types of risks!) If your flights are with the same carrier or airline partner and they have sold you this combined fare, then they will put you on the next flight out (if you miss the connection) but that may be the next day?

It sounds like you have 3 hours from touch down at LHR (and that's if all goes to plan) to take off at LGW. Will you have to collect your luggage, clear customs etc at LHR and then allow for a 2 hour plus check-in at LGW? If so, then that's your 3 hours gone! I would say you need a minimum of 1 hour road-travel time between the airports and that's if everything is clear.

For four of you and with such a tight transfer, I would see how much a car service would cost. People will say this is no quicker than a coach because it uses the same roads but I think you could save a fair bit of time.

To me, it seems a bit mad not to just fly from Rome to LGW and avoid this transfer. Easyjet and BA certainly fly this route but it sounds like you already have your tickets. Transfers between the different London airports are best avoided. I would certainly not do them (for the cost and time of the transfers alone) but I live in London, so hopefully I should never need to make a transfer between our airports.

I'm trying to do the same exact thing as I'm utilizing the Sky Team program through NWA and its partner, Alitalia. The main difference is that I'm doing it on a Thursday morning.

I've been researching and I've read that you should have 3 hours between airports. At the rate we're traveling, it is just within that recommendation. The question now becomes &quot;How much am I willing to spend to make me comfortable?&quot;

I've researched it and found that you have two options; a bus (coach) or a private car. The bus is about 18 GBP and will promise to get you there in a couple of hours. The private car promises 1 to 1.5 hours, but the price is over twice that of the bus and the cheapest I've found is 47 GBP with www.capitalmove.com

Now, I'm a first time traveller between Rome and London and I've never had to go through customs there. The length of time in customs is my only concern. If I knew I was going to fly through customs upon arrival in Heathrow, I'd opt for the bus.

Personally, I still don't know what I'm going to do. Let me know what your experience was.

maddash:

There's no standard time for this journey.I'm assuming you're going FCO-LHR-LGW-US

If you have an EU passport, you're sure you have only handbaggage and you're arriving at T2 with Alitalia, you can get from the plane to the LHR central bus station in well under 15 minutes. Buses to Gatwick are every 10 minutes most of the day. Without an EU passport, you can be waiting a further 30 mins or more if you arrive at the same time as a couple of planesful of non-EU travellers from, say, Russia or Romania. With checked bags, assume bags arrive 30 mins after touchdown, but can be longer. Customs is a non-issue: you go through the Blue channel anyway, since there aren't any customs checks on intra-EU journeys.

Only you know how far before your flight you need to be at LGW. But even if you get boarding cards in Rome, you still need to queue up again at an NW checkin desk at LGW if you've got bags to recheck in before going through the - usually immense unless you qualify for FastTrak - security queues.

The road journey is on Europe's busiest stretch of motorway. In the past five years, I've never known this take more than 90 mins at any time of any day, and normally manage 65 mins even at he busiest times, but the chances of significant disruption really are quite high. As are the chances of something going wrong with your landing at LHR (inbound ATC probs, being bussed to a gate, fouled up baggage etc). With buses every 10 mins and a very busy road, using a car service saves you very little time, since cars can't do it any faster than buses. Indeed the walk from the terminal to the car park is generally at least as long as the walk to the bus station. Private cars can't wait outside the terminals, and black taxis (the only people who can) will cost you at least &pound;100 for a trip to Gatwick

At an absolute minimum, I'd work out the theoretical time you've got, take the numbers I've quoted and add 90 mins as a safety margin. Remember too that NW don't operate that many flights from London, and there aren't that many flights at all from Gatwick to major US hubs, so even if it's a &quot;legal&quot; connection, you're likely to be very seriously messed about if you miss it.