I have a 7:05am flight from Heathrow. Therefore I need to check in by 5:30am (the latest). Apart from taking a taxi which is an expensive option. Does anyone know of another way to get to Heathrow at such an early hour? I live in Kensington but can travel from most places in central London.
Thanks

Book a minicab - not cheap, but also not nearly as expensive as a taxi. I used to use Swiss Cottage Cars, but recently have had trouble with the phone number. Skinner's Cars is also a popular choice for Fodorites - the number should be searchable on this site. I'd estimate that the cost would be in the range of 20-25 pounds (a good deal if there are two or more of you).

Ray Skinner's website
www.london-transfers.com

The cheapest way is by night bus. They run every half hour but the journey is slow. Try www.tfl.gov.uk.

If you live in kensington, you are probably familiar w/ a few mini cab companies. If not ask a neighbor for a local recommendation. Mini cabs will be 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of a black cab and at that time of the morning the traffic will be very light so the journey will be fast.

As Goeffhammer says - a night bus will be much cheaper - but less convenient.

I just used Swiss Cottage Cars to meet us at Heathrow last week, still much cheaper than the other companies I've found. Not sure what the problem was Kate had with the phone number. I use (from London) 020-7431-2700. From the US, drop the first zero and put 011-44 in front of it.

The first Heathrow Express leaves Paddington at 0510. So it arrives at 0525. Reliably.

The Paddington Express is great - BUT if khadejah has a 05:30 check-in cutoff (as she seems to indicate) there is no way she could get from the Express platform to the check-in desk in 5 minutes.

Mini cab or night bus are her best bets

Try carservice2000.com We used them two years ago, our friends have used them, and found them to be very reliable; 25 GBP from Central London Hotel to Heathrow.