Is Heathrow Connect considered a National Rail service?
 

We are arriving at Heathrow for a 5 day London stay. I understand that the Tube is the cheapest way to get to our hotel at Canary Wharf. (altho not necessarily the fastest or most comfortable.)
But I am looking at the 2For 1 discounts available for many attractions throughout the week if I print the vouchers in advance and produce a RT National Rail ticket for each voucher.
If I spring for the Heathrow Connect tickets, will they qualify me to use those 2For1 vouchers?

FWIW, the only Heathrow Connect tickets I've ever bought have the National Rail logo on - but I never need to buy them at LHR, so I don't know what stock the station at Heathrow prints them on.

In your case, why does it matter?

You're going to need a tube pass to get from the Moscow suburb you're staying at into London every day. So if you get a ticket that hsn't got the logo, just buy the relevant travelcard.

If you are arriving for a 5 day stay then just buy a 7 day zone 1-2 Travelcard from a London TRAIN station.

Paddington is a long way out of your way and will only make you more stressed

The only problem I can see is that Canary Wharf is a long way from a suitable train station so you might have to break your trip in Central London in order to pick up suitable travelcards.

Alternatively you could use the DLR (which isn't National Rail) to go to Greenwich Train Station and pick up the cards there - but that will cost the same as the Tube ride from Heathrow to Canary Wharf

I'm not sure why you are talking about the Heathrow Connect w/ getting to Canary Wharf. It will only get you as far as Paddington and Canary Wharf is a VERY long ways from Paddington. Getting to Canary Wharf from Paddington by taxi would cost a FORTUNE and take forever. You could take the tube from Paddington - it would take about 35 mins and involve a change at Baker Street to the Jubilee line.

If you took the tube all the way from LHR - it would also involve a line change and take about 70-80 minutes. For a fraction of the cost of a train/taxi and less than train/tube.

But if it is just to get a paper travel card for the 2 for 1's - you can but a travel card for the tube/buses at any train station during your visit. It doesn't have to be at Paddington.

(Curious -- are you staying out at Canary Wharf for business -- or is this a vacation? I'm guessing it is a leisure trip since you are asking about the 2 for 1's -- if so, Canary Wharf is not very central/convenient)

was posting the same time as the others . . . .

"The only problem I can see is that Canary Wharf is a long way from a suitable train station so you might have to break your trip in Central London in order to pick up suitable travelcards."

Why couldn't you buy a 7-day travel card at the Canary Wharf tube station? There are several ticket windows there.

Or can you only buy 7-day underground travel cards from TRAIN stations? (I lived in London, so never needed to buy one!)

You cannot buy a National Rail 7-day travelcard at Canary Wharf, because Canary Wharf isn't a National Rail station. You have to have a National Rail 7-day travelcard in order to be eligible for the 2 for 1 offers.

The 2 for 1 offers are intended for travellers to London from outside the London area who are using trains to get there. Because many of the trains from places quite close to Central London are run by National Rail companies, rather than by Transport for London, any ticket from a National Rail ticket office makes the purchaser eligible for the 2 for 1 offer. However, you have to jump through a few hoops if you are not actually travelling into London on a National Rail train in order to buy the right sort of ticket.

If ANY ticket conferred eligibility, then everyone would use the 2 for 1 offer, and the normal ticket price would have to be increased.

Thanks, chartley.

That's a good explanation - I didn't understand it was a National Rail travelcard rather than a London Underground travelcard.

>><i>Why couldn't you buy a 7-day travel card at the Canary Wharf tube station? There are several ticket windows there.</i><<

Chartley has given you the details -- but the basic reason is -- Only PAPER travel cards sold at TRAIN stations are eligible. Canaray Wharf is a tube station - not a train station

oh - our posts crossed . . . .

Thanks everyone for such speedy replies. I do realize that we staying in "Siberia" as it were.....but with a spouse who works for Four Seasons, our cost for that hotel beats anything else in the city. (Can't stay at the one in town...closed for renovations.) Saving enough money that it's worth the extra travel time into the city each day.
My understanding on the 2For 1 is that it has to be a National Rail Service ticket either for the same day as you want admission. OR, if you have a RT ticket, you can use the vouchers for the whole time between trips.
I was planning to buy Oyster Cards anyway and put a 7 day TravelCard on each one. The savings on our daily trips into the city will be significant over using a paper travel card.
So sounds as though the best thing to do is buy the Oyster Card at Heathrow, take the Tube all the way to the hotel, and if we want to take advantage of 2For1, we have to go out to Greenwhich and buy the paper ticket. Correct?

I understand -- a great bargain can definitely trump location as long as one isn't in Siberia -- Canary Wharf is not really siberia so you'll do OK.

"<i>if we want to take advantage of 2For1, we have to go out to Greenwhich and buy the paper ticket. Correct?</i>"

It doesn't have to be Greenwich. You'll be somewhere in central London just about every day - so just pop into whichever train station is convenient to where you are . .

Waterloo if you are on the southbank/at the Eye, Charing cross for Trafalgar SQ, etc etc -- or Greenwich if you're over that way.

Lindsey said "I was planning to buy Oyster Cards anyway and put a 7 day TravelCard on each one. The savings on our daily trips into the city will be significant over using a paper travel card."

How would this be cheaper than just buying the 7 day paper travelcard. I will be staying in Greenwich and planned on buying the 7 day paper travelcard to use for the 2 for 1 promotion.

Hello.

Me and my girlfriend are also wondering about this Travelcard fuzz.

We also want to use 2For1 discounts and need those NR Travelcards for them. We are arriving at Heathrow on next weeks Wednesday evening (07/07) and planning to take a tube to our hotel by a single fare tickets. We'll be staying at The Regency Hotel, South Kensington. The SK station is the best station to get off, right?

What is the closest (and easiest to get) rail station from our hotel, where we could get those Travelcards in Thursday morning? And just to make sure, those National Rail 7 day-cards are good for all transports (tube, busses, trains etc..)?

jayjay85: Yeas S Kens is the best tube station.

The nearest train stations where you can get paper travel cards would be Kensington Olympia or West Brompton - but a single fare in from LHR and then another single fare from S Kens to wherever you end up buying the paper card will cost nearly £9.

How many days will you use the 2 for 1's? Unless you are using 2for1's every single day, it might make sense to get Oysters at LHR loaded w/ a bit of pay-as-you-go ££ and then buy a paper travel card only on the days you need one.

£10-£15 PAYG and 2 or 3 daily paper travel cards will save you ££

Thanks Janis :)

Because it's so late in the evening, I think we will take the LHR Connect Train (7,90£) to Paddington Station and buy our 7 day Travelcards (25,60£) there. With them we can take the Circle line to S Kens and walk from there. Then we have the Travelcards and don't have to jiggle between Oysters and Day Travelcards.

Connect Train and 7 day Travelcard cost about 34£ total. If we'd buy the Oyster for 6 days with PAYG cap 5,60£ a day + the 2 days Travelcards, that would cost close to 45£? Or have I got something wrong?

Paddington makes sense if you take the Connect. But you say 'so late'- how late?

(Don't think of PAYG in 'days'- since some days it won't top out, so it is just PAYG. When one is in town longer than 4 days, an Oyster 7 day travel card almost always makes more sense than PAYG - it is just £25.80. But since you would get the paper travel card immediately at Paddington, that is sort of a moot point.)

I've used my return Heathrow Connect tickets for 2 for 1 offers.

The plane lands 21:15 and after the flight we want to get to the hotel easily and quickly, not to sit at the tube for 55 minutes. And because we are going to be at Paddington anyway, we get the Travelcards easily from there and dont have to think about those anymore. Just to make sure, those National Rail Travelcards are valid for any public transit, just that we keep inside the zones 1-2 to which we are going to get them?

<<< And because we are going to be at Paddington anyway >>>

So you are going to spend MORE money and take a lot longer to get to your hotel which is nowhere near Paddington so your comment doesn't make any sense.

Here's a suggestion. Go to your hotel by Tube, next morning one of you goes to Victoria and buys two Travelcards and come back to the hotel.

We're glad to pay a little extra from convenience. I'd rather sit on a train 25 minutes than in a Tube for 55 minutes. The Connect takes 25 mins from Heathrow to Paddington and from there 10 mins by Tube to S Kens.

We still win about 15 minutes travelling time and get the Travelcards right away at the same time. Saves us the trouble of getting them on next morning. I dont see any problems with that?

but you are not counting the schlepping and time factor between terminal and train, train and tube, tube and hotel. The tube from LHR to S Kens takes approx 40 mins w/o any changes. The train/tube will take as long, or more likely, longer.

But if its convenience you want - by FAR the easiest and at 11PM - probably fastest way to your hotel is a car service like justairports which meets you ate arrivals and drops you at the fron door of your hotel for about £25-£30 total (not each).

Instead of "more likely", I should have said the train/tube combination definitely takes longer than just the tube.

Plus it is a worse schlepp . . .

The HEC also runs only twice an hour to Paddington so you need to add in 15 minutes on average waiting for it. It's also a minimum of 15 minutes transfer time at Paddington plus whatever time you spend actually spend queuing at the booking office.

Agree with janisj...the tube to South Ken is far more convenient and will be faster and cheaper than the Heathrow Connect.

Thank you for all of your hints. Janis we might book that car service to pick us up on LHR and go straight to our hotel. The website says it's £24 for the ride plus £6 for the pick up plus parkings. So yes, it hopefully will be close to £30.

And on Thursday morning we walk to West Brompton station to get those Travelcards and take the underground from there to where ever we decide :)

Justairports may be a bit more than that depending on people, destination and luggage; they want to know exactly how many bags you have; we have pickup from LHR to Bayswater for 44 and from Bayswater back to a car rental for 38. Have not used Justairports yet but they sure come highly recommended and it will certainly mean no schlepping of luggage in tube changes or changes from some sort of train to taxi to tube or whatever.

Yes texas. We checked that because we travel to SW7 zone, our price is £24 + 6£ for the pick up = total £30. Wins the £50+ Taxi charge. Hopefully there will not be any problems with our luggage or something.

Just to make sure, we'll pack our hand bag and back pack inside our trolleys so they are counted just as 2 luggage.