tcreath

I found a great deal on a flight from Chicago to Dubrovnik this fall, but it includes a four hour layover and airport change in London. Is this possible?

Thanks,
Tracy

AAFrequentFlyer

Please do a search. This question gets asked about once a week.

Yes it's very much doable.

The best way? <b>www.nationalexpress.com</b>

tcreath

I did a quick serve and about 5000 posts came up about Heathrow, Gatwick, etc. and to be honest I didn't feel like weading through each of them. The only one's I've seen ask for a tighter time frame (ie 2 hours).

Tracy

TexasAggie

Hi tracy,

I recently researched this question for my sister and it appears that it can be easily done in 4 hours as long as your flights are reasonably on time and they don't lose your luggage. It appears the National Express is the quickest (though not cheapest) way between the two airports

alanRow

I'd be pissing my pants with only 4 hours &amp; I'm a British citizen.

It's one hour (if you are lucky) by coach between LHR &amp; LGW but can be much longer as you travel on the world's largest carpark (aka M25).

Add onto that a minimum of one hour just to get from plane to landside, then you need to know when the checkin at LGW closes (typically 30 minutes BUT it might be much longer) and 2h30m has disappeared - and you haven't even got to the coach station (10 minutes walk, longer if you arrive at T4), bought your ticket (10 minutes), cursed because you've just missed a coach (another 15 minutes), had a 10 minute walk to your checkin zone.

So out of your 4 hours you already have used 3h15m - nd that's without delays, wrong turnings, missing luggage...

gertie3751

Yes,I hate to be a prophet of doom, but I wouldn't risk it in 4 hours either. Though to be fair, it does depend which 4 hours...the M25 is worse at certain times than others (but it's never that great).

schnauzer

We did the reverse last September i.e. Gatwick to Heathrow. We had heaps of time so we weren't panicking. However, it was a painless excercise, only took the hour on the road in the National Express bus, very straight forward. Going from Heathrow might be more confusing though. I know I have caught the bus from Heathrow to Woking train station and it took us nearly 1/2 hour just to exit the bus terminal and get on the road at Heathrow, needless to say we missed the train!! I would think four hours should be enough though barring any luggage problems.What time of day are you arriving? We arrived at Gatwick at about 2.00pm so it was neither the morning or afternoon rush.

Gardyloo

It really does depend on day of week, hour of day, phase of moon..

Complicated by the fact in my last five passes through LHR my arriving flight has been late...hmm... let me see.... <b>five</b> times. If I had been an hour late, had my usual luck of getting in line behind the most poorly-documented family of seven to pass through HM Immigration that week (a specialty); had my bags go 'round a few times or get lost in space... then go to the transfer bus and risk the M25... well, you get the picture. Certainly four hours <i>ought</i> to be plenty of time, but Dirty Harry's words keep running through my mind...

Do you feel lucky? Well, do you?

Eloise

I've done it without a problem. The only problem was what to do with all the time in Gatwick waiting for my flight...

AAFrequentFlyer

Thank you <b>Eloise</b> for being the voice of reason.

Misconnections can happen any time, all the time. 1 hour or 10 hours layovers, it doesn't matter. When it's your turn to misconnect, it really doesn't make a difference how many hours one has.

The point is this. Under normal cirmucstances, 4 hours is more than enough.

Could something go terribly wrong? YES.

Do you want to plan every trip as if something <b>WILL</b> go wrong? I wouldn't, but YMMV.

I don't mind airports as usually I have access to very nice lounges, still, I don't plan on being there more than I have to. If something goes wrong (and that happens once every 10 or 20 times) then I deal with it. Why put yourself in a position that has you sitting in the airport for hours <b>EVERYTIME</b> just because that one possible misconnect <b>COULD</b> possibly happen?

Just my opinion and you don't have to agree.

obxgirl

&gt;&gt;Do you want to plan every trip as if something WILL go wrong? I wouldn't, but YMMV&lt;&lt;

Of course not, but I don't operate on blind faith either. I allow a couple of hours of buffer time for any time critical travel driving on I95 between Richmond and NYC.

And presumably this isn't an everyday business trip. It's one thing to miss the shuttle to DC out of LaGuardia. Lots of flight options, little $ risked if I miss my flight. It's another thing entirely to fly from Chicago to London to catch a connection to Dubrovnik.

Four hours is the minimum time I allow for the transfer (but I'm more comfortable with 5). And 4 should be enough.

I have no problem drinking a coffee and reading a book with extra time.

Just curioius, is the flight all one airline or partner airlines? That might help some in case of delay.

gertie3751

Interestingly we two doom-merchants are British ( I think). This means either we are aware of the foibles of our national transport system (that's a euphemism in itself) or we and our friends and family have learned the hard way.

crckwc

We did this last fall with exactly 4 hours between flights. We would have had more than enough time except for the fact that, when we arrived at Heathrow via National Express, only one elevator was operative, and it served all arrivals at the coach station going into the terminal and vice versa. We were in line (queue) over half an hour just trying to get on the elevator to get to the terminal. We did make our flight with a few minutes to spare. Like other posters have said, things happen, but 4 hours should be enough time.

tcreath

Thank you all so much for your help. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to respond last night....I found the deal right before I was leaving work for school so I didn't have time to respond.

Well, we decided to go ahead and purchase the tickets, and did so late last night. The price (we are flying British Airways) was a lot better than any other flights we've seen, so we decided to risk it.

We are arriving Heathrow at 7:15 a.m. and leaving Gatwick for Dubrovnik at 11:15 a.m. I've been to Heathrow on several occassions, but never to Gatwick. If it helps any, we plan on bringing carry-on luggage only to avoid having to wait for it at Heathrow.

Thank you to those who gave info on National Express. I am going to look into it right now.

Thanks again for all your help and opinions!

Tracy

janisj

4 hours is usually OK.

However - I don't want to put a fly in the ointment and you may already know this -- but just in case . . .

&quot;<i>we plan on bringing carry-on luggage only</i> - BA has a very restictive (and usually enforced) weight limit for cabin bags. 6 kilos (a wee bit over 13 lbs) is all you can take on board.

I pack light and use a 19&quot; rollaboard - I carry it on almost every other airline but have to check it on BA.

even if you do end up checking a bag - 4 hours is probably OK, but you are landing at the beginning of the heaviest traffic.

tcreath

janisj, thank you for the luggage restriction tip. I didn't realize they were so strict. We usually pack fairly light, but that seems to be even too light for us! I guess we will probably end up checking our bags through then.

Thanks!
Tracy

schnauzer

When we bought our ticket for the National Express bus, we presented our BA airline tickets and received a 3 GBP (pounds - don't have the correct symbol) discount on the tickets which was a very pleasant surprise. So make sure you let them know you are flying BA. Good luck with the transfer.

Robespierre

The correct symbol is <b>&amp;pound;</b> (don't forget the semicolon).

bradykp

i just called. for a four person car, it's 75 pounds. how does that sound?

Faux

tcreath, I had a similar issue with a flight from Singapore to Paris cdg to travel to Orly within 3 hours. I was told it was ok. At Singapore I was encouraged to book my luggage to be conveyed to the flight at Orly - all on the same ticket - but decided I would pick up my bags at CDG and take them by RER to Orly.

Thank goodness I did - Air traffic control in Singapore delayed our flights by an hour, I rushed to get my bag and RER'd it (is that a verb?) to Orly where I was told the flight was closed. When I explained my situation they checked their computer and found I had a booking on the same ticket and allowed me (and my bag) on. If I had allowed the automatic transfer I would have been searching the souks for those djlabas (sp?) the locals wear for the next few days.