layover time in Manchester
 

My family and I will be arriving in Manchester in early June and heading on to London. Our flight from US is due to arrive in Manchester at 9:30 AM. We are planning to catch a flight to London on one of the cheapo airlines. I have gotten what seems to be a great rate of $173 US for five people. The departure time of the flight to London is 2:30 PM. Is this a waste of time? I assume we will have to go through customs in Manchester, so I am concerned about a connecting flight to London that departs less than a couple of hours at least from our scheduled arrival time in Manchester. Am I being too conservative? My husband reminds me that going in one direction to or from the US (we can't remember which) there are headwinds which reduce the flight time. Also, from my research it seems that taking the train is a lot more expensive. Any thoughts?

You don't need long to transfer at Manchester (it is immigration BTW, not customs). But I would certainly re-consider the train.

Sure it might be a bit more expensive - but it will take you right into the center of London. Whereas - which airport are you flying into in London? You need to factor in the fairly expensive, fairly time consuming - or both - trip in to London from any of the airports.

The flight I have found goes into Gatwick, as I recall about an hour from the city. Am I correct? From what I found the train for the five of us would run almost $200 more and take more time. It almost seemed to me that the extra time for the train canceled out the travel time from the airport. How much time realistically do I need to get my family, me, DH, and three kids (7-15) and luggage through immigration in Manchester? Last time we did this, our bags were checked all the way through, but I know this time, we would have to get our bags and recheck them. Wouldn't this gobble up some time?

I have a similar question? I purchased a international flight from sfo to cdg on Virgin. It fly us to Heathrow, where we then board a BA flight to Paris. All bought on the same ticket. Do we still need to go through immigration/security? We don't have much time between flights? Or are we good because it was purchased with Paris being the final destination?

To OP:

There are direct trains from Birmingham International (i.e. the airport) to London Euston. They are on Virgin Trains, and take ~1:36. About every half hour (:10 and :40).

Meanwhile, if you fly to Gatwick, the express train takes about 30 minutes to get to London Victoria.

Add the time for the flight, and the wait, you'll be in London much much earlier if you take the train (i.e. before noon vs 4pm)

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To namaka: You are doing an international transit. There may be a security check, but no immigration and no customs in London. You don't collect your bags.

If you are going from Manchester to London on a budget airline, you need to allow more connecting time than if you were making a connection on the same ticket.

If the international flight is late and you miss the budget flight to London then you forfeit your $173 and have to pay an expensive walk-up fare to continue to London.

The connecting time would be 5 hours - this would seem to me to be sufficient. Am I off base? I have also tried to look into train schedules as per the recommendation of rkkwan (thanks so much for the info) but I am unable to get schedules or prices for this far out. I did try to get an idea by looking up the schedule for a similar date the month prior, but it appears that I may not be saving that much time (maybe an hour's difference arrival time in London) if I were to book an 11:15 train. This would also worry me in case the flight from the states is delayed. From what I can see, it's not the kind of thing where you can just do a walk up train ticket depending on when we were to actually arrive in Manchester. Again, am I wrong about this. I was under the impression that to get a decent train fare I would have to book in advance. My thinking is, once I am doing this, since I don't like having to sweat possibly missing connections, I might as well just book a 2:30 flight which for a 9:30 AM arrival should give us enough time. We've usually just flown or driven by car around Europe, so I'm not so familiar with the trains. Is my thinking full of holes?

Oh, I don't know why I have Birmingham in mind while you clearly stated you're arriving at Manchester. Sorry about that. Since MAN is further north, and the train will also cost more, I guess the plane will make more sense.

The train from Manchester to London takes a little over 2 hours - unless you are travelling on a Sunday when trackworks and restrictions can double this. We recently booked a colleague at work on a Saver return for £47 and I have seen single prices from £12.50 if booked in advance. The key is not to travel before 9.30 on a weekday - i.e. times that suit business travellers may well be the full fare of £200. You can check and book on the link below but they only seem to have information for the next 3 months.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk

As Maria says - single train tix can be found for less than £20 each. There is a station right at the airport and you could get on at Manchester and be in Central London between 12:30 and maybe 1:30 p.m. OR - you could be sitting around Manchester airport until 2:30 and be in central London by 4:30 or 5.

Which airline and which london Airport? Also where are you staying in London? Then we can tell you how long and the cost of getting into London. If it is BMI I think you would fly into LHR.

From LHR you could take the Paddington Express - for £16 (nearly $30) for adults and £9 for under 16's. Then you would have a tube or fairly expensive taxi to where ever you are staying.

Or you could take the tube - cheap but another 45-60 mins depending on where you are going.

Janisj and maria, would these train tickets need to be purchased in advance for that rate, which is competitive with the air fare I got on Jet2? How much time do I need to alot between the scheduled 9:30 arrival in Manchester and a train departure, if I need to book in advance? We are flying Delta. How long would it take us once we have retrieved our bags to get to the train station in Manchester? As to where we are staying in London, we haven't made any decisions yet. Last time we were there we stayed at the Millstone, but I am looking either for a flat(that could be rented for 4 or 5 nights) or a B&B. Any suggestions? Our kids are 7, 11 and 15. Also, do you know is it possible to do a day trip to Stonehenge? Thanks so much for your help.

See this link for airport rail transfers:

http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/w...ttingToAndFrom

I think you need to book in advance to get the best train fares