Any Suggestions regarding transfers from London Heathrow Airport to central London, reccommend taxi cab or shuttle service?
Any input is appreciated-Thanks

I'm planning to use http://www.justairports.com/index.htm, which seems to be the best price so far.

Monica

Take a taxi only if you want a guarantee that you'll pay a LOT more.
Justairports seems to be the best bet right now. A lot of people rave about Ray Skinner, but he's a LOT more than most of them.
I like Swiss Cottage Cars, but apparently since they added their website the rates are higher on there. Call them and you can get a lower rate. 011-44-20-7431-2700. To save money dial this before all those other numbers -- less than 5 cents a minute: 101-6400

With Just Airports I know you save considerably if you pay cash.

First, what are your priorities--budget, comfort, size (how many of you are there?), speed?
I used Swiss Cottage Cars last year and they were ok, but the driver did not meet me on time, the car was not particularly clean (and it was a huge "people mover", i.e., a van, too much for one person) and the trip took longer than I expected because the driver had to fill up his tank at a petrol station that was not on the usual travel route.
For example, if this is a special occasion or perhaps you need to pick up a special client for your company, then I would recommend a car service other than Swiss Cottage. But if you're not that fussy, then they are fine and cheaper than many of the other car services.
One general caution about London area transport: do NOT go with an unlicensed minicab driver, no matter how attractive a rate they quote you, especially if you are a woman traveling alone. Sadly, many women have been sexually assaulted by unlicensed minicab drivers. You're unlikely to deal with them at the airport, but just a general heads up.

BTilke and Patrick,

How about the Heathrow express? It's less expensive, but then there's the expense of a taxi ride from Paddington.

I have used hotelink twice and Swiss Cottage once.
Swiss Cottage I found to be great. They were on time and it was effortless.
Hotelink some people do not like because it is a shuttle and you must wait your turn to be dropped off or picked up. But I thought it was a good price at 15 pounds.

Gee, I've used Swiss Cottage cars at least a dozen times and I've never had anything but a nice and clean car, a courteous driver, and the best of service! One time we were actually going to take the tube on a Saturday from our flat in Covent Garden to Heathrow, but we found out at the last minute that the tube line was temporarily closed that day due to an accident. We went back to the flat, called Swiss Cottage Cars and they had a car to us in 15 minutes -- clean and nice as always.

The Heathrow Express may make sense for one person, but I have yet to figure out how it saves any money for two or more people. For that matter I don't think you are likely to save any time either when you add in the time for possibly waiting for the train, the time of the transfer and waiting in line for a taxi at Paddington, and then the delays of traffic getting to your hotels (the worst part of the normal car ride is the part close into the city which you are not avoiding with this method). Unless your hotel happens to be a block or two from Paddington, then it might make sense.

When we were planning our transfers I email Swiss Cottage cars 3 times and never got a response.

I checked justairports.com and found a price of 24 pounds from Heathrow to London (cash) -- 43 pounds by credit card.

Am I correct in assuming that this is the per-trip price, not the per-person price?

Has anyone on Fodors used them and been satisfied with the service?

Yes, that is per trip, not per person. You can do a search here for Just Airports, but there have been many, many good recommendations for them. Off hand I don't recall any bad ones.

I'll repeat what I said about Swiss Cottage Cars, with a little further clarification. This is a long established company which does all kinds of transfers and transportation. The Heathrow to London transfer for tourists is a small sideline. If you call them with your arrival information and exact address where you're going they will give you an instant quote.

Patrick
Thank you for your response. Regarding Swiss Cottage Cars, is it possible to pre book this-do I email or call?
Thank you very much

I've never actually done this, but you could always take the Tube into London proper from Heathrow, although it is all the way in Zone 6.

John Oleary provides quality vehicles at very good rates from all London arports. I have used him many times, and have bever been dissapointed. His number is 011 11 79569 760 009, I am not sure if he has a web site.

Oops, I gave the wrong number for John Oleary, it should be 011 44 079569 760 09

John Oleary provides quality vehicles at very good rates from all London arports. I have used him many times, and have bever been dissapointed. His number is 011 11 79569 760 09, I am not sure if he has a web site.

OK, forgive me for once again being the suspicious type, but isn't it convenient that Tim_E, came to Fodors today for the first time ever, and made the specific effort to register and then brought up three old posts just to tell us about a particular car service that no one else has ever mentioned?
Is this the only travel tip you have, Tim -- especially since you apparently travel to London a lot?

It would have been more believable if you had just happened to run into these posts and responded, but since you obviously went to the effort of "searching" for old posts about London transfers, it does seem awfully suspicious.

Oh, and your friend "youngsterm" who registered today and posted the same recoommendation just minutes from when you did, just happened to misquote the number in the same way. Will "one of you two" go to that thread and give the correct number? Funny how you both gave the number the same way with that extra 0. Amazing!

I cant speak for youngsterm, but I was looking through the forums and found this thread, which I have an opinion on, So voiced my opinion. Is that what this is for?

I wanted to recommend a service I have found to be very good, So what is suspicious about that?

I found justairports to be reliable and very reasonable (especially if you pay with cash).

Tim_E, if you did indeed "find" this thread it was by going through about 5000 posts before getting to it, since it had not been responded to for well over three months. There was no other topic in those first 5000 or more posts that was worth making a comment on? So after browsing though thousands of other posts you just happened to come across this one about London transport so you posted your comment, then just happened to browse through hundreds more until two more times you came across other threads on the same topic and you could post your same comment there?

Sorry, but you've now really lost your "honesty". You clearly came here and searched for topics about London Transport, registered and then posted in three separate ones all about the same topic, but scattered throughout the ancient posts with this "ad". Nothing wrong with that, but why not admit it? And you really expect us to believe that you don't know youngsterm who just happened to register here and post here for the first time within minutes of you to post the same information about the same company accidentally both misquoting the phone number with the exact same wrong sequence of numbers? How gullible (or stupid) do you think we are?

About a week ago I was raked over the coals for "exposing" another person who did the same sort of thing. Some posters thought it was outrageous that I would accuse someone like that, but that poster finally came forward and admitted that he was a "troll" who posts here under many names and was just "playing games with us". Will you now come clean, are are you still going to expect us to believe your sincerity in this wild concoction of a story?