How much time to allow for customs at Heathrow

[weston gal]

We are 2 seniors who have never been to London before. We will be landing at Heathrow at 6:30am Sept. 10. What time should I tell a car service or shuttle to pick us up? Some car services charge parking so I want to be as close as possible time wise. Does anyone know if the Heathrow shuttle runs before 9:30am. That is their first time slot on their website. We are staying at Premier Inn county hall and there is a big difference in price between the shuttle and a private car especially when you add in parking. Are there any other hidden charges? Thanks in advance for any help with this

[cruiserking]

We are 2 seniors who have never been to London before. We will be landing at Heathrow at 6:30am Sept. 10. What time should I tell a car service or shuttle to pick us up? Some car services charge parking so I want to be as close as possible time wise. Does anyone know if the Heathrow shuttle runs before 9:30am. That is their first time slot on their website. We are staying at Premier Inn county hall and there is a big difference in price between the shuttle and a private car especially when you add in parking. Are there any other hidden charges? Thanks in advance for any help with this

 

We arrived around the same time and customs took at least an hour, it was quite a long line. I was able to communicate with our driver via text message and he easily met us in the terminal once we had collected our luggage.

 

Jonathan

[weston gal]

We arrived around the same time and customs took at least an hour, it was quite a long line. I was able to communicate with our driver via text message and he easily met us in the terminal once we had collected our luggage.

 

Jonathan

I do not have a cellphone that will work in London. So I will just allow about an hour after landing.

[Cotswold Eagle]

Customs takes no time at all at Heathrow - unless you are pulled over for search, you will hardly notice you are walking through the channel. The delays come from:

 

- immigration control (passport check), which can take anywhere from 5 to 90 minutes

- baggage reclaim, which comes after immigration, so if you get through immigration quickly you may have to wait for bags :)

 

It is almost impossible to generalise (each terminal is different to start with, add on day and time, load factors, which gate your flight is assigned etc), but general advice is to allow an hour after your scheduled arrival time.

 

For two, a private hire should not be hugely more expensive than a shared shuttle, and would be my recommendation.

[Alaskanb]

I do not have a cellphone that will work in London. So I will just allow about an hour after landing.

Don't forget that your flight may be early or delayed but a good hire service will monitor for that -- a good question when you make the reservation :)

We have a MOBAL phone for the UK and Europe -- quite inexpensive when you consider the benefits http://www.mobal.com/international-cell-phones/. We have had the same $29 one for about 4 years!

[Luckynana]

Alaskanb...thank you so much for the info on the mobal phone. Will definitely go that route for our next year's British Isles cruise:D

 

maryann

[KirkNC]

You can add international texting for a month for $10 for 50 texts.