earliest Heathrow flight when disembarking from Southhampton?

[skrapngal]

Hi all, this will be my first cruise in and out of Southhampton and am just wondering what is a safe time to book a flight back to North America when disembarking in Southhampton.

 

Any and all help will be appreciated

[flossie009]

Southampton port to Heathrow is about 70 miles, so you need to allow 2 hours just for the transfer time by road.

Personally I would not be comfortable with an international flight any earlier than mid to late afternoon.

 

[Harters]

I'd also allow at least 2 hours for a road transfer. Bear in mind, also, that the direct route is along the M3. That's a motorway with designated exits, perhaps every 20 miles or so. So, if there's a major traffic snarl up, say due to an road accident, you are stuck on it. The longest I've been stuck on a motorway is two hours but an acquaintance was stuck overnight for about 8 hours. Yes, I know that's a horror story that's unlikely to happen but it leads me to agree with flossie009's suggestion of leaving it till late afternoon.

[wowzz]

You don't say how you plan to get to LHR. If you self disembark at 8, and get private car service, look for a flight around 14:00.

[Bertie Doe]

On 10/12/2021 at 2:25 PM, skrapngal said:

Hi all, this will be my first cruise in and out of Southampton and am just wondering what is a safe time to book a flight back to North America when disembarking in Southampton.

 

Hallo skrapngal, I agree with Flossie and Harters, you need to allow 2 hours to get to airport, I'm assuming London Heathrow, plus the hours recommended by the airline, before departure.

 

I don't know if a friend with car, is meeting you at Southampton? If not, Avis will charge about £150 Which includes fuel. Bearing in mind Harter's comment about traffic snarl-ups or accident, I think it a safer bet is the rail system. The cost is about £75 per person, it does take up to 2 hrs 30 mins and there are 2 changes.

 

On the plus side, there is a train leaving Southampton every 30 mins, so there's plenty of back-up. Also you don't have to wait for Avis to fill the tank at LHR.  

https://www.thetrainline.com/book/results?origin=4ec8cbc9b7487a526f2ffa5be9ff110a&destination=a9d5c4 

 

"Let The Train Take The Strain" 😎

Regards Paul

[John Bull]

Depends which day-of-the-week -  for travel from Southampton (note spelling) to LHR, saturdays & sundays are a dream year-round. On weekdays traffic is congested on the M3 - especially on a monday when weekly commuters return to London.

By private transfer 90 minutes is plenty at the weekend, 2 hours would be the bare minimum that I'd allow on a weekday. Fixed rate for a pre-booked private transfer is £80 to £100 for a sedan (pre-pandemic).

 

Ignore cruise lines' quoted "arrival times" of around 5 - 5.30am, they won't be able to disembark passengers before about 7am.

For most ships, unassisted disembarkation starts around 7am and standard disembarkation in tranches from 7.30am to around 9 - 9.30am.

If you are allocated a disembarkation time later than ideal you can ask at guest relations for an earlier disembarkation slot, citing your onward travel arrngements.- I've never heard of any request being refused.

Disembarkation is usually pretty smooth at Southampton, normally a max of 30 minutes from gangway to terminal exit, and less for those disembarking early.

So a pre-booked private transfer for 7.15am (unassisted disembarkation) or 7.45am for standard disembarkation.

Every minute before 8am is usually worth two after 8am. 

 

So the earliest you can be at LHR is 9.30am on weekends, 10.15am weekdays.

 

Don't pay too much attention to airport's recommendation to arrive 3 hrs 🙄 before flight time - they're allowing for folk misjudging travel time or getting lost en-route, and providing more business for shopping outlets that pay high airport rents .

Two hours before flight time provides an excellent cushion, 90 minutes should be enough, 60 minutes is a very risky minimum.

 

So a flight as early as 11.30 by private transfer if all your ducks are in line and  the gods are on your side.  

 

For their transfer buses, cruise lines recommend flights from 12.30 or 1pm. The first buses leave the cruise terminal at about 8am. Each bus (except the last one) is allocated to a single airport terminal.

 

There's no sensible rail option for So'ton to LHR - it involves train to central London & train or taxi or tube or bus back out from there, or train to an intermediate station (Woking or Reading) and a RailAir bus from there.  Train + RailAir takes a minmimum of 2 hours, via central London takes forever. And whereas train is usually good value, it's not for that journey at that time of day.

(But the train is an excellent option for flights out of LGW) 

 

On National Express' current coach (bus) timetable the earliest suitable bus would be 10.30am, gets to LHR at 12.15 and costs £15 pp. Pre-booking strongly advised). Southampton coach station is a 5 - 10 minute (£6 to £10) taxi ride from any cruise terminal & there's a taxi rank at the terminals. Sometimes there's a line for taxis but it moves quickly and won't foul up plans to catch the 10.30 bus. 

 

These timings allow a sensible margin for delays. They don't allow for extraordinary events (late ship arrival, motorway totally blocked by a big accident etc) -  if you want to allow for all eventualities an extra couple of hours or even a couple of days might not be long enough 🙄

 

But if you have a choice of same-day flight times it's always best to book the latest one.

 

JB 🙂

 

[dog]

Just adding: the last time I made this transfer 2 hours on a weekday was fine. We did make 2 unexpected stops to drop off cruisers at different Heathrow hotels. In the airport the line up and VAT added to our time 

also recent inquiries for private transfer to Southampton from Live neon varied greatly. Check several companies. 

[wowzz]

Just a quick word of caution - our recent Sky Princess cruise arrived in Southampton one hour late,  at 8 am rather than 7 am. In the scale of things,  not a big deal, but if you are on a tight deadline,  that one hour delay can make all the difference.