Gatwick to Heathrow

[Curlyjo]

We have to trasfer planes and airports in London to get to our cruise in Athens. Does anyone know what is the best way (and cheapest) to get from Gatwick to Heathrow in 4 hours?

 

Thanks!

[mhugcat]

National Express Coaches run from Gatwick to Heathrow and Visa Versa lots of time a day. Look on their website I think it about £19 per person one way and would probably take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours if it has to stop a lot.

 

A taxi would cost a lot more but would only take about 1 - to 1 and half hours.

[booboo4031]

You are best to buy your passes ahead of time. There are normally very long lines at the airport to buy your passes at the airport for the National Express buses.

 

Diane

[Keith1010]

I would make plans that allow for the quickest way not the cheapest. Should your airplane be delayed you may regret worrying about the cost rather than the speed. The airports are quite a distance from one another. You may also want to post this on the British Isles Board to get additional input. If it were me I would get a private car.

 

Keith

[sail7seas]

Are you committed to these flights? If not, I would seek a flight that goes into and out of one or the other airport rather than transferring from Gatwick to Heathrow.

 

Where are you flying from to get to England? From Edmonton? Aren't there better choices?

 

[Vampire Parrot]

How are you calculating the 4 hour allowance to get between the airports? if it's based on the scheduled times of arrival and departure, then you are cutting far too close.... with waiting for luggage and passing through immigration, it will *easily* take an hour to get out of either Heathrow or Gatwick and onto a coach.

 

It normally takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get between the airports by either taxi or coach, but that's if the M25 is flowing. It's often known as "The world's biggest car park", and it can easily take 2+ hours to get between the airports.

 

International checkin at either Heathrow or Gatwick, plus the queues at the security gates, means you should arrive *at least* two hours before departure - and that might not be enough. My last flight was to Frankfurt, I arrived at 9:30am for a 12:30 flight and only just made it due to the looong queues at both checkin and at security.

 

It's also very common for an aircraft to arrive late at Heathrow or Gatwick. They are extremely busy airports, and an aircraft being kept "in the hold" for 20 minutes is classed as no delay!

 

I've flown in and out of both Gatwick & Heathrow many more times than I can remember... and now I avoid them unless I absolutely have to use them for business trips.

[Curlyjo]

Thanks mhugcat and booboo4031. That's what I thought we'd do. I was just wondering if there was an express subway train, but I couldn't figure that out, so obviously there isn't one.

 

Cheers.

[soletread]

Hi all the above have used the option of going around London on the M25 which indeed is unpredicable and can be slow

 

The only other real option is to get the Heathrow express to Paddington Staion which is quick about 15 minutes and cost approximately £15 one way

 

However you then have to jump a Black cab across town to Victoria Station to pick up Gatwick express train to Gatwick Airport which takes about 40 mins so you won't save much time one way or the other I wouldn't recommend the across London route with lots of baggage.

 

Why not have a night in London do a little sight seeing and then head off from Gatwick next day (depending on Flights of course )

 

Hope the info helps

[Globaliser]

Does anyone know what is the best way (and cheapest) to get from Gatwick to Heathrow in 4 hours?

How are you calculating the 4 hour allowance to get between the airports? if it's based on the scheduled times of arrival and departure, then you are cutting far too close.... with waiting for luggage and passing through immigration, it will easily take an hour to get out of either Heathrow or Gatwick and onto a coach.

If you have a single ticket that covers both the flight to Gatwick and the flight from Heathrow, then the published Minimum Connection Time is three hours. This is measured from scheduled arrival time to scheduled departure time. This is not a guarantee that you will make the connection - in fact, at the MCT there will always be a significant risk that you will not - but it means that if you hold a single ticket that covers the connection and you misconnect, the airline will assume responsibility for looking after you during the consequent delay before you can be re-accommodated. (This does not apply if the two flights are on different tickets - technically, you are not then connecting.)

 

This gives you an idea of the time that you should allow for this. The three-hour period is basically the equivalent of the 30-minute dash across Atlanta to get to your connecting flight - the absolute minimum that the airline thinks is reasonable. The more margin you can give yourself, the less stressful it will be.

 

Foremost amongst your considerations is how critical is it that you get to Athens on the day that you're scheduled to get there? If you have a two- or three-night stay there first, you have a higher risk tolerance because less can go wrong. But if you absolutely must get there on that Heathrow-Athens flight, or else you'll miss you ship - then get a safer connection rather than a riskier one.

 

The coach service, though, is pretty much the best way of doing the transfer. Trying to get two trains plus a taxi by going by rail via central London is more hassle than it's worth, and 90% of the time won't get you there any faster.