Globaliser

Do you have one ticket covering both flights, or do you have separate tickets? From what you say, I suspect that you will have a through ticket, but you will need to check this when you get the details. You need to check the 13-digit ticket number(s) that you're given. If you have a through ticket, and you're both arriving at and departing from Heathrow, then you do not need to clear immigration or customs at Heathrow, and you do not need to collect your bag. BA will through-check it on to the VS flight. When you get to Heathrow, you should be at Terminal 5. You need to follow the purple Flight Connections signs. You should be departing from Terminal 3, so when the signs become sufficiently specific, look for Flight Connections Terminal 3. These will take you to a bus stop, from where an airside bus will take you to T3. You will clear security there before you can go to the gate. (Do check the terminals nearer the time.) The published Minimum Connection Time is 1:30, at which the airlines still expect that most passengers will make the connection most of the time - so you have 35 minutes more than that.

It depends on whether you have one ticket covering both flights, or whether the two flights have been booked separately. It also depends on the London airport(s) that you're arriving at and departing from.

My first impression from these figures is that you may simply have to adjust your expectations of what is reasonable. London hotels are just really expensive at present. No hotels have shuttles from Heathrow (assuming that's the airport you're likely to fly to); they are banned by the airport. So far as the transfer is concerned, the cost is exacerbated by the fact that Southampton is a long way away from London. Otherwise, I would echo CruiserBruce's advice: there is a lot of information about all of this on this board already.

Some previous threads are available via this search. Some more, which may also have information of relevance, are available via this search.

As Harters says, you absolutely won't stick out. There are lots of reasons why people choose non-alcoholic drinks in pubs - either long-term, or on the day, or just that hour or round - so it's entirely normal. I often order non-alcoholic drinks for myself, and it's unusual for anyone to even notice that.

Tube: Piccadilly Line to Barons Court, a cross-platform change (a walk of about 10 feet), District Line to Victoria. Step-free at Heathrow, small steps between train and platform at Barons Court, step-free at Victoria (best to use an exit to the mainline station). You are then almost at the hotel's front door. The National Express coach takes you to Victoria Coach Station, which is about a third of a mile away from the hotel.

But (in theory) a train from Amsterdam to Brussels would work, and then you could change trains to get to London. Nevertheless, flying (esp to London City if you can) makes more sense anyway.

I don't think it's physically possible to feel the difference in flight, other than through already knowing that your seat is aft-facing.

Personally, I prefer the upper deck. It's wonderfully quiet, so much so that it can be a surprise when the aircraft gets airborne because until that point it just feels like a fast taxi. And the forward toilets are a delightful use of what would otherwise be wasted space. But the layout means that many seats have distinct advantages and disadvantages - some of the disadvantages actually stemming from how quiet the cabin is - and there are no absolute winners (unlike on BA's 747 upper deck, which was pretty much my favourite way of routine flying). As fbgd says, the aft-facing seats really take only a few minutes to get used to, and then you won't even notice. More than once, I've woken up in the middle of the night in one of these seats and had to think a bit before working out which way was forward and which way was aft. Personally, I think they're great for couples because you can talk to each other so naturally; there are a lot of reasons why I'll miss these seats when they're gone.

The best seat maps available at present are at https://www.aerolopa.com/ba-38a (that link goes directly to BA's 388).

My bet is that the OP's referring to an A380, the IATA code for which is 388.

Well, this is my end of town - but hey, what would I know?

It's worth noting that it's Fenchurch Street station (and Liverpool Street station) - if you leave out half the name of a street or station, you're liable to end up in the wrong place. There are lifts at Tower Hill Tube. AIUI, there's a lift at Fenchurch Street station but you have to go to the main station entrance on Fenchurch Place to use it. (That's a little irritating if you're staying at the Novotel, because there is a station entrance on Cooper's Row that's literally 50 yards from the hotel's front door, but I think that you have to walk up the stairs to platform level if you use that.) The shortest walk from the hotel to Fenchurch Place (via New London Street and London Street) does involve about a dozen steps; but if you walk around to Mark Lane then it's step free to the station entrance. A quick poke around Google Maps suggests that at Grays, platform level is the same as street level on both sides of the station, and there's a pick-up area on each side.

Do you mean the Novotel that's near Fenchurch Street station? If so, I wouldn't take the Elizabeth Line or go via Liverpool Street, because Liverpool Street is quite a long way away - about two-thirds of a mile. You'd be better off taking the Tube from Heathrow to Tower Hill, with a single easy cross-platform change at Barons Court. There is always a risk of disruption (as I said above), but having Liverpool Street / Novotel as your primary plan doesn't make that much sense. I personally wouldn't stay at Heathrow (unless arriving there late in the day), or at Stratford, which is a dump.

Thanks! And yes, sorry, I was asking about the one after April 2024 (which would, by now, seem to be a pretty reliable bet).

The Sun's schedule also seems to have a 26-day gap in January 2026. Would it be reasonable to think that this may be used for the next dry dock? Her schedule only goes up to 2 April 2026, so I suppose it could also be done then.

That itinerary actually has 1:44 between trains at Brussels. (NB: EST9328 actually departs Rotterdam at 0958). Interestingly, this journey doesn't seem to be bookable on the Eurostar website at the moment. It's not offering through booking for any Saturdays around that time, although you can book the individual trains separately. For the day before, you can book the 1058 Eurostar Red departure from Rotterdam connecting to the Eurostar Blue train to London at the same times, which is the itinerary with the 44-minute connection, but the website doesn't offer the 0958 departure from Rotterdam.

Late last year, a friend went to the Bank of England to swap some old notes - as much for the novelty experience as anything else. Despite the warnings on the website, it didn't actually take very long because he only had a small number of notes to do.

From what I remember of the place, probably about 1½ hours. I doubt that being several minutes late will cause a problem; I've never known one of these timed entry tickets anywhere in London being that rigorous. Everyone knows that public transport can inject some uncertainty into exactly when you arrive, and some people will inevitably get lost en route. The primary function of the timing is to ensure that the venue doesn't become overcrowded by managing the rate at which visitors enter, but this is never going to be a precise science because of the random rate at which visitors complete their visit and exit. I suspect that it would be more likely to be an issue if you were going to be half an hour late.

Suitcases and straps are consumables. Their function is to contain and protect their contents, not to be protected items themselves, and they will get damaged in use. I don't know what TSA does about covers and wraps, but one thing that I'm fairly confident about is that the more difficult it is for security (anywhere, not just TSA) to get inside the suitcase if it needs to, the more likely it is that the suitcase will not be flying with you.

However, Ferrol (your port in mainland Spain), and also (AIUI) Madeira, are within the EU VAT zone.

As long as you know what the downside is, and how you plan to manage the disadvantages, hassle and risk.

With apologies for it almost certainly being a PR-supplied puff piece, here's a Sydney Morning Herald article about Christmas and airlines: https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/travel-news/turkey-at-38-000-feet-what-passengers-flying-this-christmas-can-expect-20231221-p5eswd.html

The thread that is (at the moment) immediately below this one has some advice on your questions: East coast of US to Auckland,NZ

I think it's probably too early to be sure of anything. First, Friday nights in August in the City of London need not always be expensive, because business demand is low in August and low at weekends. So if you are seeing high prices, they may be placeholders or demand-testing prices. August is a long time away. Second, it's too early to know whether your train will go from Fenchurch Street on the Saturday morning. That is the normal route, but Fenchurch Street is sometimes closed all weekend for engineering works on that branch of the train company's network, with trains typically diverted to Liverpool Street instead. The nicest hotel near Fenchurch Street station is the Four Seasons, but there are at least five others (Citizen M, Doubletree, Leonardo, Novotel and Tower Suites). Tower Hill Tube is there as well, so for transport from LHR the obvious suggestion is to take the Tube, with a single cross-platform change at Barons Court from the Piccadilly Line to the District Line.