Globaliser

There should be more specific advice by the day of travel. What I recall on the strike day on which I travelled was basically along the lines of: If your booked train operates, you can/should take it. If your booked train doesn't operate, you can take any other train. Also, if you miss your onward booked train because of strike disruption on an earlier part of the journey, you can use your existing ticket to take any other train (and this is a standard provision anyway for a missed connection on a through ticket that's not your fault). The train operating company that I was on also allowed you to make a standalone seat reservation on another train if you wished to have a reserved seat and you couldn't travel on your original train. But there were actually plenty of free seats anyway. My vague impression was that on a strike day, anything goes so far as using tickets on other trains was concerned. But it's safer to know exactly what your TOC actually advises.

That option on SeatGuru was never reliable (= worse than useless, because it was often misleading), so it's probably better that it isn't there on aerolopa. You should be able to see the configuration for your flight (or your possible flights, if you're trying to choose between them) by trying to pre-allocate a seat on your airline's website. Alternatively, you can use ExpertFlyer to find the exact seat map for your flight (or possible flights) - I think that this can be done with a free subscription if seat maps are the only thing that you require. ExpertFlyer uses real-time information drawn from airline reservations systems, so it is pretty much as accurate as any source can be. SeatGuru's attempts to retrieve the seat map on the basis of your flight number never seemed to draw on accurate real-time information - basically, it often seemed to be guessing. When you get the configuration from one of these sources, aerolopa will then give you an accurate seat map. My own experience is that it can be more accurate than airline websites' own seat maps. As for SeatGuru's "reviews", they were as often as not just wild guesswork. With the accurate maps that aerolopa gives you, you can actually work out a lot of this for yourself, and probably more accurately than SeatGuru's guesses. Unfortunately, aerolopa's seat maps don't have everything - one of the things that I think it's missing is the exact locations of underseat IFE boxes.

aerolopa.com

I don't think that any of the trains operated between London and Southampton have any dedicated storage space for luggage. They're fundamentally commuter trains - and so if you have luggage you're always going to have to improvise about where the luggage goes. One type of space is the area between rows of seats where they're installed back-to-back, leaving an A-shaped gap. Otherwise, it's just a case of anywhere you can find a space. The eight-seat first-class compartment made me dig into the detail of the rolling stock that SWR uses. On a quick look, it seems that the most common type between London and Southampton is the Class 444 (see more detail here), but sometimes a Class 450 train may be used (see more detail here). It's the Class 450s that have the small first-class compartment. I don't think there's any easy way for an outsider to know in advance what's planned for the future, but a poke around the last few days suggests that Class 450s tend to appear only on slower trains, and are often coupled with a Class 444 anyway. Are you travelling on your own? If you are, and you have three pieces of luggage, I'd question whether you might be better off using a car service anyway. It's not easy to manage three pieces of luggage on your own, bearing in mind that you'll have to lift, carry and stow them by yourself without assistance.

One other thing that should be both an alert and some comfort: There could also be disruption between Southampton and London. I presume that you're planning to use South Western Railway for this, and its website also has a warning: "It is likely that we will operate a significantly reduced service on a limited number of lines, with trains only running between the hours of 0700 and 1900." So it isn't only the London to Glasgow part of your journey that could be affected. However, the wording of that statement underlines how it is likely that you will be able to travel, just not necessarily as currently booked. It seems that Avanti West Coast is being more cautious about avoiding overcrowding on trains on which some passengers will be making very long journeys, hence taking all trains off sale until the strike timetable has been finalised. SWR doesn't have quite the same constraints, and many passengers would do no more than grumble a bit (at the unions, probably) if they have to stand for (say) the 1¼ hours between Southampton and London, which is probably the worst-case scenario for that bit of the journey.

I wouldn't put any money on the strike not going ahead. But that's not the full story. The announced strike is by a union called the RMT. Recently, strikes by this union have seldom been enough to bring trains to a complete halt on important main lines like London <-> Glasgow and London <-> Edinburgh. I have an experience similar to fruitmachine's when I've been travelling London <--> Newcastle: the trains that ran were pleasantly quiet, even though I had to adjust my journey times to get onto a train that did run. If a union called ASLEF strikes, then trains operated by the relevant companies do tend to come to a complete halt. Further strikes for 2 September could be announced any time up to 2 weeks before that date. So it's not yet possible to be fully confident about this - but if there is no ASLEF strike on 2 September, then I would personally be reasonably comfortable that I would be able to get to Glasgow at some time on that day.

I doubt that the OP will see such signs at Heathrow. There will be yellow signs saying "Arrivals" and "Baggage Reclaim"; there will also be purple signs for "Flight Connections", but the colour makes it clear that these are not relevant to the OP. At baggage claim itself, the only relevant signs may be the yellow ones saying "Exit", and then the red and green portals for the two Customs channels. As far as I can tell, this is a Heathrow policy: reduce the number of different words to the minimum to avoid confusion. After all, for a very large proportion of Heathrow passengers, English is a foreign language, so the fewer words that the passenger needs to translate as they move through the airport, the faster they will understand where they need to go. Only after exiting from Customs will there be more specific signs. For the OP, I think that the relevant signs will be yellow ones saying "Buses".

The OP's first question was definitely about whether a credit card (as opposed to a debit card) would be accepted. There was then ("also") a second question about whether you get a physical card: The idea that debit cards would be accepted but not credit cards isn't outlandish. In the UK, AIUI a merchant taking a debit card is charged a flat fee for the transaction but a percentage fee for a credit card transaction. So there are some places here that take debit cards but not credit cards, and the same may apply in the Netherlands too. But my impression is that credit card acceptance has become more widespread because of the stringent cap that has (in effect) been imposed on the percentage fee that can be charged to a merchant when accepting a credit card transaction, so that taking a credit card has become cheaper than it used to be.

But I see 40 minutes? Omitting suppressed MCTs: Minimum Connect Times: Connecting at ORD Incoming airline UA Outgoing airline UA Flight type Domestic to International STANDARD.D/D...D/I...I/D...I/I. ONLINE .50 1.15 1.30 1.30 OFFLINE .50 1.15 1.30 1.30 ** OR * ARE ALL ... UA-UA DI .45 AUA - ALL 13FEB14 - INF UA-UA DI .45 DUB - ALL UA-UA DI .45 NAS - ALL 13FEB14 - INF UA-UA DI .45 SNN - ALL 13FEB14 - INF ... UA-UA DI .40 13FEB14 - INF UA-** DI 1.30 TRM 5 - ** COUNTRY CA - ALL ...

However, there's no absolute guarantee. Occasionally (but very rarely), engineering work can overrun. But even if it does, they do their best to clear it as quickly as they can, so any further disruption is usually confined to the earlier half of the morning. Beyond that, you're probably about as likely to have serious disruption on the railway as you are to have serious disruption on the roads if you choose to do that instead; we've all had the experience of being trapped on a motorway for prolonged periods of time because (for example) it's been closed ahead due to an accident. Incidentally, now that I've been looking at the timetable detail, you may want to note that the direct train from Bath to Southampton is actually operated by Great Western Railway (not South Western). You may find GWR a bit more friendly towards US addresses.

I always think that a discussion like this was probably where the idea for that game came from. It is the kind of thing that Londoners are wrestling with all the time.

But don't forget to keep watching for this one as well. 31 October 2023 is at the beginning of the next international scheduling season (northern winter 2023/24), and we will soon be in the period when airlines make final decisions about (and final adjustments to) international schedules for that season.

Or change at Farringdon to a southbound Thameslink train for two stops to Blackfriars, and get off at the south end of the train (and exit the station at the southern end on the south bank of the river) from which it's the same kind of walk to the hotel.

The official Minimum Connection Time for your T3-T3 connection is 60 minutes. At 60 minutes, most passengers will make it, most of the time. At 60 minutes, most bags will make it, most of the time. That's why 60 minutes is the published time. With a longer time, a passenger will have a better chance of making the connection. The same goes for a bag. But even with four hours or five hours or more, either the passenger or the bag could still miss the connection. There is no way that you can get "the bags to make the next flight". Personally, I wouldn't ask any one question in isolation. I would also factor in things like what the connection options are; what the backups are if either I or my bag miss the connection; how much would I miss my bag if it went walkies for 24 hours; and what I'd do at the airport during a longer connection time if I were to choose one.

But which Terminals? AA will come in to T3. BA flies out of T3 and T5. You should know this piece of vital information ... It's right there: It's BA to Budapest. It's T3.

There really is no guarantee that either will happen, even if you leave a lot of time between flights. If you're looking for one, as your post seems to suggest, that's a fool's errand. In some ways, leaving more time between flights can actually increase the risks that your bags won't make it.

I don't know whether there's a rank, and I don't have much experience of getting cabs in that area. But personally I would simply walk to Farringdon Street and try my luck. The station is nearest the southbound side of the road, so traffic would be going in the correct direction.

A small detail: I think fastpitchdad needs to avoid the Hammersmith and City Line. The H&C does not go to Aldgate, but the Circle and Metropolitan Lines do. Both at Farringdon and Liverpool Street, all three lines use the same platform, so it's important to read the train displays to see which flavour of train is at the platform.

The good news is that this is more or less over the road from Aldgate Tube. This means that it's more viable to take the Elizabeth Line to Liverpool Street and change there to either the Circle Line or the Metropolitan Line. (Metropolitan Line trains terminate at Aldgate.) The bad news is that Aldgate Tube does not have step-free access. It's served by sub-surface lines, and platform level to street level is about the height of two storeys of a domestic house, but you would have to work out whether that is manageable for you and your luggage. Unfortunately, Tower Hill Tube is a bit of a walk from the hotel (about a quarter of a mile) - but it remains an option because of its step-free access.

Why do you consider that to be "early"? The scheduled departure time is the time that the aircraft is supposed to start being pushed back from the gate. It is not the time that the aircraft doors are planned to be closed. There is plenty of paperwork to be done after boarding all the passengers who will actually be travelling. Depending on airline, some start boarding even before then. All in the name of trumpeting "on-time departure" stats.

Unless travel is imminent, wait a week and try again.

If you don't see the cheap fares when booking opens, then just leave it for a while and check back to see whether any Advance fares have been loaded for your date. £32.70 should be a ceiling on how much you have to pay, however late you book, so don't feel pressured into buying a ticket at that fare.

There's a moderate amount of walking between the Elizabeth Line and the District Line at Whitechapel - coincidentally, I've done that twice today. However, there are lifts for the level changes, so it can be step-free despite the walks. Tower Hill now has lifts on both platforms. This is why the normal "best" answer is probably simply to take the Tube: the best route to Tower Hill is the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow to Barons Court, cross-platform change to the District Line to Tower Hill, with step-free exit from the station. And it's cheaper than the Elizabeth Line. And on a Saturday (and presumably in the morning), there's no weekday inbound peak traffic to contend with on the Tube. However, that isn't going to work this Saturday: there is no Piccadilly Line between Acton Town and Heathrow all weekend. There is a rail replacement bus service between Heathrow Central Bus Station and Acton Town - so if the OP is arriving at Terminal 2 or Terminal 3, then one way to Tower Hill is to take that and get on to the District Line at Acton Town for a direct train to Tower Hill. (Acton Town should have step-free access.) But otherwise, that closure means that the Elizabeth Line may be a better rail option from Terminal 4 or Terminal 5, despite the difficulty in changing to a train to Tower Hill. For what it's worth, I think that Farringdon Elizabeth Line to Farringdon eastbound Circle Line (which is really the only way to get from Farringdon to Tower Hill) also involves quite a lot of walking. And everyone who's familiar with the Tube knows that a route that depends on the Circle Line is likely to be low on the list of preferences. And I think that the same applies at Liverpool Street, which is another possible point for changing from the Elizabeth Line to the Circle Line.

It isn't necessary to buy a ticket in advance, because UK trains generally do not sell out in the usual sense and you should always be able to buy a ticket for immediate travel. However, it can be cheaper to buy in advance. Just as a random test, a walk-up fare for travel this afternoon would be £32.70. But the cheapest advance purchase fares for as far ahead as you can currently book (27 October) are £12.50. (Note that cheap advance purchase fares do not always go on sale when the train itself goes on sale.) I think that a few people have reported problems with South Western Railway sometimes not accepting non-UK addresses. But one workaround is that you should be able to buy the same ticket from pretty much any other train operating company, at exactly the same price; and there are plenty of them that will happily accept a non-UK address. They should all do e-tickets in exactly the same way.

We don't know the date of your cruise, but as I said, I suspect that this will not affect you because you're asking about "next summer (2024)". I mentioned it in case you see references elsewhere to that Underground station being closed - if you do, don't panic.