Globaliser

This is nothing to do with London-centricity, and everything to do with the nature of the trains that operate between London and Bath: they are long-distance trains, so after departing London Paddington their next stop is usually Reading, which is well to the west of Heathrow. So the effect you mention is simply the interaction between that and the nature of Heathrow <--> London Paddington trains, which are either a fast shuttle between those points only (Heathrow Express) or a commuter railway calling at many local stations between them, and beyond (Elizabeth Line). There has long been an alternative to the backtracking and re-tracing for passengers starting from Heathrow who want trains heading west: the Railair coach between Heathrow and Reading.

W5 is the Ealing postal district - so "W5" is almost a synonym for "Ealing", which (as I said) covers a large area. However, a full postcode is very specific. For example, W5 1LP (picked completely at random) comprises numbers 63, 65, 67, 69, 71 and 73 Meadvale Road, and only those six addresses. But you can see how far that is away from any public transport into town.

W5 doesn't itself narrow this down any further - here is a Google map that should show the boundaries of W5. Pitshanger Park is at the upper edge of W5, basically next to where it says "Brentham Garden Suburb". Great if you're visiting relatives nearby; not so great (to put it mildly and politely) if you're intending to sightsee in central London.

A cruise is not a prison, but if you are to disembark and leave the cruise at any port you have to comply with immigration and customs requirements at that port. It's not at all absurd that immigration and customs do not have the capacity to deal with someone who booked a cruise and now doesn't like the whole of the itinerary. Anyway, if you are still heading to Vienna directly from the cruise, HAL's answer has done you a favour by saving you some hassle. It is more difficult to get from Dover to Vienna than from Rotterdam to Vienna.

Only if you're close to a station. "Ealing" covers a large area, and if you're not close to a station but you want to sightsee in central London, transport to/from central London could, frankly, drive you nuts.

I have no personal experience of Alaska Airlines, but I did enjoy reading this Cranky Flier article: Why Doesn’t My Carry-On Fit In Alaska’s Bag Sizer?

In many cases, you can book it on the airline's website by simply constructing the same itinerary. Unfortunately, many airline websites can't handle any complexity, so if it's anything out of the ordinary then you may either have to call the airline to book it, or use a travel agent. This is because ITA Matrix basically runs using the same information that's available to airline agents and travel agents: it has schedule, fare and availability information, so it can price the itineraries that it can see. It can't see every piece of information or price every possible combination in every search, because the number of possible combinations makes that impossible to do while keeping the required computing power within bounds; in many ways, ITA is (and was from the beginning) an exercise in learning how to manage the inherently unmanageable. But if you repeatedly search using ever-increasing restrictions (which has the effect of limiting the number of combinations and therefore allows more accurate attempts to identify the lowest-priced), you can get better and better results. The power of ITA, and its big advantage over Google Flights, is in the number and type of restrictions that you can impose so that you can prioritise your personal preferences.

I think this is too harsh. Some people may legitimately feel uncomfortable giving these details. But it does mean that it substantially limits the assistance that can be given, particularly if nobody else can then check whether the problem is reproducible. At any rate, we now know that the route is RDU-DPS // SIN-RDU. And the dates seem to be in range for both the SQ and UA websites. A quick look on the UA website suggests that it will not offer SQ for the long-haul trans-Pacific flight (which may be because there seem to be no UA codes on these SQ-operated flights, so they would have to be fared using SQ fares), and the SQ website won't offer UA flights for domestic connections, as only B6 flights show up. But the SQ fares do exist because (as rinshin says) they can be priced on ITA Matrix. So this may be one that requires either a call to SQ, or a travel agent.

I wonder whether you're one day too early, for example if you need an onward flight to RDU that departs on the day after the long-haul from SIN, but the date of the long-haul is the last date that's within range today. Of course, because you haven't said what dates you're looking at, that's just a wild guess. Otherwise, I too am having no trouble getting a quote out of the UA website for RDU-DPS and back.

Dover is not London, and it takes a long time to get from Dover to Heathrow. You are better off disembarking in Rotterdam and taking a flight from Amsterdam, as Schiphol airport is pretty easy to get to from Rotterdam. I don't know what's "great" about those London flights, anyway. On 20 April 2024, there are 8 non-stop flights from Heathrow to Vienna, just as there are 8 non-stop flights from Amsterdam to Vienna on 21 April 2024.

The Amsterdam specialists will no doubt be along to add to this, but if you're going to Keukenhof then it seems to me that the buses are frequent enough to make this a decent plan. I think that the baggage storage location you want will be the one "before security", which is on level -1. So it'll be worth mentally noting exactly where that is and how to get to it.

Which tulip festival? And will the shuttle collect you from and return you to the airport? There's luggage storage at the airport itself: https://www.schiphol.nl/en/at-schiphol/services/luggage-storage, and that's pretty convenient if your next step is to go directly to Rotterdam by train. But whether or not this is the best plan for you depends on other factors too.

Funnily enough, it's exactly the same distance from Waterloo station whether or not you have luggage: 600 metres (which is just over a third of a mile) to the Waterloo Road entrance to the station, according to Google Maps.

I see that those who have been asking for a West Coast cruise are getting their wish! On a one-week repo in September 2025, Vancouver to Los Angeles. It looks like the currently-published itinerary for that week may be being modified to cancel Astoria.

In addition, on Sunday 21 April 2024 this would require an overnight stay in London. Connecting in Paris wouldn't work because neither Air France nor KLM operate to Rotterdam.

That seems like a bargain for business class. On the Singapore Airlines website I can see almost exactly that price for premium economy.

Add me to the list of people who didn't know about that specific policy. Clearly, I'm going to have to be very careful in future about recommending that people use the services of London Underground Limited or Docklands Light Railway Limited.

Have a look at these posts: Walk from Southampton Horizon to City terminal? Walk from Southampton Horizon to City terminal?

For all we knew, you might have meant that you were seeing $9000 per person when searching for two passengers. And why do we have to do the mental arithmetic?

Ah, that never happens on trains. And there's no possibility of a misconnection. How silly of me to have forgotten all that. Especially if the Eurostar website seems not to allow you to book a through journey with anything other than the shortest (and riskiest) possible connection at Brussels. For examples, see earlier in this thread.

Which is why so few people travelled by train from Amsterdam to London before there were direct trains (which I think were being introduced independently of the Eurostar/Thalys merger, which happened to have been announced at about the same time). Obviously, if you choose not to fly then you'll have to take other transport even if takes longer and is more inconvenient.

It has to be landside, as all baggage reclaim belts at LHR are inside the secure area (and for international arrivals) before exiting through Customs.

As the crow flies, it's about 300 yards from T3 arrivals (the exit from Customs) to the HGI T2/3. It'll be longer than this by foot, because you have to descend into the underground walkways and get over to the hotel which is more or less attached to T2. But it shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes at a gentle walking pace.

Yes: Brussels to London as normal. In addition, AIUI even Eurostar will still be running from Amsterdam (and Rotterdam) to Brussels. And yes, there will be other trains too from Amsterdam to Brussels. But the real question is: If you have to change at Brussels, which involves clearing immigration there, why would you do this if you can fly, especially if you can fly to a particularly convenient airport? Taking the train direct from Amsterdam to London is (for many people) marginal for time and convenience. Adding a change at Brussels will tip the balance for more people.

I think that Fairgarth's (good) idea was to try to avoid you having to get room service for dinner that night! In the morning, you'll have lots of breakfast options in the terminal as well as in the hotel.