QUESTION: which is quickest to Heathrow?

[kerryincork]

Hi All

 

I have family in and have spent a lot of time in UK. I go to London about 4 times a year. So I am familiar with transport links.

 

I have two options to get to Heathrow one from Stansted and one from Gatwick, I have transferred from Stansted (by air coach) before. I want to know which is quickest? I will get a coach between the airports (I'll have too much luggage to bother with trains) I don't have the money to go by taxi.

 

The reason is I have loads of air miles so I can get a free flight from London to Miami. There is no point me doing this if it costs me more than €200 to fly to London and transfer to Heathrow. I have a local airport 30 min from where I live which flies to Miami but can't use air-miles to do it.

 

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[Bob++]

Gatwick every time. 45mins to an hour, as opposed to an hour and a half from Stansted

 

If you look at the map you can see that the Stansted trip involves a lot more of the M25..

[kerryincork]

Brilliant, thanks for quick response. How's traffic on Friday & Sunday?

 

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[insanemagnet]

Brilliant, thanks for quick response. How's traffic on Friday & Sunday?

 

Friday - Horrible. Sunday - OK.

 

If you go to Google Maps and choose directions, it allows you to select the date and time you want to travel and will give you a realistic estimate based on historic information for that day/time.

[kerryincork]

Thanks

 

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[Globaliser]

The reason is I have loads of air miles so I can get a free flight from London to Miami.

How free is "free"? Award tickets are very seldom actually free, and on some airlines it could easily involve you paying £250 or more on top of the frequent flyer miles to get that award ticket. Have you factored that in to your calculations?

[DrivesLikeMario]

How free is "free"? Award tickets are very seldom actually free, and on some airlines it could easily involve you paying £250 or more on top of the frequent flyer miles to get that award ticket. Have you factored that in to your calculations?

 

Totally agree with that. My "free" flight from San Diego to LHR cost me over $900 USD just for taxes.

[kerryincork]

I have to pay taxes😀 that's why I want everything as cheap as possible. At the end of the day I will be weighing the convenience of flying from local airport compared to saving by taking Heathrow flight

 

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[Globaliser]

At the end of the day I will be weighing the convenience of flying from local airport compared to saving by taking Heathrow flight

That we all understand.

 

The question really is whether you understand how much money you are saving by taking an award flight from Heathrow. Whenever anyone says "free flight", massive alarm bells ring. Often, they're people who haven't yet discovered the true cost of an award ticket. You don't say which airline your award ticket would be on - but on British Airways for example, people often find that when they redeem for a long-haul economy flight, they're actually exchanging all those frequent flyer miles for a saving (over a pure cash ticket) measured in a few tens of pounds.

[kerryincork]

I fly often to the US so do know the price of regular tickets. I'll only use the air miles if I make significant savings including all separate costs including taxes.

 

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[Globaliser]

I fly often to the US so do know the price of regular tickets. I'll only use the air miles if I make significant savings including all separate costs including taxes.

Good. As you already know everything about your options, then no doubt you won't need any more advice about your plan via London such as (for example) how much time to leave between flights, and how to plan for contingencies.