Southampton to Heathrow for flight

[cayman09]

Looking for advice before booking our return flight to the U.S. from Heathrow after a cruise next year. We will disembark in Southampton beginning at 8:00AM and it looks like the latest flight from LHR is 1:30PM. Is there enough time for the drive to the airport and the check in process to get to the gate on time? Or would we be better to stay overnight and leave the next morning?

[John Bull]

Yes, barring any unlikely events, you should have no trouble making a 1.30 pm flight 

 

Subject to day-of-the-week & transfer arrangements, some folk have successfully flown as early as 11am, but that's very risky and it's safest to book the latest flight of the day.

 

For most ships, unassisted disembarkation (haul your bags from your cabin) is around 7am, with regular disembarkation from 7.30. If you are allocated a late disembarkation slot you should have no problem in asking to be bumped forward, citing your onward journey arrangements.

 

Heathrow recommends arriving at the airport 3 hours before your flight, but that's over-kill -  2 hours before flight time is fine, ie around 11.30 am for a 1.30 pm flight

 

Your transfer choices......

 

Scheduled National Express coach (bus).

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

On current timetable, the only Nat Express coach that fits your timing is the 09.10 direct from Southampton coach station to Heathrow, arrives 11.05 (or earlier, depending which airport terminal). Fare is just £12 pp, you need to pre-book to ensure seats. Doesn't allow much wiggle-room.

A taxi from the rank at the cruise terminal to the coach station costs £6 to £10 and takes 3 to 10 minutes, depending which cruise terminal. The earlier you disembark the less likely you will have to join a line for a taxi.

 

Ship's transfer coach (bus)

Cruise lines recommend that you only take their coach if your flight is after 12.30 or 1 pm, though that's perhaps a little over-cautious for a saturday or sunday. First coach is normally away before 8.30 am, and unlike the Nat Express coaches each ship's coach is allocated to a single airport terminal. Quicker & easier than Nat Express, but you pay thro the nose. Check the charge - tolerably sensible for Princess, gross for RCI & Cunard.

 

Private transfer.

A pre-booked car should cost just south of £100 - for two that's often cheaper than ship's coach.

Journey time between 75 minutes & 2 hrs 30 minutes, depending on day-of-the-week & traffic conditions.

Try .............

 https://www.smithsairportcars.co.uk/

https://westquaycars.com/

http://www.aquacars.co.uk/

All (especially Smiths) frequently recommended by Cruise Critic members, and all are based at the Southampton end - operators based at the airport may be delayed by traffic en-route to your pick-up.

More if you wade through 

 

 

Rail

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/

There's no direct rail service Southampton Central to Heathrow, the route is complicated and expensive.

Not listed on the rail website - you can take the train to either Woking (main line towards London) or Reading (main line to the North), then a direct RailAir bus from there to Heathrow. Total journey time about 2 hours, a guestimate of total cost around £40 pp. (Add taxi to Southampton Central station, same detail as for coach station).

Not recommended for travel to Heathrow but frequent & no need to pre-book, so can be useful as a Plan B if your other arrangements go belly-up. 

 

Un-booked taxi from the rank at cruise terminal direct to Heathrow

Only if you're desperate.

Easily the most expensive way to do it - even so, not all taxi drivers will accept that journey.

For travel outside Southampton city the meter is irrelevant, you negotiate a fixed price, and at a guess that'll be between £200 and £250.

 

Car Rental

For a simple transfer Southampton to Heathrow this isn't a sensible option.

Apart from the expense, the time taken to pick up & drop off the car more than negates the slightly shorter journey time.

 

Your decision may be influenced by the date (and particularly day-of-the-week), by the cruise line, and by which Heathrow terminal.

Quote those and I can give another pointer or two.

 

JB 

 

 

 

[cayman09]

Thank you for your very detailed explanation. We are arriving on Oceania on a Sunday morning.

[riffatsea]

@JohnBull

Thanks for your detailed answer above. What would you say about getting to LHR on a Friday morning? Ship arrives at 7AM. Princess is offering flights starting at about 2:15   but a lovely non stop to our home city leaves earlier at about1:30. Considering it if we actually get to cruise in 2021

[John Bull]

19 hours ago, cayman09 said:

We are arriving on Oceania on a Sunday morning.

 

A sunday.

Joy of joys 

 

Your journey time will be little more than 75 minutes by private transfer or 90 minutes by ship's bus transfer, and the Nat Express bus should arrive on-time.

Even in the unlikely event of a motorway closure for investigations into a fatal Saturday night accident (a popular night for kamikaze drunks), alternate routes won't get clogged on a sunday morning.

 

So it's your call which of those three alternatives you choose.

 

JB 

[John Bull]

19 hours ago, riffatsea said:

@JohnBull

Thanks for your detailed answer above. What would you say about getting to LHR on a Friday morning? Ship arrives at 7AM. Princess is offering flights starting at about 2:15   but a lovely non stop to our home city leaves earlier at about1:30. Considering it if we actually get to cruise in 2021

 

Ships actually arrive around 5.30 am, so 7 am will be first (un-assisted) dis-embarkations.

 

As per my response to cayman, the Nat Express timetable doesn't allow much wiggle-room - that's quite important on a weekday, so best not choose Nat Express.

 

Altho' Princess flights aren't til around 2.15, you can book just their airport transfer bus and timing should be fine for a 1.30 pm flight - that gives you 5 hours for the journey and airport formalities.

 

If you want to be ultra-cautious, book a car for 7.15 am and dis-embark unassisted (haul your own bags from your cabin).

That will probably mean hanging around at the airport from about 9.00 /  9.30, but perhaps worthwhile to avoid anxiety. 

 

JB 

[riffatsea]

Thanks JB for your prompt answer.

We have never booked a ship sponsored transfer as we prefer having control of our timing rather than waiting for the bus to fill up.

Who knows if we'll actually be allowed to fly into LHR from the USA?

I can only dream about it at the moment

[cayman09]

Thanks again JB.

[John Bull]

6 hours ago, riffatsea said:

 

Who knows if we'll actually be allowed to fly into LHR from the USA?

I can only dream about it at the moment

 

I'm guessing 2021 means sometime after mid-April. (Before that, the weather in this part of Europe tends to be very unreliable.)

That's a long way away, and I'm pretty hopeful about next season.

 

JB 

[ontheweb]

If we actually were able to go on our cruise this summer, we had booked a Princess excursion that included Stonehenge. We were truly looking forward to that experience. IIRC, the excursion said it was only for flights 2 PM or later.

 

We once did something similar with Princess from Dover to Heathrow stopping in Canterbury, and truly enjoyed it. We were off the ship, but it still felt like we were on the cruise especially as we knew a few of the people on the transfer bus from our roll call and the ship.