Ryanair: Stansted to Dub at 6.30am - advice needed

cormy

Hi All - quick question. I need to take the Ryanair 6.30am flight from Stansted to Dublin on an upcoming Monday morning (and hopefully get to work somewhat on-time in Dublin!). What's my best option (barring a taxi from London city centre): The "Ryanair" Bus, or the Stansted Express train (both leave from Liverpool St. afaik). Anyone done this recently - and anything I need to watch out for - i.e. do I have to book my ticket on the Ryanair bus in advance?? Etc. Needless to say I wont bring any hold luggage so as to avoid waiting in Dublin at the baggage reclaim.

Cheers...

Mad Finn

What sort of person commits themselves to catching an 04:25am train from Central London just to get to the office in Dublin by 9?

Even if you're VERY close to Liverpool st, you're diving out of bed before 4:00am. Probably a lot earlier.

Why not just fly home the night before? Not even a 0.99p ticket is worth that self abuse.

cormy

I need to remain in London on Sunday night - too late for Aer Lingus from LHR or Ryanair from Stansted on Sunday. Feel free to actually give advice however ...

Ham'nd'egger

The first Stansted Express leaves at 4:25 and takes 45 minutes to get to the airport, £15 single fare. By the time you get a cab to Liverpool St and pay the fare, you would be better off to taxi it to the airport directly.

Did you think of Sail and Rail via Holyhead and maybe kip on the train for a bit?

enterprise

Cab from Cntl London to the airport? Are you kidding me!

Take the train - rail & sail while cheap wouldn't be suitable if the OP needs to stay in London Sun nite. Think the train leaves around 8pm from Euston.

enterprise

The Stansted Express should be grand, pay on the day for your ticket.

cormy

Thanks for the replys. Thought some people intending to do the 6.30am Stansted to Dublin flight might be interested in feedback on my experience (which was fine really). Basically the Stansted Express from Liverpool St. to the airport seems straightforward - 45 mins duration (although the inbound leg from the airport to Liverpool St. took longer (about 50-55 mins) on Saturday afternoon because of an extra stop at Seven Sisters. The train leaves every 15 minutes on the quarter hour from each end.

Check in for the Dublin flight was very quick - i.e. literally no queue at 5.30 this morning - although other Ryanair flights from Stansted seemed to have longish queues for check in. The big worry however is security - v-long queues - i.e. 20-25 minutes or so. This morning 14 people who had checked in (either in person or via the web) did not make the flight (which left on time) - delays at security were cited as the reason.

Another drawback of Stansted over Heathrow is possibly the fog situation - i.e. the flight from Dublin to Stansted was delayed nearly an hour on Saturday because of fog at Stansted earlier in the day. Anyone know if Heathrow is as susciptable to delays from fog?

I'd consider doing this trip again if I had to, but given the extra time needed to get to Stansted, plus the delays at security, plus the added variable of weather, I might prefer Aer Lingus from Heathrow if it's a case of having to get to Dublin as early as possible on a monday morning.!!

therecklessone

cormy wrote:

Another drawback of Stansted over Heathrow is possibly the fog situation - i.e. the flight from Dublin to Stansted was delayed nearly an hour on Saturday because of fog at Stansted earlier in the day. Anyone know if Heathrow is as susciptable to delays from fog?

Less weather delays at Heathrow AFAIK but more likely to face capacity delays. Don't think I've ever got out on time from Heathrow.

Mad Finn

All bias aside, I find that if you are prepared to do a bit of click work surfing around the websites of ALL the airlines that serve London, you would be amazed at the sort of deals you get and at how something that can look expensive at first sight can actually be more cost effective.

Over the years flying to and from London I think I have used every single airline from every possible airport when paying my own way:

Aer Lingus and British Midland from Heathrow

Ryanair to/from Gatwick, Luton and Stansted

CityJet to London City.

Don't turn your nose up at the latter. It looks really expensive at first but if you book in advance, especially for weekends, you can get a good deal and if your final destination is somewhere in central or east London the advantage of being dropped somewhere so central can be tellling.

Basically a flight from London to Dublin is a flight. The determining factors should trade off between how much pain you want to endure at the London end getting to/from the airport, the time you want to go at and the OVERALL cost.

You'll probably find you use all the options over time.