London airports, opinions

hytrogen

I know this subject could be filed under 'Travel' but for those of us residing in London & keeping your own proximity to your nearest one from your London home aside, which airport is the most preferred to fly home from in terms of:
- distance from central London
- service of public transport to AND from
- General layout
- convenience and approach of security screening
- best flight times to get home home with
- airport charges
??

youreadthis

-distance from central London City (obvioasly)
- service of public transport to AND from Heathrow, City
- General layout Stansted, City
- convenience and approach of security screening City
- best flight times to get home home with Heathrow
- airport charges ?

djpbarry

hytrogen wrote: »

- distance from central London

City or Heathrow.

hytrogen wrote: »

- service of public transport to AND from

City or Heathrow.

hytrogen wrote: »

- General layout

Gatwick.

hytrogen wrote: »

- convenience and approach of security screening

Gatwick.

hytrogen wrote: »

- best flight times to get home home with

Heathrow.

hytrogen wrote: »

- airport charges

Much of a muchness, I imagine.

Lump

Heathrow tends to be more expensive to fly out of/into hence Ryanair don't fly there. I live in West London, so it even though Heathrow is more expensive to fly from it works out cheaper once you factor in the train costs and my time. I find that City is more expensive to fly from too.

John

LadyMayBelle

hytrogen wrote: »

I know this subject could be filed under 'Travel' but for those of us residing in London & keeping your own proximity to your nearest one from your London home aside, which airport is the most preferred to fly home from in terms of:
- distance from central London
- service of public transport to AND from
- General layout
- convenience and approach of security screening
- best flight times to get home home with
- airport charges
??

South End Airport
Distance from London; one hour from Liverpool Street, 45 from Stratford trains every twenty mins/thirty mins.
Nice neat airport, small but has all the facilities.
Aer Lingus has started doing flights to Dublin which is handy. You can fly home Friday after work.
No charges.

djpbarry

LadyMayBelle wrote: »

No charges.

Other than the rather expensive train fare!

Fysh

djpbarry wrote: »

Other than the rather expensive train fare!

Ah come on, the expense depends on where you're travelling from and it's impossible to get to any London airport without some cost. (Even Heathrow's connection via the Picadilly line costs you your sanity plus the Tube Fare...)

djpbarry

Fysh wrote: »

Ah come on, the expense depends on where you're travelling from and it's impossible to get to any London airport without some cost.

True, but to get to Heathrow you have the relatively cheap tube and to get to Gatwick you can get relatively cheap advance tickets – I’ve done Victoria-Gatwick for £6 return.

However, I’ve never been able to find anything less than about £20 return to Southend (I’m open to correction on that). Might make sense if you live/work out towards Liverpool St or Stratford though.

Fysh

djpbarry wrote: »

True, but to get to Heathrow you have the relatively cheap tube and to get to Gatwick you can get relatively cheap advance tickets – I’ve done Victoria-Gatwick for £6 return.

However, I’ve never been able to find anything less than about £20 return to Southend (I’m open to correction on that). Might make sense if you live/work out towards Liverpool St or Stratford though.

You can get the Tube to Heathrow, but unless you're already on the West side of London you're going to take a lot longer to get there on the Picadilly line than you would with either the Connect or the Express, both of which work out as being at least £20 return. With Gatwick (as with all other rail travel) it depends how far in advance you book, because if you don't you're looking at about £15 each way if you're coming from NW London.

As a rule, the cost of getting there and back depends on how far ahead you book and where you're travelling from. If getting there cheaply is worth more to you than getting there quickly there are usually options to sit on a bus for hours on end and get there/back for a few quid. Otherwise it's unlikely to be a significant change to the total cost of travel.

LadyMayBelle

With the Annual Gold card (if you have one) it's about 15quid. Not bad.

djpbarry

Fysh wrote: »

You can get the Tube to Heathrow, but unless you're already on the West side of London you're going to take a lot longer to get there on the Picadilly line than you would with either the Connect or the Express...

I wouldn’t agree with that - a train to Heathrow only really makes sense if you’re in the vicinity of Paddington.

Fysh

djpbarry wrote: »

I wouldn’t agree with that - a train to Heathrow only really makes sense if you’re in the vicinity of Paddington.

I know, it's such a shame that Paddington isn't connected to the rest of London's transport network somehow. Oh, wait...:P I've had one very very close call due to relying on the Picadilly line to get me to Heathrow on time, and I would neither trust it again nor encourage someone else to do the same.

I don't think there's any useful absolute about how easy/costly it is to get to a given airport. You might be able to get a £6 return ticket from Victoria to Gatwick in advance, but for someone in NW London that's still useless because you're talking about faffery to get down to Victoria. Similarly I can get out to Luton or Stansted quite easily because the train route for one and the bus route for another passes near me and is reliable. No use whatsoever for someone in SE London, but there you go.

djpbarry

Fysh wrote: »

I've had one very very close call due to relying on the Picadilly line to get me to Heathrow on time, and I would neither trust it again nor encourage someone else to do the same.

Yeah, I've had a couple of close calls myself - reliability plummets beyond Acton.

Fysh wrote: »

You might be able to get a £6 return ticket from Victoria to Gatwick in advance, but for someone in NW London that's still useless because you're talking about faffery to get down to Victoria.

Sure, but I was only making the point that I've not been able to find cheap advance tickets to Southend - I wasn't trying to say that Gatwick was best for everyone.

Louche Lad

Fysh wrote: »

You might be able to get a £6 return ticket from Victoria to Gatwick in advance, but for someone in NW London that's still useless because you're talking about faffery to get down to Victoria.

If you're by a Bakerloo line station in NW London it's very easy to get to Victoria: change at Oxford Circus where the Bakerloo and Victoria lines are next to each other so you don't even have to go up any steps or escalators.

Fysh

Louche Lad wrote: »

If you're by a Bakerloo line station in NW London it's very easy to get to Victoria: change at Oxford Circus where the Bakerloo and Victoria lines are next to each other so you don't even have to go up any steps or escalators.

Yep, but that means I'm depending on two tube lines running properly as well as the train line. Whereas I could go to West Hampstead and hop on the Thameslink that'll go straight there. Not to mention that anyone who values their sanity tries their hardest to avoid going to Oxford Circus whenever possible, it's probably the busiest Tube station in London so even if you're not exiting the station it's still an arseache to be dealing with.

S.M.B.

Basically, proximity is king.

I fly out of Heathrow because it's closest to work and fly into Gatwick because it's closest to home.

afatbollix

Ya Its all about what is closest to you to me im 25 minutes on a bus away from heathrow so it means that to get a flight from gatwick it has to be over £30 cheaper for me to justify it. As will be £20 return on a train and 90 mins each way to the airport.


It's such a Pitty that they don't fly from knock to heathrow.

Fenny

What do people think about airports during the Olympics? I know, I know - mass mayhem, carnage etc. But realistically, I'm thinking of booking flights home and arriving back on the Tuesday the Olympics start to Stansted. The best way for me to get home is the National Express to Stratford, but am rethinking that for obvious reasons - but the train will probably be just as wedged! Wondering should I go the week before instead?

Louche Lad

Fenny wrote: »

What do people think about airports during the Olympics? I know, I know - mass mayhem, carnage etc. But realistically, I'm thinking of booking flights home and arriving back on the Tuesday the Olympics start to Stansted. The best way for me to get home is the National Express to Stratford, but am rethinking that for obvious reasons - but the train will probably be just as wedged! Wondering should I go the week before instead?

I'm wondering if all the hype about potential travel and accommodation problems will result in many people just keeping away from London. There was a UK TV programme a few days ago (Channel 4's Dispatches?) reporting that the expected audiences for the past few Olympics were greatly over-estimated.

djpbarry

Louche Lad wrote: »

There was a UK TV programme a few days ago (Channel 4's Dispatches?) reporting that the expected audiences for the past few Olympics were greatly over-estimated.

That may well be, but London's transport network is already straining under the number of passengers it has to carry. I really don't want to think about how a major event like the Olympics will exacerbate the situation. It ain't gonna be pretty.

Cool Mo D

The Thameslink train also serves Gatwick, and it's cheaper, as frequent as, and almost as fast as the Gatwick express to Victoria. It stops at London Bridge, City Thameslink, and St. Pancras - so if you're going right to the centre of London, Gatwick is probably the cheapest to fly to and easiest to get a direct train from.

philologos

LadyMayBelle wrote: »

South End Airport
Distance from London; one hour from Liverpool Street, 45 from Stratford trains every twenty mins/thirty mins.
Nice neat airport, small but has all the facilities.
Aer Lingus has started doing flights to Dublin which is handy. You can fly home Friday after work.
No charges.

Personally, having used the Southend flight before. I wouldn't again.

2 flights a day, one so early that you can't even get the train to. The airport also remains closed from 12am to 4am which ruled out waiting around. Ended up paying £42 for a taxi to get there. Not ideal

And the flight takes longer due to smaller aircraft.

It ended up being more expensive as just flying out of City airport would have been.

I'd recommend City hands down, but you do need to book a good while in advance in order to get a good price (at lowest to Dublin you're looking at £89 return).

Madworld

Does anybody have any experience of getting from Southend on the cheap. I don't really fancy spending £30 on a train.

Anybody any idea how to get to the tube station in Upminster or getting the bus from Southend into London.

philologos

Madworld wrote: »

Does anybody have any experience of getting from Southend on the cheap. I don't really fancy spending £30 on a train.

Anybody any idea how to get to the tube station in Upminster or getting the bus from Southend into London.

Get to Romford on train and get a zone 1 - 6 travelcard for the rest of the way to Liverpool St?

Who is quoting £30? Pop on to greateranglia.co.uk and check there.