departure at Heathrow

Pam - This is always an interesting question. Where are you sitting on the airplane? Did you carry-on or check baggage? How many planes are landing at the same time as your flight? These are some of the factors(but not all) for clearing passport control and customs. I'd say give it at least 2 hours.

Generally you need to allow at least 2 hours, especially if you have checked baggage. Also it depends on which terminal you arrive at - terminal 5 for example (which serves British Airways) is on the far side of the airport from the coach station and involves a bus ride of about 30 minutes or 20 mins on Heathrow Express.

You guys are so good...We are coming into Terminal 2..which is good...We have luggage to retrieve...There is a bus at 10:45 and the next one is 12:50 ..I am thinking that the 12:50 bus is the way to go....

If we miss the bus...Say our plane gets in late....As this does happen. Do we just pay and extra fee for the next train. .Providing there is room....Am I better to book the bus now or just buy a ticket when we get there...I am thinking that they will book up...What do you think...I am leaning towards buying it now....Pam

Pam, just to warn you, it is a longish walk from Term. 2 to the bus station, so factor that in. I read just recently, and I think it was on this Helpline, that if you miss the bus you can take the next one and pay a fee. This would entail going to the ticket office, of course, which can be a nuisance.

If you miss your booked coach you pay the fare difference plus £5 and are taken on a space availability basis on later services.

The trouble with the National Express bus is the 2 hour gap between services so here is another way around the problem. >

Go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and put in for From HEATHROW to BATH plus your date & expected time of dep from Heathrow. Up will come a series of options & prices. The advantage is that the services are roughly very 30 minutes. The disadvantage is that to get the cheapest prices, they want to tie you down to a specific service. Anyway, looking one month out, you can do the journey by train in about 2 hours & fares can be had for £19.80 one way.

So, you would probably opt for the Heathrow Connect to Hayes & Harlington & then change for a train to Reading from where trains run every 30 minutes to Bath. I do not think you would get any trouble by being on the 'wrong' service for the first 2 trains. Let us suppose you arrive at Reading & an earlier service comes in than that booked to Bath. Stand where the rear of the train will stop for that is where you will find the conductor. Tell him that you are booked for a later train but your plane came in early & would it be OK to board this train without penalty? He/she is the person that matters & usually they will let you board as long as it is not a packed peak time service.

Pre-book tickets at http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk

If using the train option I would take the Railair coach to Reading so there is only one change rather than two. Price is £16 when booked in advance online.

Advance fares from Reading to Bath Spa start at £7.80 (booked train only). On the day super off peak ticket on any train after 10:30 is £24.40.

There may be additional discounts on all these if you are travelling in a group (ie more than 2).

Thanks for all the options...Things that I did not think about or know....Has anyone used the Evan Evans Tour Company out of London? Any feed back would be appreciated...Thanks again Pam

ok I have another question....I am trying to book on line the tickets for the bus...Their website is not taking my phone number...I am from Chicago area...I am putting a 1 in front of the area code. .and then doing it with out the 1...what am I missing..Since they want the phone number they would be calling me...??? I am stumped..Pam

don't put in any parenthesis or spaces or dashes. start with 1xxxyyyzzzz or if they allow it try 001xxxyyyzzzz.

Thanks Nigel I will try it now

Looks like you're on the right track.

Hi again those of you who might be more informed than me...How did you get your charge card to work on the national express bus website www.nationalexpress.com ...I am trying to book for London to Bath and mine won't work. I have my Visa person on the phone and they are trying to call them...got disconnected form the NE. Tried another number and that did not work......what else are they looking for on a Visa card...All the info. is correct...Name is in correct. no dots or dashes...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr thanks Pam I was on the right track ...

Pam,

Sometimes the credit card problem can just be "random". I booked one set of train tickets on VISA with one rail service with no problems. The next one didn't like the VISA, but was okay with AMEX. Go figure. I'd just try it again later and see if it works, or try another card. It was annoying to carry the AMEX with me just to pick up train tickets (especially when the machine gave me tickets with just the confirmation number and no card), but it was less frustrating than trying over and over to get them to take the VISA.

Good Luck!

Yes, to answer the above question by Pam. Evan-Evans Tours are quite good. We have used them many years in a row, for many tours. Sometimes we booked the tours at Gray Line.com. Gray Line sub-contracts their tours out to Evan-Evans Tours in London. You can go to Gray Line.com or Evan-Evans.com to see the available tours. Sometimes they pick you up near your hotel. Other times, you meet the tour at Victoria Station. You can book the tours on-line or wait until you get to London. Sometimes the tours are sold out though, so it is best to reserve the tours. We did tours of London, Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Windsor Castle, Bath (2), York, etc. We also took the train or Tube to Cambridge (2), to Oxford (2), Wimbledon, Kew Gardens (3), etc.

I too plan to use the National Express from Heathrow to Bath. Due to timing (flight delays, customs etc) I am planning to buy the tickets when I get there. Now I wonder - should I book them now and hope I get the timing right? There will be four of us.

Your risk is that they don't have any space on the day. Or you arrive with insufficient time to buy the tickets.

I hope your VISA transaction eventually went thru -- for some overseas online purchases, we've had to personally phone the "Verified by Visa" department to get our transaction to go thru. Even after informing our VISA card people that we would be traveling to such-and-such country over such-and-such dates, if we were purchasing something ahead of time, this appears to be an extra security measure that VISA uses to protect against fraud. I don't have that direct number, which is separate from the customer service phone number on the back of your card, but the customer service people should be able to give it to you or direct your call to the Verified By VISA department, if applicable.

Thanks, Marco - good point. I purchased our tickets for the coach on a VISA with no problems.
Pam, I put in my NY phone number, just the 10 digits, without the "1" or any dashes and it worked. I have the print out and we are ready to go! By the way the you can purchase a coach ticket that can be switched to another departure or refunded. So plans are to take the coach we reserved, if we miss it, switch to a later coach and if that doesn't work, get a refund and take the rail-air link to Reading and the train from there. NB-the rail-air ticket can be purchased as a combination ticket at the Central Bus Station at LHR.
Thanks to all, esp Pam for asking the question.

I just ended up calling them and got my tickets....Keeping my fingers crossed that my plane comes in on time....We get in at about 9 am I think and the bus take off at 12:50 so hopefully this will work....And if it doesn't, will follow your plan.....there are always options but the bus looks like the easiest way to me....Thanks everyone for all of your help.....Pam