Easiest Rush Hour Transfer from Heathrow

Just take the mid afternoon flight. The other London airports are really not very close.. You don't want to put too much pressure on yourself trying to make a 1 hour transfer, especially in that airport.

You'll never make the morning flight.

Before you start trekking to one of the other airports, compare the price of flights from Heathrow vs. the cost of flights from another airport plus the cost, and aggravation, of getting to that other airport.

Why the extra stress. Just take the afternoon flight out of Heathrow. KIll the time getting something to eat and exploring the terminals.

If you land at 9.40, you may just about be getting off the plane at 10 am and allow another half hour minimum to get through the airport if you are going to exit, possibly 45 minutes depending on the queues. I am always pleased if I get out within an hour of touchdown and I have an EU electronic passport, which is quicker to process than an American one.

Unless you are booking a through flight to Dublin, then the onus will be on you to make each leg of the journey, so you need to allow sufficient time for delays. Booking a through ticket puts the onus on the airline to get you there. It will take you an hour into London, an hour out to another airport and then you will need to be there an hour plus in advance of your flight, plus the expense, so I would just wait at Heathrow, as you won't be there any earlier.

Traffic into London is hideous at any time of day. Travel by train/tube if you want to get anywhere quickly.

To allow for delays, if you were thinking of travelling all the way to Stanstead, a 40 mile journey, I wouldn't contemplate a flight before 4pm earliest to allow for delays and cancellations.

AL is an airline based in Egypt. The 2-letter code for Aer Lingus is EI. Might be important at some time ... gave me a double take at any rate :)

Changing airports will be unlikely to save you much if anything all-in with the travel costs, let alone the inconvenience. There is usually an EI flight at 12:20 and a BA flight at 13:15 weekdays; it may be more limited at the weekend.

what do you mean by "NE discount?"

At a guess I would say 'National Express'.

Agree with Frank II 100%. Do you really want all that stress after a long flight? Some things are just not worth the small amount of money saved.

Why don't you book it as one ticket?

Thanks for the responses - Should clarify that it is not a thru ticket on British Airways. I didn't book it as a thru ticket since I could get a roundtrip on BA in the $500 range and the flights to Dublin were about double that. So definitely cheaper to buy a flight to London then buy local one ways. NE is National Express - for 10 pounds you can buy a student discount pass which would make the coach option cheaper but not necessarily quicker. I'm not going to try for the 11 am departure on BA since you've confirmed that there is little chance of that happening. Plan was to fly into Dublin and out of Cork. I did find a 12:20 depart on Aer Lingus but at $118 a pop the $20 flight from Gatewick at 1:15 is sounding mighty attractive despite the pain of a transfer- but will do a tube transfer and hope I hit after morning rush and before lunchtime. I know about the baggage fees, and the pain of flying with them.. but I think the cheap fares suck me in. Flying Ryan Air and Easy Jet is like childbirth I guess - you forget how painful it is after the fact!!

Here's information on ground transfers between Heathrow and nearby airports like Gatwick. Looks like there's a National Express shuttle to Gatwick that takes 75 minutes and costs 25 pounds. Other options apparently involve going into London and out again, which seems like a lot of trouble and time risk. If the cost difference isn't too great, you'll run less time risk using Heathrow for your flight to Ireland.

The tube will get you to Victoria Station. It will not get you to Gatwick. From Victoria, you have to buy a ticket on the Gatwick Express. (I wouldn't trust Southern Rail any longer.)

This will take longer and cost nearly as much as taking the bus between the two airports. And less stress.

Also think about your timing. Your plane lands at 9:40. Let's just say you arrive on time. You really think the plane will taxi, you will disembark, walk to immigration, go through immigration, go through customs and then walk to the bus stop in 20 minutes?

I have Registered Traveler which means I can use the electronic gates and don't have to talk to anyone. The last time I arrived at Heathrow there was no one on line and I got to go through right away. However, I wanted to see how long it would take me to get to the tube. My time from touchdown to tube was 20 minutes. If I had to wait on the immigration line, even though it was fairly empty, it would have added at least 15 minutes.

Immigration can take forever. And should you miss your Ryanair flight, they won't care. They'll be happy to sell you three new tickets at full price.

And all of the above means you need to have a good plan B in mind.

JUst wanted to wish you a good trip. It is not easy to be a frugal traveler, but you will get there and you will enjoy it!

SuzieeQQ