Heathrow to Hotel Oyster Question

If you do the trip by public transport, the Oyster card will only cover you if you go to Aldgate by Underground all the way. You do not need to quote what zones you want to use if you are putting money on an Oystercard, just put the money on. The current Oyster single fare from zone 6 to zone 1 is £3.10, or £5.10 before 09:30 am. You can then use the Oyster for all your future travel within London, putting more money on as you need. If you are staying in London for five days or more you may save money by getting a seven-day Travelcard, which will also be given to you on an Oyster card.

The easiest way by Underground to the Aldgate area is to take a Piccadilly Line train to Hammersmith, then just walk across the platform to the District Line and take it to Tower Hill or Aldgate East. Check your hotel on a map, if it is too far to walk from either of those two stations and you must use Aldgate, then you need to change from the District service to a Circle Line train at any station between South Kensington and Monument. This will be on the same platform.

Your other public transport option, which may be faster, is to take the train (either fast but VERY expensive Heathrow Express, or slower and cheaper Heathrow Connect) to Paddington and then take a Hammersmith & City Line train to Aldgate East or Liverpool Street or a Circle Line train to Aldgate, using the Hammersmith & City and Circle platforms, not the separate District and Circle ones. You cannot use Oyster or Travelcard on the Heathrow Express or Connect trains.

Alternatively, you could share a cab for convenience, but unless you are travelling at a very quiet time (pretty much between 11pm and 6am) the Underground or train will probably be faster.

I know there are others with more experience on this forum who will be able to answer what I cannot, but I will share what I know.

When you buy your Oyster card in the tube at Heathrow, you do not need to declare, per se, through which zones you will be travelling. However, sharing that information with the ticket agent will be helpful to determine how much to pre-load. I found the agent to be extremely helpful in this regard.

I don't know the terminals your different airlines arrive in at Heathrow, so I cannot comment on the feasibility of meeting up with your friend for a taxi. I did note during my research that pre-paying for a taxi before you depart appears to be more cost effective than grabbing one at the airport.

We took the Heathrow Express into Paddington and took a taxi from there to our apartment on the Southbank. Due to traffic, the taxi ride was still about 50-60 pounds. The Express made sense for us only because the children traveled free. I did not want to attempt the stairs in the Tube with our luggage even though we only had carry-ons. (In case that helps you.)

Good-luck!

Well, if your friend is arriving at around the same time, and she is your friend, and she is taking a taxi anyway, then if you arrange to go with her the taxi bill for her will go down (unless she doesn't have to pay anyway), you both will have companionship for the ride, and while your costs will be considerably more expensive than a tube ride it will be less than a taxi just for you.

After all, she's going the same place as you, right?

What time do these flights get in? Can't she tell you her terminal so you could work out a viable meeting place?

By the way, it is the Tower of London, not London Tower.

Icelandair use T2. Delta use T3 and T4 depending on the flight. If your friend is arriving at T3 you are a few minutes walk away. If she is coming into T4 though to meet you would need to take the train/bus between terminals.

Of course you each could experience very different 'processing' times from immigration or checked baggage delivery if either of you has one.

Is she taking a cab off the rank (expensive) or a pre-arranged private hire car (not so expensive)?

A pair of people can take the Heathrow Express for a total of £50 return, but you need to be together.

To help you and your friend decide where she is coming in, copied from the Delta site:

"Effective March 29, 2015 (local arrival/departure time), Delta-operated flights between London-Heathrow (LHR), Atlanta (ATL), Detroit (DTW), Minneapolis (MSP), Philadelphia (PHL) and Seattle (SEA) will arrive and depart from LHR Terminal 4.
Flights between London-Heathrow (LHR), Boston (BOS), Newark (EWR), New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX) will continue to depart and arrive from Terminal 3."

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/airports-and-aircraft/airports/airport-advisory-information.smt-silver.html

If you do decide to meet up with her, I also suggest you all have a Plan B in case someone's flight is delayed. For instance, if one party is not there in 90 minutes (or whatever time frame you all agree on) you will meet at the hotel.

Our friend arrives terminal 4 at 11:10 a.m. We arrive terminal 2 at 11:45 a.m. We will carry our luggage onboard the plane, she checks her luggage.

After reading all of your suggestions and tips, we've decided it will be much easier and less stressful if we all meet at the hotel. My husband and I plan on taking the tube. I'm sure she will take a taxi. It will be very interesting to see who gets to the hotel first. Will keep you posted.

Thanks for all your help