killing time at heathrow airport?

In which terminal are you arriving?

Outside security at Terminal 2 is a pub on the departure level that serves breakfast and a Cafe Nero on the arrivals level. (They have coffee and light sandwiches, cakes, etc.)

There is a Hilton Garden Inn between T2 and the Bus terminal. Their restaurant serves breakfast until 10:30 and is buffet style. It's very nice, I've eaten it a few times, but I don't know the cost as I get it for free due to hotel status.

The coach terminal is only a few minutes from T2.

Heathrow has some lounges at arrivals. You could buy lounge passes and take showers, have something to eat, and relax a bit before you catch your bus. Enjoy your trip!

https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/lounges-hotels-spas

It looks as if you are on DL058 which arrives at Terminal 3. This morning that flight was just 3 minutes late.

The temptation is to over analyse this and try to over fill the time. If you have that much time in hand that to me is a bonus, you're not rushing, stressing about lines at immigration and baggage reclaim, making rail connections.

Arriving at Bath at 1350 is nice time for checking into your hotel. All buses from Heathrow to Bath have started at London Victoria, so if you were going to do the idea (which seems a bit daft to me) of going into London and back out- then you wouldn't do HEX and tube to London Victoria, but one of the many National Express departures each hour to Victoria then the same bus at 1100 from Victoria. But that to me is adding stress and complexity.

Heathrow is a major international airport- there are lots of places landside in each terminal to have breakfast. Although maybe less likely in December you could even make up a breakfast/early lunch from the terminal shops and go and while away some time in the oasis of calm which is the St George's Chapel gardens- about a 5 minute signposted walk round the corner from the Bus Station.

Although we don't usually recommend it you could book yourself on an earlier bus via Bristol on a flexible £5 add on ticket- then you could just catch the first available Bristol bus from Heathrow, stroll up the concourse at Bristol Bus Station, use the bathroom there, then take the first available X39 connection from Bay 16 (a Bath via Bristol bus ticket always uses the X39 for the last leg anyway)- that bus runs every 15 minutes. Bristol Bus Station has a cafe, and there is a Greggs Bakery right outside the back door. It really isn't complicated. Not as hard as this forum likes to make it out to be. At Bath the X39 drops you at the same stop as the bus from Heathrow would, and it's the end of the line, so you can't miss the stop.

Hello,
Do yourself a favor and ONLY bring a carry-on , (you will thank me later) … carrying large suitcases in the UK and Europe over uneven cobblestone streets up and down stairs with no lifts is no fun and not necessary. And most hotels/air bnb/apts/ have laundry service or are near a laundrymat.
Going thru immigration is going to take time and it is a huge airport. By the time you land, get off, go thru immigration, restroom, ect you will not have as much time as you think. Plenty of places to eat there and imo much easier to take that direct bus to Bath.
Enjoy, England is amazing!✨

I was actually thinking again about the bus via Bristol route. This is December you are travelling in. Rather than booking a bus ahead with a £5 flexibility add on, the even easier way is just go to Heathrow Bus Station when you arrive. Buy a ticket on the machines either to Bath direct on the 1135 if you are late, or if as early as you might be buy a ticket on the first bus to Bristol. Then on the X39 Bristol to Bath just pay your £2 fare each to the driver, cash or contactless.
Very, very easy.

Just because the Heathrow bus ticket counter is now closed doesn't mean there are not staff there to help you- there are, just not stuck behind the counter.

If a rail strike is announced for that day (when the buses might be expected to fill up) we will let you know on the forum.

Your plan for the National Express bus is the way I would go. I agree with previous posters that having time on arrival is a great gift for reducing stress that might occur if a flight is delayed.

The bus terminal at Heathrow has a large waiting room with rows of chairs. There is a small shop and a coffee stand. Restrooms are available. It does not take very long to reach the bus terminal after immigration and passport control is generally very quick with the use of the e gates. There is clear signage showing the way. It is not a particularly inspiring location but it is functional. I like the idea of eating breakfast elsewhere on arrival and then moving to the station if time permits.

I would go ahead and buy my tickets in advance with the 5 pound flex option and I would also pay the small fee (2 pounds?) to pre-reserve seats. I like to sit near the front of the bus and assume you would like to be sure you can sit together.

As an aside you can’t find an empty gate to sit at when you arrive. When you exit the plane you will have no choice but to follow the way to immigration (or flight connections were you flying on). The departure area will be above you.

Thanks all for the very helpful replies. We will definitely only have carry-on. We usually travel with just carry on to our destination and sometimes use a collapsible duffle to check in on the way home (not worried if our dirty laundry gets lost or delayed.) It sounds like the consensus is taking the National Express bus directly from Heathrow to Bath is the best choice for us with enough options to get something to eat and relax in the (unlikely?) event that we arrive on time and sail through passport control. I will probably go ahead and buy the tickets in advance, with flex and seat reservation because even with those added costs, the 11:35am bus is still the least expensive ticket. I just need to understand exactly what the flex option provides (do we still have to pay the full walk up fare if we take an earlier/later bus?) I assume the seat reservations are lost if we do change to a different bus time.

The flex add on is no extra fare to be paid, travel on any available bus + or - 12 hours of your original departure time.

So if you paid £10 today, and the fare on the day of travel for your later bus was £30, then you don't pay the extra £20. The only caveat is that if you have booked Bath direct you can't then go via Bristol (or vice versa).

Just contact National Express per the methods on the website.

I probably shouldn't say this but in practice most drivers, if they have room, will just take you if you arrive coachside- whatever the rules say. Three times in the last 4 Nat Ex journeys I have seen that happen- people arriving early or late on high frequency services even with non flexible tickets and just allowed on. I'm not encouraging that!- just commenting.

Yes your reserved seats are gone (and non refundable) but £4 or £5 is neither here or there. It is always interesting to me how many reserved seats are never claimed on any Nat ex service.

But the buses are not going to be anything like full in deep off season.

EDIT- to amend your flex ticket you would need to call- 03717 81 81 81, Lines open 7 days a week, 8am - 8pm (as there is no ticket desk at Heathrow)

I'll just add that there is an app for the National Express coaches so you can buy thru the app and have an e-ticket whether you decide to buy ahead of time or after you arrive and see what your time frame looks like.

if you're travelling in December, don't underpack. it's gonna be wet and cold.

Thank you for the tip about the app. I will most likely use it but does anyone know if I can set up an account online, buy the e ticket then access it from the app? I tend to like to buy from my computer (bigger screen).
Also, can anyone confirm the flex policy? If I read it correctly, it seems that by adding 5gbp per ticket for flex, I would actually be able to board any bus for Bath, within 12 hours of my scheduled departure. My concern is that the bus we're scheduling is direct, operated by National Express bus, but it looks like others that day are listed as Heathrow to Bath but include a change (in Bristol, switching to coach operated by first badgerline?) - so would those be covered by the flex option? The direct bus we're planning to buy the tickets for are currently half of the cost of the other bus time options.

As for winter dressing, thank you for the reminder, we'll be sure to have layers, including good rain gear over the winter warmth layers. Luckily this Delta flight has normal size restrictions (and no weight limit) for carry on. We've had flights on TAP, and Iceland Air, among others that really limit size/weight. Our carry-ons are all normal size for carry on (<22inx15inx9in) so we should be good.

The way I personally buy National Express tickets is on the website (not app) through my free account- easy to set up (top right corner of the screen). That also means I don't have to pay the £1.50 booking fee. The e-ticket is then e-mailed straight away to me as a PDF, which I save down to my mobile device. I then show the PDF to the driver.
The ticket is also saved in my account, which I can access through my account as a web page, as opposed to an app.

Also NatEx e-mail me 2 or 3 days beforehand to remind me of the journey with a further reminder of the ticket number.

No, if you book on the 1135 you can only flex onto Bath direct services- the next such are at 1505, 1720, 2020 and 2315.

Book on a via Bristol bus (say the 0930) and you can flex onto any other via Bristol (but not Bath direct) bus- that is the 1230, 1330, 1530 or 1745.

Or as I say just buy when you arrive. The fares for tomorrow are £31.50 on the 1135, and £29.60 on most of the via Bristol buses. BUT if you book to Bristol only on most services it is only £19.90 or £21.90 tomorrow, then pay the £2 fare to the Badgerline driver.
So via Bristol is both more frequent and cheaper.

Nat Ex don't show the full Badgerline service- you don't have to wait for the ticketed connecting X39- just jump on the next one at Bristol- it is that easy.
Also Nat Ex say the X39 is non stop Bristol to Bath- it isn't- stops at quite a few local stops between the two cities.

ISN31C - thank you so much for the info, and for being patient. I realized I missed one of your earlier replies that already answered most of my questions. I understand your logic for the possibility of just getting the tickets on site, but I'm a little concerned about having to change buses. I'm sure it's simple, but it does add more time and more luggage moving (again, we'll pack light). Right now the price for the direct bus to Bath is 66gbp for all five of us. Looking at what we would pay on walk up (checking tomorrow's price), its 169 for the same time, direct (depart 11:35) or 139 for the earlier bus through Bristol. Even adding the flex and seat reservation to the advance ticket would still be only 100gbp. But, that means we couldn't take anything earlier and if we miss 1135, we'd have to wait until 15:05 for departure.

I know I'm overthinking this, I'll probably make my daughters and husband weigh in, so I'm not fully responsible for the decision in case we 'pick' wrong! :)

I’m surprised that no one has considered the rail option for you. You’re right in that the bus is cheapest, most direct and least luggage schlepping. But waiting for the direct bus means that you will be sat at Heathrow for 4+ hours jet lagged and will only get to Bath at 2pm, 7 hours after arrival.
You could book an Advance ticket by train now at £22.60 per adult single leaving Heathrow at 9.20 and be in Bath before you leave Heathrow if you wait for the bus. This does mean 2 changes, but they’re both very simple and if you only have carry on luggage hardly difficult. You just have to cross platforms at Hayes & Harlington and again at Reading - no need to go into Paddington at all. And there are lifts to help you if you need them.

On my system the 0920 train is actually 0925 (0920 is from Terminal 5, not T2/3 where you are arriving), the change at Hayes and Harlington is 4 minutes, and costs £48.60 each. The first cheap train is at 0955, and is £27.60 each, not £22.60.
But advance train fares are train specific, miss whichever train you have booked due to a late running flight and/or immigration taking longer than planned, and it's a new full priced ticket at £45.10 each after 0955, or about £68 up to 0925.

Back to your original question, Heathrow has a great selection of restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, and pubs:
https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/restaurants-a-z?type=restaurant
and tons of places to shop:
https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/shops-a-z?type=store
The above links allow you to search by terminal.
If you still want to kill time while waiting for your coach, eating and browsing the shops could take up that time.

Just be sure to be waiting out at the coach stands when the coach to Bath arrives. It will pull in, there will be no announcement on the loudspeaker about it, then it will load people and luggage and pull out to start the journey. The header on the coach will, of course, say "Bath", but the coach driver standing outside the door will not yell "Bath".
The coach we took was in the space for a grand total of 5 minutes, then gone.

I haven’t checked those links but I assume they will be listing all the shops and restaurants in Heathrow terminals, but the vast majority will be airside and not accessible by passengers arriving at the airport. There will be some options available landslide but mainly restricted to coffee shops and the like.

I think this comes down to how cost conscious you need to be. Is it worth hanging around at Heathrow to save a bit of money when you have limited time?

For me, on a long haul international trip I would want to be out of that airport and at my destination as quickly as possible. If you have to go to Bath first then I’d consider a private hire car. For five you’d need some kind of minibus. It will cost more but you’ll get to Bath so much more quickly and easily.

Apologies Isn31c. I looked at trains from 9am, clocked the different fares and then when typing a reply forgot that the cheaper ones were later..

I still think I would opt for the train personally even if waiting a bit for the £27.60 option. The chance of you not being ready to ca5ch it should be very small when arriving hours before.

What is the age make up of your group? There may be the opportunity to save some more money by buying a railcard. What other journeys are you planning on the trip?

John - we originally planned to take the train, but the cost was higher, required change of train and I didn't realize I could book it directly from Heathrow. Which website do you use for that? I would like to figure out what that train cost would be for walk up price.

We have one over age 70, one 63, and 3 between 28 and 30. Our other planned train travel is to return from Bath to London on the 9th. For that trip we can confidently book a specific train and prepurchase the tickets for 131.50 total for 5 for the "group saver" super off peak single price. That seems to be a great option for us so I'm not sure the rail card for the over 70 would be worth it? I need to get clarification on the definition of the "group saver" discount, but according to the GWR website, they only show me fares I'm eligible for, and I didn't select having any rail cards.

The group saver information makes it sound like I could take any train that day in the same "super off peak" category, but that doesn't sound right.

This is a slightly involved answer, so bear with it-

1. A Super off peak ticket is valid on any train weekdays after 0930, so the 0955 onwards from Heathrow. While you book on a specific train, you can travel on any. So for instance if you don't make the 4 minute connection at Hayes and Harlington then there is a train every 30 minutes.

That fare is £45.10 each- £225.50 for 5 of you

1. What you want to do is to buy 2x Two Together railcards for a total of 4 of you, then the 5th person pays full fare- total railcard cost £60- https://www.twotogether-railcard.co.uk/

[valid weekdays after 0930, weekends at any time]

1. So on the Thursday buy 4x £45.10 off peak tickets with the 2 railcards + a 5th at full price- that totals £164.10 + £60 railcards= £224.10, thus a minor saving of £1.40.

2. But on the Saturday use your railcards again, and to use the 0843 train as an example-
   advance fares are £23 each, 5 of those= £115.

But buy 4 advance [train specific] fares with your 2 railcards and a 5th full price- and the total is £83.10

If you book super off peak fares instead (valid any train)- the total with the railcards would be £145.10- so quite a lot of maths to work through on this to work out the best deal for you.

The same principle works on later trains with higher advance fares.

In theory you would buy through the GWR web site- try it but it is very glitchy with overseas cards- so most people on here use the LNER site. It works fine, sells the same tickets at the same price- https://www.lner.co.uk/

Wow, thank you that is complicated but I'll try to figure it out. So, from what you're saying the price I was seeing for "group save" doesn't require a railcard (225.50 total for 5 of us, flexible train, booking the 9:55 train with 2 changes). Or for extra savings I can buy the railcards and use on the return trip. I think that makes sense. It is more expensive than the bus and requires a little bit of running around at the train changes, but gets us into Bath 2.5 hours earlier, and still allows for some flexibility if we need a different train.

It seems that seat reservations on the GWR train are 'recommended'. I assume that's an additional cost? Does that have to be done directly on the GWR website? I don't mind downloading apps if that's an easier way to do this.

Thanks again for all your help. I feel a lot more 'educated' on the options and can present it to the crew.

Another question - if we do the train option as described above, booking the 9:55 from the Heathrow Terminal 2&3 rail station (is that the one I should choose?) if we happen to get through passport control earlier can we take an earlier first train with this ticket, like maybe the 9:25, which gets us to Hayes and Harlington with a few extra minutes to get to our next train?

And another question....
I was just looking at the rail card options. Wouldn't it be best if we bought a single family and friends card? It looks like we can have 2 named adults and we would get 30% off for up to 4 adults traveling together. This may be something for us to consider - might even think of getting the 3 year 70gbp rail card and let my 3 daughters fight over who gets to be the 2nd name. We have family in England and are likely to make a few more trips in the next 3 years.

That's right- groupsave requires no railcards. Do your ticket buying on an app or the website, as you wish. Reports are that the GWR app works for overseas customers no better than the website, so it may need to be the LNER app. But you never know, you may get lucky with the GWR app.

Or super off peak tickets are walk up fares, so can be purchased on the day- from the machines at the station, but you probably don't want to try to handle that.

You can't take the 0925 train from Heathrow to Hayes and Harlington, but you can take the 0936 or the 0951 to get the extra change time at Hayes.

When you book on the 0955 you will get seats reserved between Reading and Bath as part of the price (no extra cost). Heathrow to Hayes and Hayes to Reading there are no seats reserved- doesn't matter- lots of capacity on the Elizabeth Line trains.

Clearly if you were later there would be no seats reserved. Even for a family of 5, on a December Thursday it is hard to see that mattering, in terms of available seats.

By the way this morning DL058 landed early at 0647.

Thanks again, I think I've got it figured out now .... maybe. I put in having the one family and friends card and it looks like there's no discount, I'm not sure why that railcard doesn't work, but I guess that means we'd have to consider buying the 2 together cards if we want the extra discounts.

To use the Family and Friends Railcard at least one child must be travelling with the party. That was my first thought to save you another £30, but you don't have a child, so it doesn't work.

Got it, thanks. Yes, I finally read the fine print - probably not worth borrowing a kid for the trip.

I'll update when we've made a decision on which way to go. Thanks for all the help.

I'm actually thinking. IF you are coming back (big if) the youngest COULD get a 26-30 railcard. This time it won't quite pay for itself, but would on a future visit-

https://www.26-30railcard.co.uk/

Now we're leaning toward the train option, with the 2 together rail cards as explained above because it provides the most flexibility. I have a few more questions:

Train change at Hayes and Harlington - is it really 'crossing the platform' as someone described? Does that mean up an down a flight of stair to cross the tracks, or more than that?

Same questions for Reading train change, although we'll have a little more time for this one.

If I buy the "super off-peak" single flex ticket (164.10 for 5 total with 2 two together cards) will there be only 1 ticket/qr code for all 5 of us, or will there be 5 separate tickets? Does each person have to tap in?

With that "super off-peak" flex ticket if we arrive at the Heathrow terminal 2&3 rail station in time to take the 9:47 or even 9:36? departure to Hayes and Harlington, do we just scan our ticket or do we need to request some type of change in the ticket?

We'll be staying near Paddington for the London portion of our trip, after Bath. It looks like I can prebook the Elizabeth line back to Heathrow departing Paddington around noon, using the two together cards. Right now the cheapest is 44.70, described as anytime day single (under the flexible ticket banner). The off-peak options is actually more expensive (54.90). Is that just because there's an added discount for booking this far in advance? Is there any reason to not book this ahead, given that we might use the tube in the morning (possible, not definite) for up to 2 rides? I thought I read that the Elizabeth line cost counts towards the daily max if we use the tube that day?

1. At Hayes it is just cross the tracks- either stairs or there is an elevator on each side up to the bridge and back down the other sie.

2. You will either get 2 or 3 tickets. Two if the 4 on Railcards fit on one ticket (they should) or maybe 2 on each of 2 tickets, then a separate ticket for the full fare person. If a physical ticket put in the gates at LHR, if a mobile QR code scan each ticket on the gate scanner. Ticketed like this best to use the wide (buggy/wheelchair) gates, which are manned at LHR, and the operator will let you through as a family group.

After that the tickets will just be checked by the conductor on each train- almost certainly only on the train from Reading to Bath.

No need to change your tickets if on the earlier train. Just scan as normal.

There is no benefit to booking Elizabeth Line ahead- no advance is cheaper. Buy on the day.

The fares will get complicated. Yes there is a daily cap but that doesn't work in tandem with going to Heathrow on the Elizabeth Line, as 2T is only valid on National Rail, not the tube.

Some maths would need doing on that one as to how to make that work cheapest. The obvious cheapest within the cap would be do the morning tube journeys then Piccadilly line tube to Heathrow.

To be honest I think there is only a pound or two difference in whatever you do. To me the simplest answer is probably do the whole lot including the Elizabeth Line to Heathrow under the cap, and forget about 2T. For whatever minor saving you might get I don't think it's worth the maths through various permutations to work out the absolute utter cheapest.

If you just go Paddington to LHR then buy on the day with the 2T for a total of £44.70. Your 2T is not available until 0930 on a weekday.