LHR to London City Airport

Susan, I feel your pain. I may be messing up the tech, but I found this service (for me for another reason). The airport websites also have information, but the service I found is here

My first suggestion is that you try to persuade AA to change your flight to one from LHR. However, American Airlines website warns you when there is an airport change or overnight stay before you book. See it regularly when it suggests an itinerary via two different New York airports. Maybe you did it on the phone with a poor agent.

The minimum connection time between the airports is 3 hours and 30 minutes. The public transport route is the Piccadilly Line to Green Park, Jubilee Line to Canning Town and the DLR to London City, around an hour and a half. You could shave off 15-20 minutes or so taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington, and the Bakerloo Line to Baker Street, changing to the Jubilee line there.

Your big uncertainty is immigration at Heathrow and collecting checked bags if you have them. If your flight left from there you wouldn't need to do these at all. The one saving thing is that you are presumably on a single ticket, so the airline(s) has to sort it out if your flight is late etc.

I do have 4 hrs and 15 minutes between flights. I'm interested in the least expensive way to get between these two airports. I need to kill 4 hrs anyway. I am in awe of how expensive everything is in London. I believe if I had known this in advance, I would have booked differently, but am on my way to Amsterdam.

On the way home we travel from Pisa to Stansted on Ryanair (which I dread), and then we are 2 nights in London before flying home from LHR. Our hotel is in Kensington, not South Kensington, and it doesn't look too great either. I bought it on Priceline because I didn't have time to look for a B&B, which we usually choose for lodging. I don't even know how to get from Stansted to London. Actually my connections in London are horrid!

If you can give me any further advice, I would so appreciate it. Thanks

What Marco said is right about immigration. That's probably going to be your longest wait unless you are flying business class and can get the Fast Track flyer to get in the short line. The least expensive way to get from LHR to London City is definitely the tube and DLR. London City Airport is pretty small so not a lot of huge lines to deal with. Definitely check in online and I hope you don't have luggage you have to check in.

We will have no checked baggage. Are you saying that once we arrive at LHR we should check in online for the flight from London City to Amsterdam, even thought it is all one ticket originating in the US? Does the Tube run from LHR to London City, with numerous transfers? I have to say I am very overwhelmed with London transportation, partly because of my lack of preparation, but also because I have never had such confusion understanding transportation in other European cities.

I presume I should know what the DLR is, HELP!

Docklands Light Railway......an above ground train, but part of the tube network
London City Airport has a station.
Trains every 8/15mins

Maybe you should contact the airline about checking in for your flight to Amsterdam now. Seems sort of strange that you wouldn't have to check in again at London City airport to get your boarding pass.

Here's the tube map so you can see the various lines to get from LHR to London City Airport. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/standard-tube-map.pdf

When you travel on two flights that are part of one ticket, you generally get boarding passes for both flights when you check in for the first. Confirm this when you check in to your first flight in the U.S.

Oh my goodness, thanks to everyone for their help. I'm beginning to piece together this puzzle. I will paste and copy all this info for the travel itinerary to get from LHR to London City.

Yes, I can use additional help on our Ryanair flight arriving at Stansted. We arrive at 20:40, after dark, which is a little bit of a concern, but I'm sure all will go well. I have changed hotels, because after booking on Priceline, and then reading the reviews on the Hilton Olympia, supposedly a 4 star, had terrible reviews (a ridiculous loss).

I am now booked at the Holiday Inn Commercial Road in East End (at a great price). A two year old hotel, with great reviews, but a not so good neighborhood as I understand from reading.

Richard suggested I take the bus from Stansted to Liverpool Station. But from there I need to get to the hotel which isn't too far away. In daylight the walk would be fine, but at 22:00 I really don't want to walk. Would there be a taxi at Liverpool Station that late at night? I welcome all suggestions. I know the hotel website says bus 15 stops in front of the hotel, but have no idea where that bus originates.

Susan, I've stayed at Hilton Olympia. It was 13 years ago on business so obviously things can change. What did the reviews complain about? Obviously things change, but sometimes people complain because they expect more from a Hilton and this was just your standard generic chain hotel. While the Olympia station is pretty useless, the number 9 bus runs along the High Street and is pretty convenient to get to High Street Kensington station and it also runs to a lot of tourist sites. I wouldn't necessarily exclude staying there unless you find the reviews to be really atrocious (and perhaps they are).

Four star in London is based on the amenities that a hotel offers (not necessarily that it is a "top" hotel)

Liverpool Street station to Commercial Road is bus route 135(towards Crossharbour)
Goes from station
9mins journey time.
Jump off at the left turn onto New Road.
100yds to hotel.
Runs until late in the night, frequent service