REQ advice for transfer Heathrow 5 to Luton

It will take c an hour to clear Heathrow and approximately 2 hours to get to Luton via tube and train and bus. You will need to be at Luton 2 hours before your flight, so that gives you c1.5 hours of wriggle room. This is OK so long as your incoming flight isn't delayed or there is a problem on the railline and that's a big unknown. My brother's flight last week was delayed for 4 hours.......

If the worst comes to the worst and you are late arriving, you would have to take a very expensive taxi ride, taking about an hour and probably costing as much as your flight here!

I agree on all points with the lady from Tunbridge Wells.

I'd figure 2 hours at Heathrow, an hour on the Piccadilly Line to Kings Cross St Pancras, downstairs at St Pancras to a Bedford Thameslink service (3 an hour with a habit of late running) to Luton Airport Parkway (don't stay on until Luton, get off at the Airport Parkway), or upstairs at St Pancras to the East Midlands train (one or two an hour which stop at Luton Airport Parkway, many of their trains are either express or stop at Luton instead of the Airport Parkway, check carefully) and I'd allow at least 60 to 90 minutes St Pancras to Luton Airport because of the chance of waiting for a suitable train at STP, and then at the Airport Parkway you have to go out of the station (keep your ticket, get a ticket to Luton Airport not to the Parkway station) and get on the waiting but not terrifically fast connecting bus to the terminal. A ticket to the airport includes the bus, one to the station doesn't.

So I say allow 4.5 hours makes it around 11:00 and you can just squeak the checkin time.

Especially with luggage to check for the hold at Easyjet or RyanAir you don't have any breathing time.

My personal view would be to avoid a transfer and use a flight from Heathrow if at all possible, leaving a sufficient buffer on separate tickets. However, if you are already committed ....

You can debate which is the most reliable, but for convenience IMO the coach outweighs the via London train alternatives which require an underground journey of an hour beforehand and a bus shuttle ride afterwards.

Coach does stop at Hemel Hempstead and isn't a dedicated service, the entire length running from Northampton-Gatwick. The ones that detour round terminal 4 are a bit of a pain. There are 3 leaving between 09:00 and 10:00, the latest timetabled to arrive before 11:30, and would be after the commuting has tailed off a bit.

Unfortunately National Express website shows earliest couch from terminal 5 is 9:30 with estimated arrival at 11:10. I guess this time of year is the off peak schedule? Seems a shame to lose so much time on the front end, just to board a coach, but I assume equal slippage waiting for train at St. Pancras.

I'll need to check luggage at Luton. Seems like a tight transfer.

There are 3 for the Friday I looked at. However, you did not say which Friday in May. There is currently only the 9:30 on the bank holiday weekend; maybe the coaches are deployed elsewhere or maybe they haven't loaded them all in yet, as this seems the case through June as well.

19 May, not a bank holiday.
So...having only a choice of 9:30 departure by coach, all unknown factors involving Heathrow are essentially removed. It simply comes down to: can the coach get to LTN in 90 minutes at 9:30-11:00 on a Spring Friday? Is congestion still bad at that time?

And therefore the alternative can also be narrowed down, which is: assuming I catch a train at 8:00 (leaves 90 mins for luggage, customs) by either Piccadilly - KingsCross or Heathrow Express - Paddington - KingsCross), and even if need to catch a 2x/hour or 3x/hour train to LTN, am I better positioned for reliability by train?

Both assume no inbound delays on PHL - LHR.

What would be your updated responses? Thanks in advance.

me? honestly? if there was a reasonable alternative without all the palaver i'd jump at that. no way i would plan a connection with so much stress.

Coach may be ok, but it just takes one idiot with a bit too much speed getting into a tangle with a truck to stop anything moving on the M25 for hours.

Tube to train should be ok but one poor soul falling in front of a train, or a strike, or a "mechanical" or your inbound late (what is its record?) or a problem with luggage or Border Control, and your plans are out the window.

Perhaps you have a high stress threashold and deeper pockets than I (new full priced and later Luton flight).

I don't know which cheap airline you are considering, but if it is Easyjet their load factors tend pretty high and there may not be a seat on the next one....

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. YMMV

the reasonable alternative would be to do what I usually do: take tube to St Pancras upon arriving, visit London while tired, then take train to LTN for the 20:00 WizzAir flight, arrive at my destination at 01:00.

not a bad alternative, but want to get to my destination sooner and be more efficient with a 6.5 hour layover.

Looking more closely at the coach timetables, there is no 707 or 240 service shown from 15 May, only the 787 service. Whether this is a real change or not is another matter.

exactly. if there was an 8:30 coach, i think i would be fine.

buy both flights cheaply, hope for the best and have cheap insurance in the form of the other if it goes phooot. I hope it goes incredibly smoothly for you and you just growl at me for a belt and braces approach.....