Heathrow Express

When all is said and done the Heathrow express is no real bargain for you. At most you're adding on 15 or 20 minutes of hassle free riding on the tube (I often stay in the Earl's Court area). You can buy Oyster Cards just after you come down the esclator when following the Heathrow terminal signs to "underground" "trains" whatever. They take Visa etc. Oyster cards are also easily available for purchase at any major (and most minor) stations during normal business hours (much eariler/later at Heathrwo). Easy to top off Oyster cards at any station.

If you do take the Heathrow Express, you can either buy Oyster cards at the tube station in Heathrow or at Paddington. When you arrive at Paddington, you will walk from the rail station down the stairs to the entrance of the tube station where there are a number of ticket windows. You can buy a card there. You will then walk through the turnstile and head straight to the district line platform. You will have to take stairs to get to the platform (no escalators to district line platform).

For Earls Court, I find it is usually faster to take the tube from Heathrow. It generally takes about 45 minutes and it is direct on Piccadilly line. You also avoid hauling your luggage up and down stairs at Paddington. I used to live in a flat near Earls Court so I have taken this route many times. As long as they aren't doing any works on the tube line, the tube will be faster.

I just don't see the attraction of sitting on a subway for 50+ minutes after sitting in an airplane for 9+ hours. I'd rather take a fast train to Paddington, get a look at that station, and then ride the subway for another 9 minutes to Earls Court. I don't mind the extra hassle of having to take the train from terminal 4 to terminals 1,2 and 3 to catch the Heathrow Express.

Anyway, thanks for your replies!

Terminal 4 Underground stop is less of a nightmare to purchase tickets but it is underground away from the arrivals area . Terminals 1,2, 3 and Paddington station are a mess of queues of people trying to buy tickets with their oversized luggage and annoyed partners and naughty children bored out of their minds. If you are already at T4 you may as well take the tube 44 minutes to Earl's Court with only 13 stops on the Piccadilly Line.

Alternatively, you can save £4, go through more hassle and time and take your free ride instead.

Your salvation would be to do this outside of peak commute time.

I think there are 20 stops to Earls Court. But I appreciate the message!!

Dave....much of the tube ride from LHR to Earls Court is above ground. So, you get to see some of the working suburbs of London.

But, it's your choice and if you want to take the Heathrow Express then by all means do so.

I think a lot of people here are just trying to give you the easier option. You probably won't save much time taking the Heathrow Express as it doesn't run as frequently as the tube. You may save 5-10 minutes overall if you don't have to queue anywhere. And you will be doing a lot more walking.

But in the end, it's your decision. One suggestion is taht when you get to Heathrow check to see if there are any service disruptions on either form of transport.

The dark blue Piccadilly line leaves Heathrow straight to Earl's Court and you do not need to change lines. Twenty stops would take you into Central London.

When I fly into Heathrow I always have to hike a long way to either the bus station or the Tube station. So there is a good bit of exercise just getting from the plane to your next transportation. I've taken the Piccadilly line from LHR to the St Pancras/Kings Cross area in about an hour, so we're not talking about an unreasonably long ride. Earl's Court is closer and would probably be more easily reached by just taking the Tube all the way. Your Express ticket would be handy if your hotel happened to be near Paddington.

Yeah the tube is the easier option, we may take it in. I've watched the YouTube videos of the Picadilly Line and it is above ground on much of the route. I sure appreciate all of your input and we may just return the London Plus pass (at a $40 penalty from the Rick Steves store) and take the tube. We were planning on going to Bath for a couple nights in the beginning, then we decided to weekend in Paris instead. Also planning on a trip to Southampton to see QE2 before her retirement, but it may be cheaper to just buy the tickets to see QE2 instead of the London Plus Pass.