My plane will (allegedly) land at LHR T5 at 12:30 p.m. on a Friday in mid-September. I want to go directly to Bath for the Best of England tour that begins on Sunday. I plan to take the Heathrow Express to Paddington to catch the Bath train. I’m budgeting an hour from the time my plane lands to disembark, get through passport control, go to baggage claim, and walk to the Express. I’m hoping this means I will arrive at Paddington around 2:00 p.m. Just to be on the safe side, though, I’m going to buy online (probably from National Rail’s website) a ticket for the train that departs to Bath around 3:00 p.m. (the September train schedule is not online yet but I’m assuming times don’t change drastically), and I’m hoping to do this as early as possible (maybe mid-June) to get the reduced prices.
So, say I advance-purchase a ticket for the 3:00 p.m. train, but I get to Paddington early enough to catch the 2:30 train. Can I use my ticket on that earlier train? But what if I get to Paddington after 3:00: will I have to purchase a whole new ticket at same-day walk-up prices, or will the value of my ticket be credited toward the purchase of a new ticket? Basically, I’m trying to figure out whether the savings from an advance purchase is worth it when I can’t say for certain what time I’ll actually be able to catch the train.
I know I’m probably making this more difficult than it is, but for someone who only has the opportunity to take trains while in Europe it’s a lot to think about! My apologies for the length of this post. Any tips or advice is very welcome.
(BTW, I know there’s a bus that goes directly from LHR to Bath, but after getting off a 9-hour+ flight, spending another 3-4 hours on a bus does not appeal.)