Gatwick to Heathrow transfer

Depending on the time of day, it should be enough time to get from one to the other. It's only about 45 minutes or so on the National Express bus. In any event, if you are ticketed as a single flight and they fail to get you there in time to make your ongoing flight, it is their responsibility to get you on the next flight.

Thank, Nancy. This sounds more hopeful. I will remember that BA is responsible! We arrive Gatwick at 12:20 pm, so perhaps before rush hour. I was wondering if I should reserve the Express Coach before leaving home. But then I wasn't sure what time to make the reservation.

Annette, is this some kind of FF ticket? The reason that I ask is that I am surprised that you have a route that requires transfer between LGW and LHR when BA has flights from AMS to both LGW and LHR. Regardless, you can always contact BA customer service and just express your concern about the change of airports and tight connection and see what the options are. I doubt they will change it, but it never hurts to ask. 3:15 is tight (the minimum legal connection is 3 hours), but BA will be responsible for getting you home.

I don't know what an FF ticket is. We booked the tickets lst fall using BA "miles."

Sorry I didn't spell it out. By "FF ticket", I meant "Frequent Flyer ticket". But you answered my question as you said it was booked with miles. I know with miles you sometimes don't get the most desirable routes.

You can go ahead and book the bus if you want. If you miss the one you booked you can just take the next one (or if you are earlier, you can take an earlier one). That's what I did when transferring between Heathrow and Stansted.

Thanks to both of you. It is the first time I've used BA FF miles, which was a frustrating experience in and of itself.

I don't know where Nancy got the 45 minute bus journey from Gatwick to Heathrow. According to the National Express website it is just under two hours and that is what it has taken me to do over the past few years. Make sure you get a bus that stops at Terminal 5 which is where BA does its TransAtlantic flights from. As it is on the south side of Heathrow it should be the first stop coming from Gatwick. I suggest you check in on line for both flights, and do the carry-on luggage thing. Gets you through customs quickly at Gatwick and saves one set of lines at Heathrow. Even though 5 is a new terminal you still have the bottle-neck of security - I managed a 1 hour transfer from terminal 3 to terminal 5 but it was touch and go for a while going through security. A taxi from Gatwick to Heathrow takes about 1 hour and will cost you 80 Pounds - might be worth considering given the short time you have. Good luck!

The National Express website gives a travel time of 1hr10min from the South Terminal at Gatwick to Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Actual travel time will depend upon traffic conditions. The M25 is the busiest motorway in England.

I think that time is extremely tight. A part, potentially a large part, of that 3 hrs15 mins ( I assume you are taking the time from landing in LGW to departure in LHR) will be taken up with getting from the landing gate to the passport control area, then getting through passport control - last time I flew into Gatwick passport control was about 45 mins. And that assumes the plane lands on time. I can see that you could easily lose an hour of that time, before you even leave Gatwick airport. I booked a car to do the transfer to Heathrow, even though I had no time constraints. It took about 50 mins late on a Saturday afternoon, when traffic was very light. In response to one of the other posters, the BA internal European flights generally fly into Gatwick with the long haul going from Heathrow. Annoying for those of us who live in Europe as well.

Again, thanks everyone for the pooling of your experience and common sense. We'll probably make reservations for the coach and try not to bite our nails over it. We're already planning to do only carry-on, so perhaps that will help a bit. I'll report back as to successes and failures.

While sometimes BA only flies out of LGW or LHR for a particular destination, this is not the case with flights between London and Amsterdam. BA has several flights a day between AMS and LHR in addition to the flights between AMS and LGW. That is why I found it odd that the OP's routing from AMS was to LGW. For example, on August 3rd, there is a flight departing AMS at 11:40 and arriving LHR at 12:00. Then there is a flight at 12:20 arriving at LGW at 12:25. I was surprised that BA put the OP on the flight to LGW until I heard the ticket was with miles. I'm assuming there were no frequent flyer seats left on the AMS to LHR route that day.

Made the same connection a while back but HR to LGW. I was sure we wouldn't make the connection.Got on the National Express bus thinking we had it made and the bus next to ours took out a sign backing out of the parking space. We waited until they determined the damaged bus had to stay, unloaded/loaded passengers, etc. before we took off. Got to LGW and heard the announcement that all Raleigh passengers needed to check in immediately. We were rushed thru check in and security and ran all the way to the plane with airline employees along the way letting gate agent know we were coming. Made the plane barefooted and less my sister in law's coat which was left at security. One reminder - the Brits have a one carry on rule, not one carry on and a personal item. So be sure to stuff your purse in your bag before going thru security. Fortunately, the agent let me stuff mine in my bag and leave the bag unzipped.

"One reminder - the Brits have a one carry on rule, not one carry on and a personal item." While that used to be true at BAA airports, it has not been the case for the last couple of years. It depends on the airline that you are flying. I've flown out of both LHR and LGW in the last two years and had no issues getting through security with a purse and a carry-on.