kayjay

Is 3 hours sufficient connection time Arriving AA at Heathrow, departing BA at Gatwick? If not what is the minimum safe time.

Ready2Go

I believe 3 hours is the official minimum. It's usually plenty of time, but the ring road you will travel on the connecting bus -- the M25 -- can have some of the worst traffic anywhere. If you will be making the transfer anywhere near what might be considered rush hour, 3 hours is cutting it close. Make sure your BA flight is not the last of the day.

dspringer28

Any better the other way around? (LGW--->LHR)

FWAAA

Although exhorbitantly expensive, you could always take the Heathrow Express to Paddington (15 minutes) and then the 705 bus to Victoria, and then the Gatwick Express to LGW (30 minutes). I did it once in just over an hour when I didn't want to risk traffic. About 20 pounds at the time (now about 25).

prspad

I've taken the National Express bus many times in both directions between LHR & LGW... http://www.nationalexpress.com/nxairport/home.cfm

The bus ride is about an hour and a half. Three hours should be okay.

andrzej

I've done it few times an never had a problem,


BUT,

I did Fastrack through immigration,

I did not have checked luggage,

and finally, I knew exactly where to go


If the OP is stuck in the immigration hall for some time because 3 other planes landed at the same time and the OP does not have Fastrack and if the OP has to collect checked luggage, and if the OP doesn't know where to go, THEN.....


3 hours IS NOT ENOUGH!!!


The aboves are all IFs. I would say that subtracting/adding 30 minutes for each if would be the way to estimate the time needed.

The bus ride = 1:15

dspringer28

Another question, I will be landing at LHR on a sunday at 08:05 AM, on a BA flight from Hamburg, coach.

How long should I allow to get to the bus at LHR, so what time should I get the bus ticket for? I'm not really in that much of a hurry, flight departs LGW at 2pm. Thanks.

EDIT: Oh, and not checked luggage (I think) Are BA's carry on rules the same as American's?

venk

The shuttle trip can be as small as 55 minutes on weekends or as long as 2.5 hours in weekday rush hour. Unless you are in weekday rush hour 3 hours is sufficient if as the previous poster mentioned you do not get unduly delayed. I believe they raised the minimum official connection times to 4 hours now.

Go to National Express Site where you can enter the start and end and see the entire list of routes. Now that National Express has consolidated the three or four lines that used to run between the two, there is very frequent service between the two airports.

Dave Noble

"How long should I allow to get to the bus at LHR, so what time should I get the bus ticket for? I'm not really in that much of a hurry, flight departs LGW at 2pm. Thanks."

Personally, I'd just buy the ticket at the coach departure rather than in advance; just get the next coach going

"Oh, and not checked luggage (I think) Are BA's carry on rules the same as American's?"

No; they are not. BA allows 1 piece no more than ,iirc, 6 Kg

Dave

cressers

You'll be fine on a Sunday, there will be no traffic.

oklAAhoma

FWIW - the minimum connection was still 3 hours in mid-August, when I last passed through there. Don't know if it's been raised since then.

If you do have checked luggage, you'll have to carry it between airports and then re-check it. But there are special lines at each airport for dropping off bags, so a 3 hour connection still works ---- barring any unusual delays.

Good luck.

dspringer28

Sorry to bump, but where would I get the fastrack. This will be my first time flying AA internationaly in J? Thanks.

xTWAnowAAer

Before you land the FA will pass out arrival cards with a pink Fastrack folder/pamphlet to put it into. You give the pink thing to the customs agent to get into the fastrack lane.

PDX-PLT

So why is that? I've run into this on all the European airlines I've run into lately. Specifically, why on earth, do the European carriers care how much your carry-on lugguge weighs? I mean, it doesn't matter where the bag ends up, carry-on or checked, it uses the same amount of fuel. Or are the Euro-carriers admitting the Airbus planes they buy have flimsy overhead compartments?

I'm thinking, since the intra-Europe "business-class" seems no different from coach, other than you get to sit at the front of the plane and get a free copy of the Financial Times, this is one of the few value-adds for their "business-class" of service: you get hassled less about the weight of your carry-on than the unwashed masses do in Economy.

LHR Tim

I think you'll find it's something called SAFETY.

I know some American's feel it's their god given right to bring steamer trunks on as hand luggage, but it can create serious safety problems (bags falling on heads in emergency manoeuvers, etc..)