U.K. and Ireland - miscellaneous London questions

Just a few random questions, which I'm sure I can find myself, but I thought I try here first as you all been very helpful. Again, thank you for all your inputs.

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs?

2. What are our best options for getting to our hotel (marleybone area) from the airport, given that it's fairly late? Approx price?

3. We are planning to exchange our dollars to pounds at the airport... will we be charged a lot in fees?

4. If I use my iPhone (AT&T) whilst in london for text, calls and internet browsing and most importantly as a GPS, will I be charged an arm and a leg?

5. We are scheduled to land at JFK mid-afternoon on a Monday. Is the custom line going to be horrendous?



4.

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs?

2. What are our best options for getting to our hotel (marleybone area) from the airport, given that it's fairly late? Approx price?

I would book a car service. 40 pounds.

3. We are planning to exchange our dollars to pounds at the airport... will we be charged a lot in fees?

Don't. Use an ATM to directly withdraw money in pounds.

4. If I use my iPhone (AT&T) whilst in london for text, calls and internet browsing and most importantly as a GPS, will I be charged an arm and a leg?

Yes. I would seriously reconsider this plan. It is not difficult to rack up 100's of dollars in charges, if not thousands.

5. We are scheduled to land at JFK mid-afternoon on a Monday. Is the custom line going to be horrendous?

Yes

2. What are our best options for getting to our hotel (marleybone area) from the airport, given that it's fairly late? Approx price?

The Heathrow Express whisks you to Paddington in a fraction of the time a car service would take, even at that time of night. Paddington station is just under a mile from Marylebone - very easy to grab a cab at Paddington for the last part of the trip.

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs?

What day of the week, and what terminal? Times have been all over the place, but generally the evenings aren't as tough as the mid-morning arrivals

2. What are our best options for getting to our hotel (marleybone area) from the airport, given that it's fairly late? Approx price?

How much luggage will you have? The Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect go to Paddington Station, which should then be an easy cab ride to your hotel.

If you are traveling light or are adventuresome you could take the Tube, but depending on where your hotel is that might be too cumbersome after a long travel day. Regardless, I'd suggest familiarizing yourself with the Transport For London website and journey planner: http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/ Schedules, routes, prices are all on there.

3. We are planning to exchange our dollars to pounds at the airport... will we be charged a lot in fees?

Yes. It would be better to withdraw pounds directly from an ATM, provided your bank allows for that. There are several threads about how much cash is needed in London, exchange fees, etc. They're worth looking up.

4. If I use my iPhone (AT&T) whilst in london for text, calls and internet browsing and most importantly as a GPS, will I be charged an arm and a leg?

Yes. Think about whether you are actually going to need to do all those things (ie, if you need to be connected for business purposes). Otherwise, put your phone into airplane mode and use wifi when it's available, and a paper map the rest of the time. There is a lot of information in the Travel Technology section.

5. We are scheduled to land at JFK mid-afternoon on a Monday. Is the custom line going to be horrendous?


No idea - others will probably know though.

Call your cell phone provider and add international service. When you return from London, cancel your international service. The CS agent will present you a with a couple of different data packages and you should only be charged for a partial month depending on the date.

The Heathrow Express whisks you to Paddington in a fraction of the time a car service would take, even at that time of night. Paddington station is just under a mile from Marylebone - very easy to grab a cab at Paddington for the last part of the trip.
Actually, if there are two people traveling, (1) HEx + cab and (2) car service at £40 aren't too far off from one another.

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs? 10-30 seconds depending on how fast you push your trolley

2. What are our best options for getting to our hotel (marleybone area) from the airport, given that it's fairly late? Approx price? Tube - around £5 max, car service - £35-£40, taxi - £70-£90

3. We are planning to exchange our dollars to pounds at the airport... will we be charged a lot in fees? Guaranteed if you mean physical dollars, if you use an ATM then there may be a charge from the owner of the ATM (unless it's a bank), there will be charges from your bank

4. If I use my iPhone (AT&T) whilst in london for text, calls and internet browsing and most importantly as a GPS, will I be charged an arm and a leg? Not for GPS - which probably won't work well in central London, data and calls will cost, what they'll cost will depend on your plan - why don't you ask AT&T. wi-fi might be free

If you're using your phone primarily for GPS, it's worth finding some offline maps to download - there are plenty - and then using GP without roaming.

Free wi-fi is now plentiful in London, so you can easily catch up with emails etc over coffee.

Customs is very quick but immigration might be more problematic

So far as JFK is concerned you could try asking in the NYC forum

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs? 10-30 seconds depending on how fast you push your trolley


As I'm sure you realise the OP really means Immigration, not Customs. As someone else has already said, there is no way of knowing how long it will take to get through Immigration at the moment because things have been so variable.

Once the OP has got through Immigration Customs should normally be a matter of seconds, as you said. One needs to explain to the OP that we don't really have Customs clearance here (nor anywhere else in the EU) - if you have nothing to declare you just walk through the green channel and keep on walking unless someone tells you to stop.

Actually, if there are two people traveling, (1) HEx + cab and (2) car service at £40 aren't too far off from one another.

I was talking about time, not cost.

The spread at the arrivals FX booth in T5 is shocking, I genuinely could not believe it. 15% I think. Don't!

Thank you all.

I'm arriving at LHR on Thursday evening. I'm not sure what terminal, but it's AA from JFK.

Is there a car service that you recommend?

When I bought my iPhone, I mentioned that I was going to Europe in the summer, and the sales clerk warned me about not using 3G data over there unless I wanted a whopping huge bill at the end of it.

I'm not a great phone talker, and all the e-mail checking I need to do I can do when there's free wi-fi, so I just kept data, location services, and notifications turned off until I was back in the States.

To my surprise, the voice service still worked, though. The phone rang a few times while I was in Denmark and Iceland, but I didn't recognize the numbers (besides, everyone who would actually call me for family or business matters already knew that I would be in Europe), so I didn't pick up. The calls were probably from robo callers ("Hi, this is Rachel in Card Services...") or other nuisances.

As a tourist, I rarely had to make a phone call, so on the rare occasions when I did, such as to get in touch with my relatives in Norway, I used the hotel phone. When I had to communicate with people at home, I used e-mail.

Thank you all.

I'm arriving at LHR on Thursday evening. I'm not sure what terminal, but it's AA from JFK.

Is there a car service that you recommend?

The best advice (unless wanting to pre-book something) is to get a Licensed Black Cab from the terminal taxi rank, these all have meters and will normally be able to give you a rough idea of the cost before you start. If you start the journey after 8pm the fares rise so just be aware of that.

Don't accept anyone approaching you offering a journey into London. These often unlicensed minicabs are no safer than getting into a strangers car as they will be uninsured to take you and also acting illegally (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/findaride/). It is not unheard of for people to be told a fare for a journey and then when they arrive to be told that the figure quoted was per person, or that they discover they are not taking the journey alone and that there will be other 'passengers' in the car who may be going somewhere else and dropped off first.

Call your cell phone provider and add international service. When you return from London, cancel your international service. The CS agent will present you a with a couple of different data packages and you should only be charged for a partial month depending on the date.And of course before you do this, make sure you know exactly what you're signing up for:http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/affordable-world-packages.jsp

The data costs have improved recently, though they're still ridiculous.

As mentioned above, free wifi is best. If you will be spending a lot of time outside the city, or really want constant data/phone service, you have some better options than AT&T. Talk to one of your techie friends to find out about unlocking your iPhone (or go over to the Travel Technology forum here and I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction). Once it's unlocked, you can use a SIM card from a local provider in the UK.

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/uk-ireland/

Lots of good suggestions there. For a data-heavy plan, check out http://giffgaff.com.

Note that when you're using a different SIM, you'll have a different phone number. So while you get cheaper data/calling options (and you'll have to make a local stop to pick this up & get it configured for your phone), you lose the convenience of having your normal mobile number.

And of course before you do this, make sure you know exactly what you're signing up for:http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/affordable-world-packages.jsp

The data costs have improved recently, though they're still ridiculous.

As mentioned above, free wifi is best. If you will be spending a lot of time outside the city, or really want constant data/phone service, you have some better options than AT&T. Talk to one of your techie friends to find out about unlocking your iPhone (or go over to the Travel Technology forum here and I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction). Once it's unlocked, you can use a SIM card from a local provider in the UK.

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/uk-ireland/

Can the SIM in a US iPhone be swapped out? Mine is from the UK, but I thought my friends in the US said they cannot change the SIM...

Lots of good suggestions there. For a data-heavy plan, check out http://giffgaff.com.

Note that when you're using a different SIM, you'll have a different phone number. So while you get cheaper data/calling options (and you'll have to make a local stop to pick this up & get it configured for your phone), you lose the convenience of having your normal mobile number.

Took me several reads of that message to find out what exactly had changed :)

Can the SIM in a US iPhone be swapped out? Mine is from the UK, but I thought my friends in the US said they cannot change the SIM...Apparently they have changed their official policy now - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1333401-att-unlock-out-contract-iphones-starting-april-8-a.html. I don't know all of the limitations/requirements.

My understanding is that there are also other ways to unlock an iphone. Example - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking. I don't know all of the risks involved, or if there are other mechanisms to unlock the handset.

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs?
T3, not too bad. aim for 30 minutes. (AM peak would be 1.5 hrs... LOL!)

2. What are our best options for getting to our hotel (marleybone area) from the airport, given that it's fairly late? Approx price?
black cab: ~£40-50, 45 mins (towards 60 on a bad day but that's maximum)

3. We are planning to exchange our dollars to pounds at the airport... will we be charged a lot in fees?
dont...

4. If I use my iPhone (AT&T) whilst in london for text, calls and internet browsing and most importantly as a GPS, will I be charged an arm and a leg?
If you are bothered, you can get a sim from vodafone. if you select the right combos 10 pounds would get you a long way. (actually, for a 4 day trip i wont be bothered.... just turn off data and use a paper map)

5. We are scheduled to land at JFK mid-afternoon on a Monday. Is the custom line going to be horrendous?

Dont know about JFK. leaving UK is usually not so bad. I usually arrive 90 mins before flight, and once in a while just make checkin deadline.

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs?
T3, not too bad. aim for 30 minutes.
No chance. Customs will take no more than a minute.

The best advice (unless wanting to pre-book something) is to get a Licensed Black Cab from the terminal taxi rank, these all have meters and will normally be able to give you a rough idea of the cost before you start. If you start the journey after 8pm the fares rise so just be aware of that.

Black cabs can be astonishingly expensive too!

1. We are scheduled to land around 9 pm at LHR. How long will it take us to clear through customs? 10-30 seconds depending on how fast you push your trolley

2. What are our best options for getting to our hotel (marleybone area) from the airport, given that it's fairly late? Approx price? Tube - around £5 max, car service - £35-£40, taxi - £70-£90

3. We are planning to exchange our dollars to pounds at the airport... will we be charged a lot in fees? Guaranteed if you mean physical dollars, if you use an ATM then there may be a charge from the owner of the ATM (unless it's a bank), there will be charges from your bank

4. If I use my iPhone (AT&T) whilst in london for text, calls and internet browsing and most importantly as a GPS, will I be charged an arm and a leg? Not for GPS - which probably won't work well in central London, data and calls will cost, what they'll cost will depend on your plan - why don't you ask AT&T. wi-fi might be free


Yes to all that. Customs is not the problem - it's immigration......

marleybone

Just fyi - while that's how most people pronounce the area, it's spelt Marylebone.
(it derives (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marylebone#section_1) from St Mary-at-the-Bourne, a church on the banks of the River Tyburn or Tybourne, which now flows underground through the area.)

No chance. Customs will take no more than a minute.

We think the OP meant Immigration not customs.

Black cabs can be astonishingly expensive too!

Yes they can, especially at night/weekends but they are at least regulated.