Hello from Jacksonville, Florida! New poster here. I love this site, which I discovered recently, and really appreciate the insights people share so freely on it.

My wife and I are visiting the Nottingham area in mid-April for a couple of weeks and I thought I would inquire about rail tickets.

Looking up our rail options on www.nationalrail.co.uk, I see that advance tickets are not available for the times we wish to travel, so saving money by advance purchase is apparently not an option.

My question is this: Given Heathrow's notoriety for delays, would it be prudent to just buy the tickets at the counter rather than commit to a later (i.e., safer) time?

I would prefer not having to wait around if we don't have to -- I'm thinking the trains won't be too full at those times/dates?

Our particulars: we arrive at 0635 on Sunday, April 19th and will need to return to London on Saturday, May 2nd, preferably mid-morning so as to have the afternoon for sightseeing. Our flight out is the next morning.

We will avail ourselves of Heathrow Connect to Paddington Station, as that seems to be best value.

I'm also curious if anyone can point me to where I can determine which terminal American Airlines uses at Heathrow--I've been to the site and can't find anything. Hope it's Terminal 5, as I understand it is great!