Originally Posted by
kaka
Thanks, but i'm in a fairly complicated position in which there is in fact a way round if i got rejected (yet it's not exactly preferable given the time). However, to make is less complicated for myself and the hotel, perhaps i'll call up at 1am (when I've arrived into Gatwick), saying due to "unforseeable circumstances", I've arrived London earlier than expected and see if it's possible to check in now and then. if not, I could knock on my friend's door (obviously I'd give him a heads up now) some 1 mile down the road and get to the hotel in the morning. In the perfect world I should go pick up my parents on the very next morning at 7am in LHR (shudders), so I could also get my bum to an SPG in Heathrow (getting my way through to LHR at either 2am or 5am DOES NOT HELP the situation... but heck, i'll live)
Have you even explored what mode of transportation you would be using at the times you've mentioned to leave and then get back to LHR, let alone those travel times back and forth into Central London? You won't be able to take the Tube. I don't know if the Heathrow Express runs 24 hours, but you'd still be cabbing it from there to Park Tower. Otherwise you'd be spending a fortune on cabs/car service to get back and forth. All this to try and save yourself paying for a night's stay???
It would be one thing if you weren't heading back to LHR to pick up your parents, and anyone else. However, if you truly need to be back at LHR 5 hours after you arrive there, either tough it out in the terminal or stay at a hotel near the airport. You'll be spending a fortune just traveling to/from the Park Tower at these times of night/day, and you won't be getting any sleep anyway given the time you'll be spending going back and forth.