FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Heathrow to Gatwick transport options: a pictorial guide
Old Dec 27, 2015, 3:22 pm
  #1  
corporate-wage-slave
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,476
Heathrow to Gatwick transport options: a pictorial guide

This thread is intended to help people travelling between BA's two largest airports, London Heathrow (LHR) and London Gatwick (LGW). Sadly the chopper service is no longer with us.



At London Gatwick BA and Vueling currently operate out of the North Terminal (codeshares on Flybe and Aer Lingus use the South Terminal). At Heathrow most BA services run out of Terminal 5, the rest out of Terminal 3. The main options are outlined below:

1) Taxi: 50 minutes journey time, immediate availability, approx £60-£100 for up to 3 people
2) National Express: 55 minutes - approx 4 coaches an hour - £25 per person
3) Rail via Heathrow Express / Gatwick Express: 75 minutes - 4 services an hour - £44.20 per person
4) Other rail and tube options via central London: 90 minutes - service every 10 minutes - £10.20 per person (£16.20 peak times)
5) Other rail and tube options avoiding central London: 100 minutes - service every 10 minutes - £8.60 per person (£11.40 peak)
6) Bus option - X26 bus: 2 hours, 2 services an hour - £4.50 per person (£6.70 peak).
7) Other options - Limobike / car hire

[The prices for options 4, 5 and 6 are from 11 January 2016, the rest are applicable from 2 January 2016.]

The two simplest options are taxi and National Express.

To the above times you need to allow 45 minutes or more to cover check-in, plus some time to get around the terminal buildings, so in practical terms it's not possible to make the transfer with less than 90 minutes before your onward flight. With 2 hours there are a number of options open to you, with the Minimum Connection Time on through tickets is 3 hours. Note that for the rail based timings (options 3 to 6) you need to allow at least 5 minutes to get from the rail station to LGW North.

The timings here are for LHR T5 to LGW North. For LHR T3 add 5-10 minutes to the road based options and subtract 5 minutes from the rail based options.

If you have a connecting BA ticket, e.g. BOS-LHR/LGW-GOA then BA will not include the cost of the transfer in your ticket. This used to be offered, with a "free" National Express ticket included - so you may find some out of date reference to this elsewhere, and some travel agents may suggest it still happens - but BA stopped offering this some time ago. Furthermore you must clear and carry any checked luggage between the airports yourself. There are occasional reports which suggest that some ground agents will advise you that BA will clear the baggage to your final destination, but if there is a LHR/LGW transfer it will not happen unless you do the carrying.

Note that BA's services in LGW are moving from LGW North to LGW South in approx November 2016. This will eliminate the transfer time from the rail station but may add a few minutes to the National Express services since the usual loop is LHR Central - LHR T5 - LGW North - LGW South and vice versa.


Last edited by Prospero; Mar 6, 2016 at 10:02 am Reason: Update diagram
corporate-wage-slave is online now