8.5 hour layover in London. Delta to Azerbaijan airlines
 

Greetings, next week my son (18) will be flying SLC-LHR and has an 8.5 hour layover before connecting to Azerbaijan airlines for a flight to Baku. We have talked to Delta and they say they have an agreement with Azerbaijan Airlines and his bags will be checked through. Will he have to get his bags in LHR and recheck them or are they automatically transferred through? Also, seems like enough time to go into London? Thoughts and easiest way to get into London from the airport? I assume he should be back at LHR 2 hours before his flight leaves to get to his gate for the flight to Baku? Any other thoiughts would be appreciated. FYI....he is platinum on Delta and flies internationally frequently so pretty good at getting around/public transportation.

heathrow express into paddington is the quickest and simplest way to get into london. takes 15 mins and they are every 15 mins...

Depending on where you're going in London, the tube can be better, especially if the Piccadilly line from LHR stops where you need to be. It's cheaper and IIRC more frequent. Otherwise you're probably going to take the tube from Paddington anyway.

Piccadilly line gets my vote. Heathrow Express is a scam.

I actually like the Heathrow Connect. Stops at the same track as the Express at T3, goes to Paddington, leaves every 30 minutes, takes just under 30 minutes, and only costs about £10 each way instead of 2-2.5x that for the Heathrow Express. Your son can buy the ticket on the train for no extra fee. Also, on Sundays it makes fewer stops so it's only like 20 min.

Plenty of threads on the UKForum. Just spend a few minutes looking through

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-ireland-484/


Agree no need for the Heathrow express - why do people suggest this as the default option? It's often not the most appropriate way,

It depends where you want to visit and the best way to get there follows from that.

If he's already checked in etc then no need to be there 2 hours before and could cut that down to an hour to allow for security and gate closure time.

Just go to the Arrivals lounge....not that complicated

As the SLC LHR flight lands around 130pm and the lounge closes 2-230pm, it's not really practical.

Given J2 departs from T4, the Tube will be easier for the return than the HEX (requires a connection at T1/2/3), as well as cheaper. Piccadilly T4/123 train on the return from central London is easy. The Tube to/from central London is the cheapest and better access to central areas than Paddington (get an Oyster card). As stated above, see the UK forum...lots of advice there.

OP doesn't say business class, so 18 year old son of DM probably doesn't have lounge access.

Given the OP's son is a DL PM, he'd have Revivals Lounge access. @:-)

Thanks...good advice.

Correct...economy comfort.

Did not know this. I think he is planning on taking the tube to the Piccadilly stop get some lunch look around a bit then head back. He will probably get back to the airport about 2.5-3 hours before his flight so he may try the lounge. Is it in terminal 4?

Hope he enjoys Baku - it's a really interesting city for a couple of days.

My wife and I did the reverse of this connection a couple of years ago (GYD-LHR on AZAL and then DL the following AM to MSP). I think J2 only checked our bags to LHR but it didn't really bother us as we had an overnight in London, which we enjoyed.

AZAL flies a 787 on the route. From what I gather it is rarely full - my wife and I both had a row of 3 to ourselves (as did all other pax). Decent airline with good IFE for the flight.

The Baku airport is beautiful but not very close to the city. We got ripped off on a taxi but all the drivers were colluding against us.

Thanks for the info. He is a professional cyclist and going there to do the tour of Azerbaijan. His team is meeting him at the airport so hopefully the taxi won't be an issue. Return he is just flying to Amsterdam as he is doing more racing in Europe. He will have a little bit if time to see Baku, but not much.