Eurostar - Paris to London - ontime? delays?
 

In a few weeks I have a 14:00 flight out of Heathrow back to the US. And I would like to see a close friend in Paris the day before.

Can I take the 8:37 from Gare Du Nord? Gets to St Pancras at 10:09. Get in the Tube by 10:30? Heathrow by 11:30?

Does the Eurostar suffer delays or is it reliable?

I won't be checking bags and will have checked into my flight online, so I'm okay getting to Heathrow ~2 hours before my flight.

If need be, I'll take the earlier train, but would prefer to sleep in a tiny bit in Paris.

This is perfectly doable. There is always the small risk of train breakdowns, strikes or other events but taking an earlier train is unlikely to help if these happen.

If you are staying near the Gare du Nord then the train is a reasonable option. Since you actually need to be at Heathrow and not central London, and you have no checked bags flying could also work - you'll have to go through security twice in any case.

Should work; the Eurostar is (barring the odd strike) very reliable. When I took it regularly it was late (=more than 30 minutes late, which triggers a refund) less than 1% of the time.

Depending on where you're staying, you might just want to fly straight to Heathrow, though. Although judging by a recent thread you wouldn't be able to check your bags through from Paris to the US, which is tiresome.

Sounds very doable, but fire up your phone on the way into London to check how the Tube is running.

If you're running late, or the tube is looking dodgy, be ready to tube or cab it to Paddington and take the Heathrow Express. Expensive, but not as expensive as a new flight...

It's also worth getting a seat in coach 3 or 4 and being ready for a sharp exit if you want to be on the tube quickly. Particularly if there happens to be any spot checks on exit (unusual, but not unknown) you don't want to be behind 500 people.

About 18 months ago I was in Paris for work and was heading off to Madrid on a Friday afternoon for a jolly. I decided to fly CDG-LHR on Friday morning as I thought this would be the best solution to connect to LHR-MAD rather than the train.

It was not. By the time I'd

driven to CDG
made my way through the zoo that is T2B
waited in the lounge
bussed to the aircraft
boarded
waited for a slot
taken off
circled over Essex
landed
waited for a gate
waited for the guidance system
disembarked
got the shuttle to T5A
queued for BP check
queued for Fast Track (oh, how we laugh) security
navigated through the crowds to the F lounge

it would have been far less stressful and probably just as quick to get the Eurostar to St Pancras and then the Piccadilly Line to LHR.