"Commuting' to Luxembourg?
 

Anyone done this on a weekly basis for an extended period? My firm would like me to work there tue-fri every week. Any thoughts? Have family, but kids off to university soon.

It's really up to you on a personal level, it's probably do-able time-wise but you'll need to factor in complete end-to-end travel time for the journeys - flights may be favourable but if you live 2 hours from LHR, it may not work out that way.

Personally, my dad commuted to Stockholm when I was a kid in the late 90s for a fortnight at a time, and I think it worked out OK, but it was a short-term measure I think.

Make sure you get an apartment in Lux. Maybe - if possible with work of course - she can join you some weeks too.

You will need to make Lux your home as well. Otherwise it wil be hell.

I spent four months earlier this year commuting from London to Arnhem, in the Netherlands, usually flying out of LGW/LHR and into AMS, and then a 1 hour train journey onwards. I had no real problem with the travel itself, but I found the impact on my social life to be fairly substantial: getting into central London at 11pm on a Friday night and leaving first thing Monday morning wasn't ideal. If I'd instead worked Mon-Thurs, I'd probably have found it rather more pleasant (notwithstanding the fact that Arnhem has virtually nothing to recommend it).

I did this LHR-AMS-LHR Sunday night, Friday afternoon for a year. I was living 40 mins from LHR at the time and the site was 2 hours drive from AMS.

It would have been a bit more bearable with a Monday out, I think.

I did get a lot of miles and points, but eventually it became too wearisome, personally.

YMMV, of course.

Thanks

To answer some questions

I live an hour from Heathrow, 45 mins from City if I want to switch to Luxair.

Wife has good job here so her giving that up not an option - hence the question about a commute.

I can do out Monday afternoon back Friday evening.

I would personally think Luxair, having used them quite a bit into LUX, plus LCY (especially given you live closer to it) would be more bearable for a regular commute.

with Lux you are quite restricted on flight times compared to FRA or AMS etc.
the later of the 2 arriving LHR at 7pm, most likely ruins any Friday night plans.
whilst the earlier flight is too early to be able to work in LUX!

Living in Luxembourg and going quite often to London, I would recommend you to use the Luxair service since you would really optimize the airport time (really important when commuting).

LUX can be reached in 20-30 minutes from nearly everywehere in Luxembourg and since it's a really small aiport you can arrive 45 minutes before boarding without any problem.

And I am sure you know how much LCY is more convenient than LHR for the time efficiency.

We've only used them for one trip, and it wasn't for work - but given that LCY is convenient for us and convenient to use we thought that the LG flights were perfectly good and much preferable to hauling ourselves out to LHR.

The only caveat is that if you're going to do this regularly, you might want to work out a way of getting the tickets cost-effectively. LG's own website charges you a €20 service fee just for the pleasure of making a booking.

Many thanks for all the replies. The stories from those who have done regular weekly Euro-commutes of an hour or so are particularly illuminating.

I was doing similar weekly LHR-BRU to begin with (15 minutes from LHR), then roughly every 2 weeks. I do less travelling now as the Mrs. is also out here too working full time. 18 months here so far.

Having a proper "home" makes a difference. It'd be more painful if living solely in hotels.

I did weekly LON - IOM commute for 3 months back in 2003 (which got me my BAEC Silver card and into "all this").

Also did weekly LON - BHX for 9 months last year.

Neither were great for work/life balance and "having a life" and I think it's key to build a 'double life' in the other place, i.e. find things / do things that make you feel 'at home' (local friends, gym, cinema, etc) rather than just becoming Alan Partridge.....

I wonder if the nightlife is better in LUX or BHX?

Going back to the question of the OP, I think commuting like that is easier when you are younger. But if your company treats you well by providing a nice apartment then it's doable. Hopefully good for your career. But , most important, don't forget to take into consideration how your spouse feels about it as time goes on.

on the practical side, would suggest trying to find a way of leaving e.g. shirts, toothbrush etc there (no issue if you have an appartment, more tricky if you are in hotel) and buy 2 sets of most things so that you don't pack and unpack twice a week.