We have to catch a flight out of Stansted back to the US. Our intra-Europe flight at LHR Terminal 1 has been moved so that it now gives us only 50 minutes from landing to National Express bus departure for Stansted in order to make it to Stansted 2 hrs before our flight home.

We have to go thru immigration and may have to get luggage (trying to do only carry-on). For those who have made this trip, realistically, can we make the bus? Or should we just contract with a private car company for the trip?
I already know we can't take the train due to weekend delays/track work.

Thanks for any help!

1) This would probably have been better placed in the London board here on FT.

2) 50 minutes should be OK even if you have to collect bags, but obviously any sort of delay could wipe out this advantage - LHR is very congested especially in the morning - they often just keep flights on the ground in Europe until they know when the runway slot will be available. If you're travelling in Economy, expect to have to check those bags (13lbs limit is typical).

3) You might be better off just booking a new flight from wherever you're coming from in Europe to Stansted, especially if Easyjet do the route (Ryanair is the other big LCC, but they get very mixed reviews). You'll save yourself 2hrs in a coach on the motorway and that's got to be worth something...

You must be on either Maxjet or Eos. Don't they both depart Stansted fairly early in the morning ?

As you seem to be travelling at the weekend the bus should make the run undelayed. NOT the case on weekday mornings ! In fact as they use the same times for all days of he week, hopefully the bus will arrive Stansted early.

eos have - or did last December - a 6pm departure, and maxjet go to Dulles in the afternoon (1pm or so)

Thank you all. Making me feel better. I was posting on another board. Many people on that board were saying we would not make our flight (but I'm not sure how many of those posters have actual experience with this transfer) and I was getting into a panic. We got a great fare but nonrefundable tickets.

Yes, we are flying Maxjet to IAD, leaving 1PM. It's their new service starting March 15th. I am a little worried about the flight into LHR. I have had to circle a bit in the AM. I'm just hoping that traffic on Sunday AM is a little lighter (it's off-season and non-bank holiday).

Looked into easyjet but their flight also does not get us into the airport in time.

I haven't done exactly this transfer, but I've had experience with LHR and Stansted and National Express (on the LGW-LHR route and the Victoria-STN route and vice versa) and the M25. This simply does not look good to me at all. If you're lucky it will work, but that's all I could say. How much money will you lose if you miss your flight home?

Likely bottlenecks:
1) Your flight to LHR is late. (Seems to always happen to me, although I suppose I must have had an on-time flight at some point.)
2) You are delayed at the gate. (Once this delay at LHR was 85 minutes for me, before I was allowed off the plane and on to a shuttle bus to the terminal.)
3) You are delayed at immigration (unless this is an intra-UK flight).
4) The National Express bus is delayed. Not likely to be a huge problem, as there are always more of them, but they do not run to schedule, in my experience. The bus drivers have a terrible attitude, as there seems to be labor relations problems. With how close you are cutting this, a very reliable booked car service might be a good idea. Every time, even on a late Sunday night, it's taken longer than the scheduled time.
5) When you arrive at Stansted, it will take a few minutes to get into the terminal and find your spot.

Given that Stansted is Ground Zero for the Low Cost Airline business in Europe, why on earth are you flying to Heathrow?

Have a look at www.whichbudget.com & www.skyscanner.net to see if there are any LCA's that fly from where you are in Europe to Stansted.

As for getting between the 2, the coach is, in theory, about 1h25m, getting out of LHR itself is a minimum of 1 hr (unless you are citizen of the EU and haven't any checked luggage) plus the time it takes for you to reach a gate from landing.

Checkin at STN will, at the latest, close 30 minutes before the flight - but as it's to the US it's probably going to be longer.

I second the idea of getting another flight into STN with a low-cost airline - even if it means a 2-hour bus or train journey in your country of departure, as opposed to a 2-hour coach journey around London.

Whenever I'm flying out of the UK and can't get a direct flight, I always prefer to do my schlepping in Europe as opposed to in the UK - transport seems to be so much more reliable there.

If you ARE going to do LHR - STN, think of the train too (Heathrow Express > Tube > Stansted Express). It's more expensive than the bus, and probably will take longer than the scheduled bus journey, but has a lot less variance and greater frequency.

Good luck.

[Edit: Scratch that last remark about trains - I see you've already found out the train isn't an option. ]

You really need luck on your side... On several occasions, I've spent 30-45 mins just queuing through immigration at LHR...