Sometimes got stuck going thru LHR when on my way from BOS-AMS. AMS is mainland Europe and it's one hour as the bird flies from jolly olde England...

But, somehow, something always goes wrong with the trip so now I do everything I can to avoid LHR and I tell my friends the same.

I never liked taking a trans-atantic flight to Europe and then ending up there in the morning with these overly smily and overly professional plastic personnel directing me to some crowded room that opens up to a crowded bus that whips at full speed on strange little roads on the other side of the roadway, which is cool but not when you are not used to it yet because you just got thrust into this scene, and then they bring you to yet another crowded room and if you walk up the wrong escalator, you are taking the flight to Japan and there's no way back, and then you run to your gate and wait and they change the flight and and and...

well, after spending what works out to be more than double my $USD in any shop or store, you finally get to travel the last hour of your journey and the people picking you up somehow think it's your fault this all happened. Plus, the bags are late or missing and it's like 3 hours later than you planned on being at your mainland destination...

;)MM

T1 to T4 - Flight connection centre vs. Tube?
 

Question to LHR veterans - what do you think is faster, braving the interminable lines at T1 security or simply exiting through immigration and hopping on the tube over to T4? After several horrible transfer experiences I am planning to try the latter next time; some BA staff I know tell me it won't make a difference, while others claim it works nearly every time.

Well.. this exact thing happened to me about a week ago...I would also like to point out that it was due to the fact that the people at the security in T1 are a bunch of inbreds who need a course in common sence. Basically the idiot there would not let me go through because I didnt have a boarding pass... I was supposed to check in airside as I was on a connecting flight.... so here is the best bit, my colleague was allowed through even though he had no boarding pass... and guess what? We missed our flights because of the long lines which take forever and I actually made it to the departure lounge faster than my colleague... I passed through customs, rebooked on another flight, went through customs again.. and voila.. I made it through first! so there you go.. :-) another option is just to start a fight with them... they deserve it! :D ^

I flew into BRS rather than Heathrow a couple of weeks ago and it was a revelation. Arrivals transit took about five minutes. Departure check-in and security took ten minutes. All staff civil and competent. Decent airside bar.

I live on the US west coast, and it is worth it to me to pass up the BA nonstop to the UK, change planes at EWR and spend an extra hour or two in the air en route to BRS if the reward is avoiding LHR. Hurray for Bristol International.

I hate LHR for all the reasons specified earlier, but also because it's too close to the US; flights from ORD-LHR are too short to get a reasonable amount of sleep over"night". I'd rather fly to FRA and then onwards to my final destination (which is never LON).

I'm in the semiconductor business, and the customers are in Munich, the Netherlands, the Cote d'Azur and northern Italy. There's a very little bit in Blighty: Bristol and Southampton.

Wow. Now I am a tad bit worried about my flight from there back to the US in May. A quick question for you Heathrow veterans - we are taking a cruise to Southampton and then driving around the UK for a week before returning the rental car (hertz probably) at Heathrow and then taking the Picadilly tube line to Kensington where we will stay without car for a week. I can't seem to figure out where the rental car return is at the airport and how difficult it will be to get from there to the closest tube station. Any suggestions?

I'm in SEA and I try to avoid routing through the east coast (more opportunities for things to go wrong...). I've done SEA-LHR on BA a number of times, but now I want nothing to do with LHR. I'm flying Delta 'direct' SEA-ATL-LGW in May. Seems to be a bit of confusion about this connection right now - it's supposed to be same plane, touchdown in ATL, but for some reason right now it shows an aircraft change in ATL. Anyway, I'm hoping LGW will be better than LHR.

LGW is way better than LHR if london is your final destination. Its smaller and generally queues arent so bad. The downside to LGW is onward connections, fine if you want an LCC, but with the exception of BA, not many other options. Getting into London takes a similar amount of time from both airports.

By public transport. Some people will take cabs for part or all of the way, though, and for them LHR will be closer.

The Hertz depot is on the edge of the map shown by the orange arrow

here

on the north side of the airport away from the terminals. It's to the west of the Pink Elephant Business car park. It's on the Northern Perimeter Road, which is just inside the airport fence. The parallel main Bath Road (the A4) is just outside the fence.

Assuming you approach Heathrow from the M4 motorway, take the mile-long spur down to the airport, then just follow signs for Rental Car return. The route is to turn east just before the airport access tunnel, then to go round onto the Perimeter Road.

Look at the map again, from the blue motorway spur go up West Ramp, turn right at the roundabout onto Nene Road, then immediately right again at the signal onto Perimeter Road. Then just keep going (the road names are not particularly apparent when you are there.)

They have a shuttle bus to take you back to the Central Terminal Area, where you will find the Underground station to take you into Kensington. The driver will ask you which terminal you want, tell them the Underground station (which is in the middle between the 3 main terminals).

For history buffs the Hertz depot is right where the pioneer Heathrow terminal of 1947 was, known as "Northside". Some of the car parking area on rough concrete surface is actually the old ramp from that time.

It's just a standard North-American fake direct flight. For you, it will just be like a normal connection at ATL (except some savings on airport taxes I believe).

SmilingBoy.

Reading this thread is not encouraging. I have not gone through LHR in a few years, but am transiting there on tomorrow night's BA flight from PHX and on to Madrid. It looks like I have 1 hour and 50 minutes to get from T4 to T1 for my connecting flight. Is this a pipedream?

If so, any tips other than to break ionto tears?

You'll be fine.

If this is during peak hour, you'll be fine only if your arriving plane is more or less on time (and no time to lose for shopping etc, you'll need the time for all those queues). During off-peak times it won't be any problem.

SmilingBoy.

Your item 3 I don't feel one bit. LHR has the cheapest airport accomodation rates of all major European hub airports I use.

Your item 4 doesn't much touch me as being any worse than what I experience at US airlines hubs or at a good number of other European airport hubs.