Analise

I'm planning a visit to England in early April for about a week and will be flying into LHR but flying back to JFK from AMS. I've been to Gatwick before but never to Stansted. I don't know where I'll be staying in London but assume it's in central London.

Which is the easier airport for travel to AMS on a Monday midday between 11-14:30? When I say easier, I mean quicker security/passport control (more lines to make it more quick?), easier ground transportation by train from London, gates closer to airport rail station, things like that.

Thanks!

UKtravelbear

IMHO LGW wins hands down.

You'll also have the option of BA flying from LGW to AMS as well.

Analise

I never considered BA. Now THAT'S interesting. The fare with 1 checked bag, at least today, IS LESS EXPENSIVE.

rcspeirs

Everything depends on where you're staying in London.
You have a choice of BA, Cityjet, easyjet, FlyBe and KLM, from five airports.

stut

If you can get a cheap flight from City, that wins hands down.

You could also consider Southend. It's a tiny, quiet, friendly little airport out east, with a direct train from Liverpool Street. The flight to Amsterdam is seriously short, and free of many of the London delays.

On the downside, there's nothing to do in the airport, the trains are fairly poor commuter stock, and it is quite some distance from London.

UKtravelbear

Yes it's a myth that the low cost carriers are always the cheapest.

Just shows it pays to check.


And I'd forgot about LCY as well.

Swanhunter

On airports for overall convenience and efficiency I would rank in descending order

LCY>LHR>LGW>LTN>STN

Analise

LCY flights to AMS look very expensive; the cheapest flight at least if I purchased today is £89 on Flybe. I found a BA flight from LGW for £39. LCY would have been great though.

stut

Check that the BA one does include bags etc though - they do have a number of hand luggage only fares these days.

rcspeirs

Remember to add in cost if getting to the airport - which can vary a lot. By public transport, travel to LCY is only £1.50 / £3 (depending where in London you start from). LHR £3 to £5. LGW transfer will be £10 to £15 and other airports progressively more.

flatlander

LCY to AMS is nice experience but expensive. Also tends to suffer delays especially in winter. BA Cityflyer have also got some problems with more routes than is reasonable with their fleet size and any breakdown or delay screws up a lot of services. All LCY airlines are affected by weather there, Cityjet seem a bit more punctual than BACF overall.

STN to AMS is reliable, but Easy only fly 2-3 times a day in winter on the current timetable. Stansted ground experience is fairly awful since the new owners' redesign for retail in favour of transportation. Get the security fast track or queue 15 mins at least.

LGW is fairly reliable and overall not a bad experience, and Easyjet have a comprehensive service 6-7 times each day. It's quite fine in the middle of the day. Also, BA from LGW are cheap.

There is also an airport at Heathrow with services to Amsterdam If you can get a decent price, LHR-AMS is quite OK, and in the middle of the day Terminal 5 works well (AMS almost always departes from T5A so it's fairly fast to get to the gate).

Luton remains the unwashed armpit of London airports, there is no reason to consider it.

Note that AMS can suffer arrival delays if it's very windy or in the morning if foggy. Waiting on the ground in the UK for an hour until you can get a departure slot for AMS is not as rare as I would like it to be.

In your position I would probably go in decreasing order of preference:

(LCY if cheap), LGW, LHR, STN, train to the ferry and another train, LTN.

Analise

Yup, I checked it. Thanks.

Very good point; I checked that too. The price difference between BA at LGW and the cheapest flight from LCY more than makes up for the price difference taking commuter the train to LGW.

Yup, that's what I'm seeing.

I've heard of that airport. If I can get a similar price from LHR as was I'm seeing at LGW, I'll go there.

shefgab

If you want to consider an "interesting" airline choice to AMS, Garuda Indonesia fly most days LGW-AMS on a 777-300ER. They are normally fairly cheap.

Best check fares on skyscanner.net, rather than trawling every airline site individually.

STN has pretty much finished their makeover, and it's not too bad. LTN I also don't think is too bad, as long as you avoid the 8am Wizzair manic departure bank. Middle of the day in off-season the terminal is nearly deserted. There's a nice new Aspire Lounge there too.

If you're not in too much of a rush, you can get to STN and LTN quite easily by bus. I live in North London, so go from Golders Green, and it's less than an hour to either airport, and costs from £1 if you book via easybus.com.

A final good option is the Eurostar via Brussels. It takes a bit longer than flying maybe, but is fairly civilised, and you can take more stuff and liquids with you. The connection in Brussels is very easy. I did this once to Amsterdam, staying the night in Antwerp half way at no extra cost (as long as your arrive at your final NL destination less than 24 hours after leaving London).
http://seat61.com/Netherlands.htm

Analise

Thanks shefgab especially for skyscanner.net. Also, if fast rail is cheaper than flight, I'll do it.

flatlander

I have to almost completely disagree, and I go there at least twice a month.

Security: slow, always. 15 minute queue is the norm, not the exception. LHR T5 is almost always better.
Airside progress: slow, always, due to enforced maze of retail, and a long walk or a train to gates.
Seating: rarely enough, and never enough outside the winter doldrums.
Gates announced only 40 mins before, never earlier, even if the aircraft is on stand overnight.
Crowding: between crowded and very crowded every time.
Car Parking: expensive AND incompetently managed
Public transport: Only from London via train, everything else is crap.
Car drop-off: you want HOW much to drive up so a passenger can jump out?

The only parts MAG haven't comprehensively screwed up is baggage handling (still good, done by others than MAG) and arrivals (UK Border has the new e-gates).
There are more places to eat than there used to be - if you can get a seat in any of them.

It's a horrible place now, I hate it.