Gatwick-Heathrow-Gatwick transfers

[Sark]

Would anyone recommend a good reliable transfer company to transfer the four of us from Gatwick to Heathrow and vice-versa. We will carry an normal amount of baggage, no outsize items.

Cost is obviously important but we like a little bit of luxury too!

[on time all the time]

Hi Sark,
You have good taxi services from LGW. However as they are accredited to work from the airport they charge you a lot.
There is a more simple way which is to go with National Express. They have coaches going up and down all day.
Have a look at their web site. You can book online and if you miss your coach because you were delayed they will take you anyway.
The journey is 1 hour.....if the traffic is good.

[TheTiresome1]

I regularly use ThinkTaxi (http://www.thinktaxi.co.uk/) and have found them completely reliable, clean and helpful. [They're also part of TravelTrans].

See you again soon, Barry :cool:

I have no connection with the company other than as a satisfied customer for the last 3 years

[Haven't a clue]

I use the Tristar car service, which certainly works well moneywise if there are 4 people. Mind you if I'm solo I have been known to use the train to Victoria, tube (or taxi) to Paddington and the train to Heathrow. Can be done in just over an hour provided you don't arrive on the platform as the train departs, and avoids the M25 chaos completely.

[joniveson]

I really don't recommend the National Express link between the two as I almost missed a long haul flight from Heathrow thanks to their incompetence. The National Express bus from my hotel to Gatwick was very late with no explanation or apology and my connection to Heathrow was then cancelled as they didn't have enough drivers! Although they transferred me to the next bus, due to an accident on the M25 we had to go through London and it took hours to get there. I appreciate the accident wasn't their fault but they informed us about it as we pulled away from Gatwick at which point it was too late to get off and take the train. I have also come up against their terrible standards of customer service when things go wrong a couple of times and vowed never to use them again!

[man friday]

have used Heathrow2Gatwick.com.

Good service at a reasonable price. £ 59 for a saloon car. Meet and greet service at arrivals from a suited driver.

[SimWes]

Have used National Express for quite a few years (5 plus) and have not yet encountered a problem (touch wood). But bearing in mind that it travels via the M25 I tend to get an as early as possible bus, just in case. Depending on the time you travel you also have options of catching earlier or later ones should that be the case. But if there is an accident on the M25, then it really doesn’t matter. Also if you are going to Terminals 2, 4 & 5 you’ll be dropped off at that particular terminal. With terminals 1 & 3 you’ll have to get a Hopper Bus (BTW, a return trip for the for 2 of us came to £72)

I’ve also used the train via London Victoria and then used the Heathrow Express. But as this involves the tube, it’s not really ideal, especially if you have got suitcases to carry. Other than that, I found it to be too expensive for my liking.

Having said that you can also get the tube from London directly to Heathrow, but then you still have a possible long trip in a sometimes cramped compartment

Taxis, again, you might have to deal with the M25 unless the driver is clues up and can figure out a work around...

[beamender99]

Lots of info here re National Express

Heathrow - Gatwick Bus Shuttle Transfer By National Express Coach (http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/heathrow_gatwick_bus_transfer.htm)

It does NOT go to T4.
"Terminal 4
For Terminal 4 get off the bus at the Central Bus Station. The transfer between Central and Terminal 4 is by Heathrow Connect train. This runs a shuttle service every 15 minutes and is free."

[ulxima]

I really don't recommend the National Express link between the two as I almost missed a long haul flight from Heathrow thanks to their incompetence.


On the other end I can recommend National Express.
I have been using them since 2007 and I have never missed a flight, not even when the M25 has been a chaos. I would say that this happens because of their competence and knowledge of the local diversion.
Last year I used them 66 times, and just in two cases we arrived at Heathrow just minutes before check-in was about to close, but I did not miss my flights.
However I would back Tiresome's suggestion. With four to manage it is better to think of a taxi service.

Ciao
Ulxima

[wiggy]

I used National Express for many years, 4-5 times a month, between LGW and LHR and whilst they could be good, they could also be very, very bad. If you are linking LGW-T5 there's not to much that can go wrong and it's a straightforward journey. If you are going to Central Area (T1,2 and 3) you've got to add 15-30 minutes for getting into/out of Central Area after the T5 stop. If you are headed for T4 you need to transfer to the previously mentioned shuttle bus.

With four to manage it is better to think of a taxi service.



Agreed - the last time I looked National Express charged the best part £20 STG per person, single fare, for the journey between LGW and LHR. You should be able to get a taxi/car for not much more than that and potentialy have a much quicker and more comfortable journey.

[ConstantFlyer]

Firstly, Sark, I'm sorry to hear that you have to endure a transfer between Heathrow and Gatwick. It's often not the most pleasant or easy journey!

If I might be so bold as to infer from your username that you could be flying in to Gatwick from the Channel Islands, might I suggest an alternative routing, possibly for future reference? This would involve flying to Southampton, taking the train from the airport station to Woking, and then the Rail/Air link bus direct to Heathrow. Depends very much on the time and day of the week on which you wish to travel, whether avoiding the M25 or central London is best, or not.

As someone who prefers flying to going on the train so much that I have in the past flown Liverpool-Dublin-Newcastle and Newcastle-Belfast-Manchester (by the way, both these journeys were cheaper by air than direct by train!), another option for you might be to fly from the Channel Islands to Manchester, then down to LHR (on bmi for Terminal 1 or BA for T5).

Whichever way you go, may I wish you and your party the best of luck!

[ulxima]

If you are headed for T4 you need to transfer to the previously mentioned shuttle bus.


Before T5 era, nearly all services from Gatwick had a stop at T4, making the journey as straightforward as today to T5
Rumours (a National Express person :O) say that frequencies to/from T4 will increase (all Skyteam and associates flights operate from T4 now), but I have no idea how are they going to do it, unless they reduce frequencies on T5 which seems unlikely to me (all in all we are in the UK and BA is always BA :E).
I have to admit that actual timetable to/from T4 suits my needs, though it is limited.

Ciao,
Ulxima

[TheTiresome1]

Cost is obviously important but we like a little bit of luxury too!

The idea of pratting around on trains and buses doen't seem to quite fit with the specification.

The prospect of seeing Barry's welcoming face at baggage reclaim/Arrivals is worth every penny spent, instead of the prospect of going by bus and/or train between 2 of the UK's major airports [or even some more obscure ones].

Door to door, so to speak, is really nice. ;)

[GROUNDHOG]

Goodness how air travel has advanced. Go back to 1969 and I would have put you in the back of Westward Airways Islander and had you there in fifteen minutes - four pounds single or five for a day return! Happy Days!!

[WHBM]

It has always seemed a shame that the Gatwick to Watford train, which carries very few people north of Clapham Junction anyway, is not diverted at the point where it crosses the Paddington to Heathrow line, down a connection (even the land is available for this) to pick up the route of the Heathrow Connect, which itself does not need to actually start from Paddington as that just duplicates the Heathrow Express.

This would not only give a transit time of about one hour between the airports, operating say every 30 minutes, but would just make use of existing trains so the extra business between the airports would not require special trains, which would not be justified in itself. It would also give a benefit of direct links such as Croydon to Heathrow, or Ealing to Gatwick.

[ConstantFlyer]

Around thirty years ago, I remember saving up my pocket money till I had £12 for a flight on the Gatwick-Heathrow Airlink. Operated by a nice yellow and black Sikorski S-61 helicopter, it whisked me from LHR to LGW in about 15 minutes, I think.

All this talk of a high speed rail link from London to Scotland fails to spot the obvious need - for a high speed link of some sort between two of Europe's busiest airports....!!!

[spiney]

1. Taxi - £80-£100-£120... depending on the species of Shark... 30-40 mins.
2. National Express - £19, 3 times an hour, stop in T5 for 10 mins, 45 mins nominal, 1 hour tops, nice people , safe bus... no brainer.

If you need to get from LGW to LHR in less than an hour with a 5 min walk either end, then you need to review your travel plan..

NE - GOOD SERVICE...

[Two-Tone-Blue]

Sark's original question related to 4 pax plus luggage.

National Express
LGW-LHR for 4 x £19 = £76.

TheTiresome mentioned ThinkTaxi - I use them as well.
LGW-LHR for 4-6 pax = £75.
Not sharks either, but a well-established company.