First of all - I do not work for National Express East Coast.
Living in York and having to visit London at least twice a week, the train has always been my first choice for regularlity and convinience (i.e. not having to drive across to LBA) however until recently my ex lived 10 minutes drive from the airport so over the last two years I trialed the bmi service - these are my observations
bmi
Check in 1 hour prior to flight
Fight my way through the Jet2 Palma and Alicante crowds drinking beer at silly times of the morning.
Board aircraft 5 minutes prior to scheduled departure time whilst bags still being loaded and aircraft still being refulled.
Depart LBA at least 10 minutes behind schedule.
Enjoy a complimentary 'meal deal' on presentation of my diamond club card consisting of an unedible sandwich and cup of tea chucked at me due to short flight time.
Hold over London
Land at LHR on time, arrive at gate 40 minutes late and on a couple of occasions on an international gate with bus requried to domestic.
Wait 30 minutes + for luggage
Endure StalagHeathrow to tube
Sit on Piccadilly Line for an hour (if lucky) whilst either in someones armpit or two inches from someone crotch
Arrive at Kings Cross very
off.
National Express (from Leeds)
Arrive 20 minutes before train and grab coffee in pleasant First Class Lounge.
Join clean train, take seat with water, biscuits and real cup ready for coffee.
Switch on laptop and treat train as office.
Decide slightly hungry and walk to restaurant where pleasant food served by pleasant people (albeit expensive)
Realise by Stevenage have done more work on train than would have done in office decide to pick up paper and catch up on world affairs.
Pull into Kings Cross, leave train refreshed.
Possible drawbacks: No seat (I always reserve as book far enough in advance to get cheaper tickets) or possible delays (IMHO much less now with NXEC than under GNER - maybe due to their very fair Delay Repay policy)
Megabus
Do I even need to go there!
I am also sad to see LBA loose is historic link to the capital and it will no doubt be a hinderance to me in the future but surely anyone who claimed that it was good for commuters has to be living in the wrong decade.
As for LGW, I hope it happens for the sake of the area but I for one will be sticking to the train.
Edited - I forgot to mention you do not have to queue to have yourself and all of your belongings roughly searched on the train
