A lot is in the timings, of course, and a single flight should minimise the risk of my luggage not making the trip which happened with monotonous regularity via AMS and then there is the truly awful KLM flight to AMS from NCL which may or may not take off on time/at all/ not be overbooked/laughed at at AMS when you eventually get there and complain("of course we overbook our flights")/ break down(me: "why do your planes break down so often"?. KLM girl:"I wish I could tell you"!!!).
The train to LHR is very low stress and easy in comparison and the late bus back is great, just fall asleep and arrive at Newcastle at 6am ready for the day.