If you were in Oxford UK, where would you fly from?
Thread Starter
If you were in Oxford UK, where would you fly from?
Possibility of being in Oxford are for a while. Will always need quick getaway whenever possible. Question is where would be the best airfield of departure? Guess LHR nearest but ofcourse not always the cheapest. Is Luton an option despite current traffic and road works or is BHX worth a consideration. And what about Gatwick? 2 hours away with reasonable traffic and weather conditions?
All is very important!
Nivsy
All is very important!
Nivsy
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It all depends where you want to go, and whether you need a lot of flexibility in timing of flights. LHR is best (probably the best in the world) for direct flights to as many international destinations as possible and for popular European destinations there are flights pretty much every hour - miss one, catch the next (assuming a valid ticket)!
The downside of LHR is well documented on this forum (M25 traffic and third-world terminals). Even though I live about halfway between Oxford and LHR, I've often used BHX in the past. If you're travelling to a destination served from there and you don't need the flexibility that LHR offers, then it's certainly worth a try.
With the roadworks on the M1 (though I haven't personally experienced them) you might find Stansted easier to get to than Luton or LGW
The downside of LHR is well documented on this forum (M25 traffic and third-world terminals). Even though I live about halfway between Oxford and LHR, I've often used BHX in the past. If you're travelling to a destination served from there and you don't need the flexibility that LHR offers, then it's certainly worth a try.
With the roadworks on the M1 (though I haven't personally experienced them) you might find Stansted easier to get to than Luton or LGW
Eight Gun Fighter
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LHR
Get to Gloucester Bus Station and get the Oxford (Airline) Bus.
Went to Gatwick once from there and it took three hours and waited for bus three hours on return.
Oxford Bus to LHR about 80 mins.
Get to Gloucester Bus Station and get the Oxford (Airline) Bus.
Went to Gatwick once from there and it took three hours and waited for bus three hours on return.
Oxford Bus to LHR about 80 mins.
Paid...Persona Grata
BHX should be less than an hour and has pretty good connections - e.g. daily to New York. If you want to fly loco there is also CVT, about the same distance. I use both quite a bit, no problems.
UFO
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The downside of LHR is well documented on this forum (M25 traffic and third-world terminals).
Can't help with the terminals though
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Thread Starter
Thanks for all the replies on this. Its easy to forget just how busy some of the UK roads are and that with ever increasing check-in or security clearance issues its nice to consider some of the airfields offered up as alternatives - route availability providing.
Nivsy
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What the mrs and I have found is that we will now only go to places served by our local regional airport. Got an FR and EZ base not much more than 30 minutes from front door to departure lounge and they go to some great spots. If we cannot fly from there, we don't bother going, and those two carriers go to more places than we could see in several years. Punctuality and service is far better than those overcrowded dumps in London. We only ever go to London when travelling long haul and it makes sense to fly direct, even then I am happy to fly out of BHX or MAN and change somewhere on route. You can also fly charter long haul out of regionals and as far as I am concerned they are now better than the scheduled carriers. It has to be a pretty good deal to lure me to London now, or else we are burning miles on BA.
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It's a hard call. I live in Southampton and for most international flights I leave from there and change at CDG. This avoids the drive to Heathrow and Heathrow itself, but does mean changing in Paris. On balance it's worth it. From Oxford it might be an interesting option too, but with the car journey the options are more evenly balanced.
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Get to Gloucester Bus Station and get the Oxford (Airline) Bus.
Southampton is only an hour down the road.
Surely Oxford to LHR wouldn't involve the M25 at all?
FRA has the most non stop international destinations in the world.
The 'Airbus' from Gloucester Green takes 80 mins to get to LHR central station or 100 mins to get to terminal 4. It goes every 30 minutes at most times of the day (I seem to remember) and it's a very good service. The driver is in contact with the preceeding bus and takes a different route if things are looking busy, so is rarely delayed. I cost about 17 Quid return when I last used it, probably gone up a bit now. I used to use it in preference to driving in sometimes when I used to work from LHR.
Getting to anywhere else from Oxford is a pain and usually involves rail.
www.oxfordbus.co.uk/heathrow.html for a timetable.
Getting to anywhere else from Oxford is a pain and usually involves rail.
www.oxfordbus.co.uk/heathrow.html for a timetable.
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Another problem with transit via London is having to add buffer space for when things go wrong. So from round here you can almost always say it's 1hr46 to London on the train, but sometimes it's 2hr10, rarely 3hr30. Usually it might be 4hr on the bus, but sometimes 5hr. If you catch the train, you have to travel across London, which usually takes 55 mins, but sometimes 1hr20.
So if using the train or other transport, in order to get your flight, you need to take an earlier train, and usually you spend an hour or two waiting needlessly at the airport. Coming back, you need to allow for a couple of hour delays which usually doesn't happen, but happens enough to make you book a later train than you might need. So you wait on the station concourse for two hours. Or buy a full fare ticket of course, but that is spendy.
You can easily wait an hour or so for your luggage at LHR, totally unpredictable, but you need to factor it all in.
Local airport this doesn't happen, certainly not enough to worry about, in my experience.
So if using the train or other transport, in order to get your flight, you need to take an earlier train, and usually you spend an hour or two waiting needlessly at the airport. Coming back, you need to allow for a couple of hour delays which usually doesn't happen, but happens enough to make you book a later train than you might need. So you wait on the station concourse for two hours. Or buy a full fare ticket of course, but that is spendy.
You can easily wait an hour or so for your luggage at LHR, totally unpredictable, but you need to factor it all in.
Local airport this doesn't happen, certainly not enough to worry about, in my experience.
Unfortunately nivsy you don't give an indication of which destinations you would be looking at. However, if it was me, my first priority would be to avoid LHR and LGW whenever possible. I would go for BHX without hesitation. For long haul you can always fly via AMS or DXB (eastbound) and EWR (westbound). I use BHX quite a lot and I like the relative ease of using this airport in contrast to LHR or LGW. Travel from Oxford to BHX should be relatively painless with the exception of the morning rush hours on the M42.
Thread Starter
Many thanks. Dont really know all destinations likely to be travelling to - but i suspect some will be with the LOCOS and others long haul. BHX does seem like a good alternative. For back trips to GIB only really have choice of LGW or LUT ofcourse 9well so far and no doubt for immediate future) - but LGW kinda wins that one as LUT is horrible and Monarch a bit of a tight squeeze once on board.
Nivsy
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You need to think out of the box.
I have to go to a small town in Austria next month. How do I get there?
1) Five hour hack down to a departure lounge in London, flight to Vienna airport, bus to central Vienna, 2 hour train to destination.
2) Simple thirty minutes drive to local airport departure lounge, flight to Bratislava airport in Slovakia, 90 minute bus to central Vienna, 2 hour train from vienna to destination.
Which makes more sense? Going via a third country makes far more sense, though others will laugh at that. Even if I rent a car, total time from door to door is faster via a third country. My flight to bratislava cost me peanuts.
Jerez is close to Gibraltar. Might not work for you, but might work for people living near stansted.
I have to go to a small town in Austria next month. How do I get there?
1) Five hour hack down to a departure lounge in London, flight to Vienna airport, bus to central Vienna, 2 hour train to destination.
2) Simple thirty minutes drive to local airport departure lounge, flight to Bratislava airport in Slovakia, 90 minute bus to central Vienna, 2 hour train from vienna to destination.
Which makes more sense? Going via a third country makes far more sense, though others will laugh at that. Even if I rent a car, total time from door to door is faster via a third country. My flight to bratislava cost me peanuts.
Jerez is close to Gibraltar. Might not work for you, but might work for people living near stansted.
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Let the train take the strain
I live just down the road from Oxford.
Train to Birmingham International, every time the route is served from there.
Sven
Train to Birmingham International, every time the route is served from there.
Sven
We used to have an office in Burnham, Bucks, with Heathrow departures passing over our head.
I took to time from leaving the office to wheels-up on the runway. Over a couple of flights each it was actually quicker to go through Birmingham than Heathrow. Passing Oxford on the way, of course.
Luton is becoming increasingly difficult to access, the morning traffic both northbound and southbound on the M1 approaching there makes for great unreliability and you need to be adding one or maybe two hours padding. In contrast Stansted road approaches are straightforward. I wonder how much Easy notice it ?
I took to time from leaving the office to wheels-up on the runway. Over a couple of flights each it was actually quicker to go through Birmingham than Heathrow. Passing Oxford on the way, of course.
Luton is becoming increasingly difficult to access, the morning traffic both northbound and southbound on the M1 approaching there makes for great unreliability and you need to be adding one or maybe two hours padding. In contrast Stansted road approaches are straightforward. I wonder how much Easy notice it ?