Cheap Flight - £266 per person but need to travel heathrow to Gatwick!

[Momofboys]

Theres a thread on the main planning board about this route. Some suggest BA transfers batransfer/

Some did this route this year so may have more advice. I can't convince DH to go for it. He reckons its too stressful!

[Clarkd3]

I’m looking as practice for August 2020 and saw that too! Figured it must be a stressful process to sell it that cheap! Any idea what would happen if you didn’t do the LHR to MAN flight on the return flight out of interest?

[purplemusky]

Originally Posted by toonarmani

Do you know where you stand if you miss your connection as it's not being provided by BA?

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I believe it is with BA to get you on the next flight.

We did this my last year and made the earlier flight using ba transfers. Also booked for next year doing the later flight.

You can skip the final leg from heathrow to Manchester but no other legs of the flight either way. Remember you have to collect your luggage to transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick.

[jane2211]

Originally Posted by baldybouncer

Just booked cheap flight next year - It wasn't clear when bookig but booked as it was a fraction of the price we where getting!

It turns out the flight is 0700-Manchester to Heathrow 8:10 in the morning... we then need to get to gatwic before our flght takes off at 11:15 in the morning!

Anyone done this or can recommend how to get between the airports - just looked and taxis are about £80 - is this the best method?

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I’ve booked the same ones 👍

[baldybouncer]

Originally Posted by jane2211

I’ve booked the same ones 👍

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I was so shocked at the price - thought it was a mistake so just booked it! then realised it was an odd transfer.

Quite a few other people are doing the same flight -

£266 per adult is so cheap!

The return flight is Orlando to philadelphia and philadelphia to Manchester - so the hassle is only one way!

Will call BA to find out what happens if we miss the gatwick to orlando flight... may see if they will move us to the later in the day flight

It is during school holidays and a friday - so heathrow to gatwick traffic hopefully will be quiet? (anyone?)!

[tinkerella123]

Even though national express are efficient on they’re times the coach has to wait for everyone to load and all they’re luggage which can be time consuming. Definitely recommend a private transfer.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by Clarkd3

I’m looking as practice for August 2020 and saw that too! Figured it must be a stressful process to sell it that cheap! Any idea what would happen if you didn’t do the LHR to MAN flight on the return flight out of interest?

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It's really not any more stressful at all so long as you allow plenty of connecting time.
In the OP's shoes I'd not have had such a short connection along the M25 in rush hour personally so would have booked to fly the night before MAN LHR ..hopped on the bus or a transfer to Gatwick and booked one of the walk to terminal hotels (arriving hopefully in time to use twilight check in if possible so no bag check. In to deal with next morning as an added bonus).

Skipping the last leg otherwise only works if you are hand baggage only as BA won't short check your luggage but as they don't have baggage transfers between LGW and LHR if you missed the LHR MAN after arriving at LGW nothing would happen , just don't tell them you are going it or they can recalculate your fare . (To emphasise this only works if you have a flight into one London airport and out of the other)

Technically it's a no no but BA do nothing to enforce it currently with leisure travellers although there are one off reports of airlines clamping down of business travellers who do it every week via frequent flyer sanctions. Whenever I've done it I've done it discreetly and not mentioned I'm doing it even in casual conversations at the airport. If I was asked I'd have "taken ill" and missed my flight.
No one has ever asked in ten years of doing this though.
BA do nt like it as it usually impacts on revenue but at present don't seem motivated to do anything about it (there isn't an easy way to stop it so they'd need to find a way and thus far haven't bothered)


M25 is always busy, being a Friday won't have any positive impact as you have more traffic with people who are travelling on Friday to avoid the weekend rush as well as the normal commuters who aren't impacted by school holidays so it doesn't tend to be quieter the way normal roads are when the kids are off school , at commuting times.

[duchy]

National express is around £20 per adult one way so depending on the make up of your party the transfer can be a little cheaper. There is a much cheaper way to do it but it takes forever and having done it once I wouldn't reccomend it. (Bus from Heathrow to East Croydon then train East Croydon to Gatwick ... total cost about £8 as the bus is TfL so is maximum bus fare of less than £2 , it's a quirk as the route is one of the old Greenline routes and is the longest single bus route on the London network , it's a normal bus not a coach.)

[fredflintstone]

It is a tight connection as you also need to check-in your bags and clear security. SO I assume you need to be at Gatwick by 10.15. Going the night before would be better.

However most of the time it will not be an issue but if there is a major issue then it may cause an issue. Yes it is busy during rush hour but you'll be surprised how quickly the M25 starts moving again after 9.00.

I was on the M25 on Monday. I was going past T5 at 6.55 and got to Gatwick at 8.25. It would take longer at 8.00 and less at 9.00
It was start stop around heathrow but the real issue was an accident on the M23 by Gatwick and that took about 40 mins for the last 10 miles. Normally the M23 is about 10 mins. The traffic looked like it was queuing start/stop the other way when I was going to gatwik and I was dreading the return after pick-up but by the time we were near Heathrow it wasn't too bad because it was past 9.00.

Worst morning for the M25 tends to be Monday and best Friday. So many regular commuters seem to be missing on the M25 on Friday morning.

[tiger01204]

You can book a taxi/private car transfer which works out quite reasonably compared to the national express service. We have done this in the past when we had a connection on the shorter time and it worked out really well and took off some of the stress.