Drive after overnight flight or 6 hour wait at Heathrow?

[TGT]

This is what annoys me since United pulled out of Birmingham. It's a £200 taxi, a 4 hour National Express bus or a train into and then out of London, which is a drag.

So, now I'm having to 2-stop to go from Birmingham.

I wouldn't drive back from Heathrow even to Birmingham (let alone to Newcastle) after an overnight flight. Plus parking fees. Depending how many of you there are and the price is it worth getting a taxi? I'd assume you'd be looking at £400+ - personally, I'd look at flights from Edinburgh!

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by scottish mama

Hi Bev, glad you got booked!
we've booked the train down to both Gatwick and Heathrow in the past, as well as to Manchester.
Last time we used a Family & Friends railcard and got returns for about £130 total for the 4 of us, booked at 12 wks out, and are planning on doing the same next year, as it looking at over £400 for flights down.

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Hi SM, I appreciate you're not going until next year but keep an eye on fares... currently they're all over the place, including no advance fares on our/many routes, following Network Rail's introduction of new timetables/routes in May - supposedly it'll eventually level out.

We usually pay £16.50pp for our Dhm to Man Airport train 12 weeks pre-travel but fares were so high I sat tight, finally bought tickets 2.5 weeks ago at £25.60pp, a 55% fare increase! No biggie as I used £8.50 of Tesco points for 3X Red Spotted Hanky (Tesco/RSH are ending their association Jan 2019, apparently RSH e-vouchers can be used until April), other ticket acquired via £25.50 of 'sorry' vouchers given by Transpennine when we returned to rail chaos in May.

The £25.60pp fare we paid is now £60pp. After years of train travel we've never witnessed so much NR ongoing issues, apparently the last time the railways saw such problems was during privatisation.

[scottish mama]

Cheers for that Chris, I'll keep a look out. I might even look at Edinburgh too as I've got family and friends up there.
Pity we're not going down same time as Bev, we could have hired a minibus!

[Guest]

Bit of a random alternative, but if you are doing indirect and the times are shifted by the carrier, can you change them for free to a later return time/connection to make your LHR layover more palatable?

We did this one year - swapped to an 11:20 landing. Still a tiring drive back to home, but didn't have to do it at rush hour.

We just had a meal in Atlanta airport. Strangely it was one of our best flights back as we were leaving the us at bedtime so slept whole way.

Might be an option.

We no longer countenance LGW to South Wales as that is too tiring at 3-4 hours. LHR home is 2:5 and I feel that's borderline.

[THE WIZARD]

Please NEVER drive home after an over night flight, it's the cause of so many accident n deaths. A local family to us did just that after a holiday n all 3 were killed on the drive home after an overnight flight! We now always factor in our local taxi service to take us to the airport n pick us up on return, yes it costs us an extra £300 but what price a family life.

[novocastrian]

best case for the drive is 5 hours, in reality it could take a lot longer

i wouldnt chance driving back to the north east after a night flight from heathrow, ive done manchester / edinburgh and always stop a couple of times for fresh air and thats only 2.5 hours...

train is best bet tube into Kings X and LNER all the way home, get in early @12 weeks you can get 1st class great prices

[Guest]

Are there any connecting flights to LBA/MAN/EDI any earlier which would still make it quicker and then a shorter drive back

[BevS97]

I’m hoping we can get the train booked. That would be the best option.


Frustratingly a few hours after I booked the BA deal appeared from Newcastle but I’d already tied myself into a heathrow departure.

[Mazascouser]

Can you not change it. How much would it be to cancel then rebook. Worth asking you have nothing to lose but a lot to gain.

[Fancealot]

You shouldn't have any problems booking the train, heathrow express runs pretty well, plus if you're near newcastle you've got the eastern mainline up from Kings cross, we're in Doncaster and have flown from Gatwick several times, night before flight we'd leave work with our cases (work in Leeds) then catch the train to Kings cross, oyster over on the underground to Victoria (you'd either get underground straight to heathrow or go to paddington for heathrow express) then gatwick express to the airport where we stayed in one of the airport hotels, on return we'd catch the trains in the opposite direction and be thankful when we'd sat down on the train at kings cross. leisurely travel then until doncaster where we'd taxi home. All in all a good trip.

The only thing i'd try to get is an anytime ticket for your return as the cheapest will need you to be on certain trains. get in at 12 weeks and get railcards it'll reduce your ticket costs drastically!