Getting between London's airports
If you have to transfer from one London airport to another, here are your best options
How can you get from one London airport to another?
Getting between Heathrow and Stansted, or Gatwick and Luton, or any other combination of two London airports is sometimes easy, sometimes tricky.
The easiest way is just to take a direct National Express bus (Nationalexpress.com) for £15 to £30.
With the exception of Heathrow-Gatwick (£18–£55 by private transfer, depending on how many you stuff in the car [2–8]), taking a taxi or car service is prohibitively expensive (expect to pay £80–£140 or more). And it is barely faster than the bus, if at all.
(If you happen to be connecting Gatwick and Luton, you can take a train—though you'll need to catch the 10-min./£2 shuttle bus ride between Luton's train station and Luton airport.)
Below are the general amount of travel time and ticket prices you can expect:
Connecting Heathrow to another London airport
Heathrow–Gatwick connections
- Bus: £20; 40–50 min. (Nationalexpress.com)
- Car: £18–£55 per person; 40–50 min. (Viator.com)
Heathrow–Stansted connections
- Bus: £27; 80-90 min. (Nationalexpress.com)
- Car: £124 (1-4 people); 65-95 min. (Viator.com)
Heathrow–Luton connections
- Bus: £22.50; 50-70 min. (Nationalexpress.com)
Connecting Gatwick to another London airport
Gatwick–Heathrow connections
- Bus: £20; 40–50 min. (Nationalexpress.com)
- Car: £18–£55 per person; 40–50 min. (Viator.com)
Gatwick–Stansted connections
- Bus: £22–£33.70; 3–3.5 hr. (Nationalexpress.com)
Gatwick–Luton connections
- Bus: £20–£21.50; 2.5–3 hr. (Nationalexpress.com)
- Train: £27–£30; 75 min. (includes 10 min./£2 for the Luton shuttle bus.]
Connecting Stansted to Luton airports
Luton–Stansted connections
- Bus: £15–£16; 80–95 min. (Nationalexpress.com)
- Momondo.com - (Aggregator) Before I get into details, just know this: 95% of the time, I find the lowest fares on Momondo. Momondo quietly blows most of the other aggregators out of the water. It searches more than 600 airline sites, plus booking engines, search engines, travel agencies, online discounters, etc. This is two to three times as many sources as the competition—including the low-cost carriers and no-frills airlines most of the other search engines ignore—and it pays off. You can also quickly see which flight is cheapest and which quickest (and which best overall), as well as use all the usual filters on the results (length of flight, departure/arrival times, number of stops, airlines, etc.). I ran Momondo through many tests, and it almost always found the lowest available fares on domestic, Transatlantic, and inter-European flights. It found fares from carriers none of the others did, and when it did find the same flights as some of the competition, it almost invariably managed to find a lower price for it. For now, at least, I'm calling it: Momondo is the single best resource out there, bar none.Partner
- Flyinternational.com - (Consolidator) The airfares branch of AutoEurope.com consistently offers among the cheapest (and most reliable) European airfare consolidators out there. Barring some sale fare elsewhere, this is where I almost always end up buying my transatlantic tickets for the simple reason that they are almost always the cheapest. This is also why I chose to partner with them for this site.Partner
- Skyscanner.com - (Aggregator) Another excellent aggregator that, like Momondo, also includes the little low-cost carriers and no-frills airlines ignored by most other search engines. I like that you can be as vague on your departure/arrivial points as simply an entire country, rather than a specific city of airport—you never know when, say, a flght into Manchester will actually be cheaper than one to London.Partner
- Hotwire.com - (OTA) Offers regaular fare searches and Hot Rates opaque fares (cost less, but with slightly less control over departure times and other details)Partner
- VirginAtlantic.com - Given all options, I will actually pay a bit more for Virgin Atlantic flight than one on any other airline. They just treat you so much better.Partner
- Google.com/flights - (Aggregator) Google has acquired ITA, the original airfare booking engine long used by travel agents. It's now available to the general public, and niftily shows you the rough current lowest cost for flights to pretty much anywhere from your hometown via a Google map measled with red dots marking major cities around the world. It doesn't allow you to book, but will tell you where/how to book the results it finds. Not really a strong performer on internaitonal flights yet—though, oddly, does a good job with last-minute international fares, so worth checking.
- Expedia.com - (OTA) Expedia—which does a fine job on middle-of-the-road fares—is the last remaining of the Big Three online travel agencies. (Expedia bought both Travelocity and Orbitz in 2015; Travelocity's search results are now identical to those at Expsia, and we can only hope Orbitz's lackluster results follow suit.)Partner
- Hipmunk.com - (Aggregator) The aggregator that rethought how searches should be delivered—and I always like those who think outside the search box. All results are shown on a timeline, and the default sort-order for flights that match your search is "Agony"—a combination factoring in price, flight duration, and stopovers—so that the least annoying options pop up first. You can also sort more traditionally by price, duration, departure time, arrival time, non-stop only, and ask it to favor your preferred airlines (or airline alliance). One drawback: It really only serarches the airlines directly plus a few booking engines like Expedia, so you're not getting the full story (no discounters are in the mix). Still: handy.
- CheapOair.com - (OTA) Upstart consolidator and discounter using the power of the Web to weave together the best bargains and negotiated discounts with three reservations systems and fifteen travel service providers—something of a mash-up of a traditional booking service and a wholesaler. It claims 18 million exclusive flight deals, a low airfare guarantee, and 84,000 negotiated hotel rates.Partner
- Vayama.com - (Aggregator) One of the original international airfare aggregators, and still one of the better ones.Partner
Tips
You can also always go into central London from one airport and then back out again to another, but that gets time-consuming—especially since no two airports use the same central London train station.
The National Express bus will be faster and cheaper, so just do that.
Theoretically, to connect Heathrow with either Stansted or Luton you could ride the Jubilee line from Heathrow to Baker Street then walk a few blocks to switch to an Easybus shuttle to Luton or Stansted for a total cost of £5–£16, but that would take a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hours. To me, the small savings would not be worth it.
The only time this into-London-and-back-out technique is recommended: Connecting to little London City Airport, which is already in London and has a stop on the DLR/Tube system.
General tips of similar interest
Aggregators search all the booking engines, airline sites, travel agencies, and airfare discounters in the blink of an eye
Fly across Europe for as little as $25—welcome to the wonderful age of no-frills airlines, the little jet engines that could
London is the cheap airfares turnstile of Europe, so fly cheaply into here and then elsewhere in Europe or North Africa on a no-frills airline for far less
Tips on having the most comfortable air travel experience possible, from getting to and from the airport to picking the right seat on the plane
Two dozen simple ways to increase your chances of catching some shut-eye on those long overnight flights
If your bag measures more than 45" total (L+W+D), it is probably too big for the overhead bin
Tips on having the most comfortable air travel experience possible, from getting to and from the airport to picking the right seat on the plane
Two dozen simple ways to increase your chances of catching some shut-eye on those long overnight flights
