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Hi all,
Starting a new job in September which will require me to commute from Glasgow to London once a week (flying down in the morning, staying overnight, and flying back the following evening). I’m quite junior in terms of my career and living in Glasgow is my choice so unfortunately I’ll be footing the bill myself.
My goal here is to minimise costs but at the same time make sure it’s somewhat enjoyable/stress free. I’ve ruled out the train as the only train to arrive in London before 10am is peak train and the last train going back to Glasgow seem to never have advance singles available, so even with a railcard it’s coming out to £150ish return.
My next decision is choosing Easyjet or BA. My office is near Liverpool Street and I’m assuming the cost of travel between any of the airports is roughly equal (railcard and advance purchase of Heathrow and Stansted Express).
For Easyjet there’s three morning flights to London (one to LGW, STN and LTN). Good range of options coming back up too. On average the prices seem sticky around the £60 return mark. I’d combine this with Easyjet plus (so would immediately get free seat selection, fast track, carry on bag etc.) and the Lloyds World Elite for airport lounge access. I know the lounge will usually be full but I can use the dining credit towards another option.
On the other hand, BA flights seem to hover around the £80 return mark but I’d be limited to the 05:55 LHR flight flying down and the 22:25 flight from LHR going back up (all other flights would be out of my budget). After fifty segments (which I should complete by Mar 31), I’ll qualify for Silver Exec club with BA which of course will give me seat selection and guaranteed lounge access. The downside is I’ll go six months without benefits.
I think some of it will come down to how quick how I can get out of the airports and into the city. Stansted is obviously the slowest but at least I’d be guaranteed a table seat and would arrive in Liverpool Street (so wouldn’t need to connect to the Tube). I’d probably try and avoid Luton as it’s the messiest (and most expensive option).
Any experiences or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
In the olden days BA’s Flight Pass would have potentially been ideal for you, but I can’t quite work out if it’s still a thing or not? https://www.optiontown.com/home_page.do?processAction=HomePage
If your Office is near Liverpool Street then why not consider LCY where BA also flies to/from GLA.
No lounge but surely less of a trek that LHR when you already have a long day or working and cimmuting.
Not sure if the GLA-LGW flight might help but you could mix and match airports
I’ve not looked at prices though
Luton could work as you could get the Thameslink down to Farringdon and connect to LIzzie Line rather than the tube. Also Thames link from Gatwick to farringdon.
My thoughts:
1. LCY is the most stress free airport, and worth paying a premium in light of the easy public transport access. DLR from LCY to Bank, or Bus to Customs House and Elizabeth Line to Liverpool St station, would also be materially less expensive than any of the other ground transport options.
2. STN to Liverpool St station is an easy transfer. STN is not nearly as bad as many would have you believe.
3. LGW to the City is very easy: train to London bridge (30 min) then Tube / Bus to Liverpool St station, or to City Thameslink* or Farringdon and walk or Elizabeth Line.
4. LTN is less convenient than LGW or STN, because of the need to wait for the DART.
5. LHR is likely the most congested and most delay prone, and will have a longer transport time even if direct on Elizabeth Line.* My regular commute involves walking from Liverpool St station to City Thameslink (or vice versa); walking this route is far faster and more pleasant than Tube / Bus.
If using the train to Luton/Stansted/Gatwick, recall that Railcard discounts can help to keep the costs down during eligible periods.
The difference between LCY and all the others is very significant – like 3-4x more – I suspect @glasgowlondon has considered that.
Where are you staying in London? If hotel, take a quick look in case a 1,2,3 or 4 night BA or Easyjet Holiday each week (possibly starting on Friday in the other direction might or mght not work out cheaper than just from each Monday) works out.
I also used to find it a lot less stressful taking a mightily late Sunday night flight to work, a short night, less stress and guaranteed ontime stroll into the office in the morning.
If you use BA economy plus (should cost £10 or so more per way), you can change for any plane on the same day from/to same airports for free at midnight, which could be valuable in your case.
I do this exact commute every fortnight, I live in Glasgow and have to fly down to work out of the company offices which are near Liverpool Street Station and have to cover the costs myself. (I wonder if we might be working for the same company?)
I should in theory be in London every week for a day myself, but have negotiated being there 2 days every fortnight instead to reduce my costs. I fly down on a Tuesday evening and back on a Thursday (usually the last or penultimate flight) from LHR.
I fly BA because it is more straight forward and just as cheap (with large cabin bag) when booked in advance.
I tend to fly to LHR, as the LCY flights are not at the most convenient time for me.
I tend to stay at the T4 Holiday Inn Express as it is really cheap (£85-£100 a night) and includes breakfast. The Elizabeth Line goes straight to Liverpool Street and as you are getting on at the terminus you are guaranteed a seat. The day return is only ~£15.
If you are travelling weekly, you can easily get the equivalent of BA Gold if you credited your flights through Royal Jordanian. You will get to the equivalent of BA Silver status in around 4 months if travelling weekly.
Alternatively you could book as a BA Holiday and get BA status easily that way. This would mean you would not be able to get hotel status, but it would mean you could collect avios and use that to get free flights every so often. This could be boosted through other sources too, which you would not be able to do with EasyJet.I cant help but think that £150 return to arrive in ‘central’ London without having to pay for an ‘Airport Express’ each way both ends and time spent to and from Vs stepping onto a train (with maybe 10% off via LNER and Amex if it helps)… With a 4 hour journey to allow for whatever… I’m not sure it’s such a bad idea to jump on a train..
You need to weigh up quality of life too….and an airport lounge doesn’t really make up for that…
Just a perspective….I guess it is completely down to priorities.
Trains are more likely to be disrupted by weather though, especially in the winter (and also by not having sufficient/willing staff to operate them). You have to allow for the climatic difference between Glasgow and London!
Personally I would fly. We spend a lot of time commuting between London and Inverness (not for work). OH usually books a cabin and takes the overnight sleeper and the kids and I fly. Over the years he has had many more issues than us flying BA. If there’s an issue at Inverness, our house is too far to go back, but at the airport there’s the Marriott adjacent to the terminal. To London it’s LHR but we have been put on some rather convoluted routes back to London if there have been issues. OH has been left to his own devices; stuck en route for hours because of snow or flooding; last minute cancellations because of strikes; and delays en route for other reasons.
I know Glasgow is a lot further south and different rail line, so might be better by train, but personally I would stick to flying.
As others have said, booking a BAH might be better than just flights. But flights with baggage would enable you to do a same day change. Also book in sale period, usually around June and December.
I cant help but think that £150 return to arrive in ‘central’ London without having to pay for an ‘Airport Express’ each way both ends and time spent to and from Vs stepping onto a train (with maybe 10% off via LNER and Amex if it helps)… With a 4 hour journey to allow for whatever… I’m not sure it’s such a bad idea to jump on a train..
But they need to be in London before 10am, which means Glasgow Central at 4.30am and arriving into Euston (or wasting a whole evening and a hotel night). I’d prefer a 7am flight
Trains are more likely to be disrupted by weather though, especially in the winter (and also by not having sufficient/willing staff to operate them). You have to allow for the climatic difference between Glasgow and London!
I barely trust the train for a weekly commute to Edinburgh from Glasgow never mind London.
On the BA holiday point I would have thought it would potentially be more useful to earn airline and hotel status rather than just airline?
On the BA holiday point I would have thought it would potentially be more useful to earn airline and hotel status rather than just airline?
Depends on where they are planning to stay, it sounds like price is a large factor so they are likely to chose lower rated non-chain hotels so status would not be achieved anyway.
The chain hotels via the holiday route only look to be the more expensive inner city ones, the airport hotels do not seem to be includedIn this scenario picking a hotel over the first few weeks and then talking to their sales team will get you a lot more than status.
You’ll get a good rate if you’re guaranteeing them the nights and they’ll be happy to hold stuff and have stuff ready that you need as they get to know you.BAH’s do include airport hotels; you need to specify the hotel location when you come to select that element. Of course you can’t build status this way, however.
BAH’s do include airport hotels; you need to specify the hotel location when you come to select that element. Of course you can’t build status this way, however.
I know that was possible by picking the flights and then adding the hotel to the basket at the end, but that is no longer considered a BA Holiday I believe.
I did a dummy BA Holiday booking with flights from Glasgow to London and could not find any way of stating Heathrow as a destination or find the Heathrow hotels in the generic London destination.With BA you may find the reverse return (Friday – Monday) cheaper than the Monday – Friday from Scotland to London, even though you’ll be catching the same planes. Try it for a few dates and see.
As others have suggested, with-bags fares come with same-day flexibility. Absolutely do use this facility. Outside of super peak dates you’d be very unfortunate not to find the flight you want if you jump on the app at midnight (although I have no experience of your chosen route so don’t take my word for it!).
I’d be crediting to Finnair or Iberia or Royal Jordanian, all have better potential than BA.
@ClubSmed, did you trying using “custom trip” and putting Heathrow in as your hotel location? I did a BAH last summer where I’d added the LHR Hilton as one of the elements.
@ClubSmed A Custom booking let’s you choose hotels wherever and whenever you wish.
Edit: Snap 😀
That functionality seems to have gone in the redesign, or maybe it’s just me…
That functionality seems to have gone in the redesign, or maybe it’s just me…
I’ve got a feeling if you search for London on BAH custom LHR doesn’t seem to come up, but if you use Slough (?) they might
Custom trip is still there, you need to click on “flight + car/hotel” and it appears on the bottom left of the search boxes.
Not as a viable option, but purely out of interest, I had a quick look to see if Flexi Seasons on the trains would work. They provide discounted travel between two stations on 8 days within a 28 day period. They do seem mostly geared towards users taking the train there and back on the designated days, rather than going one way for one day, then returning on another day (though this is permitted).
It looks like there aren’t any regular season tickets from Glasgow to London at all. I guess they don’t expect anyone to spend half their life on an Avanti train five days a week, unless you happen to work for Avanti.
There are a few full season tickets that end a little further north of London. You can get a season ticket to Milton Keynes.
The closest place I could find to get a Flexi Season ticket to on the line to London was Preston, which would end up costing £85.83 a day, plus the extra expense of needing to get from Preston to London. Checking a few weeks out there do seem to be some decent Advance tickets for the morning trains (I saw some at £35), but I think you’d need to be fairly on the ball to get these fares. Also, that only leaves you at Euston.
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