On Sun, 2 Apr 2017 15:55:48 +0100, Graeme Wall
wrote:

On 02/04/2017 15:33, Graham Harrison wrote:
On Sun, 2 Apr 2017 13:12:14 +0100, Graeme Wall
wrote:

On 02/04/2017 12:54, Graham Harrison wrote:
On Sat, 01 Apr 2017 09:47:12 +0100, e27002 aurora
wrote:


OK, so I have had it with the Woking RailAir coach link. I need an
alternative means of reaching the airport. Train from the South Coast
to Woking is fine. But what are the alternatives for reaching the
airport?

Has anyone used Uber? How does it work? What is the service like?

There are very good reasons to go to Heathrow - I still go there to
catch long haul flights. I'm prepared to put up with GWR to Reading
then the bus to get a non stop flight. Equally Gatwick sometimes via
Reading.

That said, going from Bristol, Southampton or Exeter (all
possibilities for me) means a shorter and easier journey at the UK end
but for long haul will mean a chage of plane somewhere.

Are you in a position to make somekind of trade off and use either
Southampton or Gatwick?


No flights from Southampton to the US.

Not non-stop but by the time you've got to Heathrow (much less fought
your way through) you could be through Southampton and en-route to
Paris (as an example) to get a flight to the USA.

The problem is most Paris - US flights use Charles de Gaulle and flights
from Southampton go to Orly. So no advantage. Years ago Air France did
operate a link between Southampton and CdG but that was best part of 30
years ago.

And Gatwick does
have flights to the US (albeit, not many).

(Let's face it any long haul from Southampton means changing planes in
Europe somewhere).

Personally, I'd prefer the non-stop from Heathrow but that doesn't
mean our OP might not be prepared to avoid Heathrow.


I gather Adrian's complaint is not so much about using Heathrow as the
bus service from Woking which is fairly poor for such an important link.
The NRE website doesn't even give it as an option travelling from
Portsmouth

I think you need to update your knowledge. Flybe operate
Southampton/Charles de Gaulle.

But the precise detail isn't the issue. What I'm suggesting is that
by using a different airport and therefore avoiding the
Woking/Heathrow bus It MIGHT (and I stress might) be that the total
journey from home to destination could be as quick and less stressful.
The precise combination is going to depend on the actual start and end
points.

Whilst NRE says Portsmouth/Heathrow via Woking can be done in as
little as 2hrs 15 mins it also tells me that changing at Winchester
Birmingham International is 3hrs 15mins. If the Woking link is so
unreliable some people might argue that XC is a better bet and if the
flight times mesh with the flights a less congested airport such as
Birmingham (and even less congested, Southampton) might provide an
equivalent journey even allowing for the extra hour to get to
Birmingham and (depending on the destination) having to change en
route when Heathrow might be non-stop.

It could even be cheaper. When I was booking London/San Francisco
return last year a chance remark had me look at Manchester/London/San
Francisco. That was cheaper even though I was using the same flights
LON/SFO/LON. Aren't market forces wonderful?!

Her's a final thing. If you're going on holiday to Argentina and one
of the places you wnt to go to is Iguassu how do you get there? I
was so fixated on Argentina that I was assuming fly to Buenos Aires
then back to Iguassu. It wasn't until the agency I was using
suggested it that I realised a better way was London/Sao
Paulo/Iguassu, stay on the Brazilian side and then get a transfer to
the Argentine airport to continue to BA and, after touring othe bits
of Argentina fly non stop back to London.

A bit of flexibility and thinking a little out of the box can
sometimes bear fruit.