On Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:11:36 +0000 (UTC), John Levine
wrote:
Admittedly, if you get in after the last bus at 0143 you're stuck
with
a taxi

You would have a job, I recall the runway closes strictly at 0000.

Neil

--
Neil Williams. Use neil before the at to reply.

In message , at 20:11:36 on Sun, 15 Jun
2014, John Levine remarked:
It's not just a UK thing. The best solution I ever saw was at Lisbon
airport where they had a booth that sold 10-Euros of mixed change.

I like the solution in Geneva, where there is a machine in the airport
baggage claim that dispenses free transit tickets. Geneva has a
unified fare scheme ("unireso") so the ticket is good on any
combination of train, bus, trolleybus, tram, and cute little ferry for
80 minutes.

When they brought those in (about seven years ago?) it certainly helped
with the coinage issue at the airport. But if you are flying in for a
morning meeting it means you need coins to get back to the airport, or
to your hotel. The coffee machines at the ITU conference centre also
need coins (at the UN the coffee comes from a manned counter).

When you check in, most hotels will give you a transit pass good for
the period of your stay.

All of them should, although sometimes you need to ask. Apparently the
cost of these filters through into the taxi fares, which are incredibly
expensive.

Admittedly, if you get in after the last bus at 0143 you're stuck with
a taxi, but the city's not that big.

--
Roland Perry

"John Levine" wrote in message
...
Swiss coinage seems to have been longer-lasting in my lifetime than any
other. Apart from changing some of the metals they seem to have the same
as
50-odd years ago when I first went there. Maybe the USA is similar but
their
money is so dysfunctional I'm not sure it's so useful.

US coins haven't changed much in a century, and all old bills and
coins remains legal tender. The last major change to coins was in
1965, when they switched from silver to base metal for the 10c, 25c,
and 50c coins. The silver coins will work in vending machines, but
since the silver content is now worth about 15 times the face value,
you'll never see them in circulation.

In 1979 they introduced a base metal dollar coin, sized to make it
easy to adjust vending machines to accept them, which they all do. It
was close enough in size to the 25c coin that people didn't like them.
In 2000 there was a new series the same size but gold colored with a
smooth rim. The new dollar coins still are not popular, other than in
the vending industry. Now and then I get a roll of them and spend
them to weird people out.

Most US vending machines accept paper $1 and $5 currency, which is
likely to be more useful for transit tickets. Those also haven't
changed much since 1928 when the size was reduced. Older issues
rarely circulate since they're worth more than face value to
collectors, but the $1 bill hasn't been redesigned since 1963 and any
$1 bill since then should work in vending machines.

and you'll almost never see a 2 dollar bill (I note that they've even
stopped contriving to give them as change at Monticello)

tim

I like the solution in Geneva, where there is a machine in the airport
baggage claim that dispenses free transit tickets. Geneva has a
unified fare scheme ("unireso") so the ticket is good on any
combination of train, bus, trolleybus, tram, and cute little ferry for
80 minutes.

When they brought those in (about seven years ago?) it certainly helped
with the coinage issue at the airport. But if you are flying in for a
morning meeting it means you need coins to get back to the airport, or
to your hotel. The coffee machines at the ITU conference centre also
need coins (at the UN the coffee comes from a manned counter).

Odd, at the ITU conference centre I went to last Monday, the coffee came from
the staff cafeteria, with a manned counter.

R's,
John
--
Regards,
John Levine, , Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:06:00 on Sat, 14 Jun
2014, Mizter T remarked:

Minicab sourced from their destination locale.

Now booked.

I did that once at Gatwick, while standing in the passport queue. The trick
is to book from somewhere near but off-airport. In the Gatwick case that's
Horley or Crawley, in the Heathrow case I'd guess Hounslow, Feltham or Slough.
If you reckon it'll take an hour to make it through then that's a good
estimate to tell when you call. At least they're not going to be
hanging around for hours due to headwinds over Afghanistan.

Theo

In message , at 18:27:15 on Mon, 16 Jun
2014, John Levine remarked:
The coffee machines at the ITU conference centre also
need coins (at the UN the coffee comes from a manned counter).

Odd, at the ITU conference centre I went to last Monday, the coffee came from
the staff cafeteria, with a manned counter.

The staff cafeteria is quite some way from the main conference room, the
coffee machines being in the lobby immediately outside.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 20:49:34 on
Mon, 16 Jun 2014, Paul Corfield remarked:
Are we allowed to know if your friend ever made it to UK shores and
out of the airport to his destination or is he still stuck at Heathrow
trying to escape? ;-)

Arrived safely, although I didn't look up what time the plane got in
until just now... 10.36pm

I'll catch up with them later in the week to find out what time they
exited the terminal (and where exactly they are staying).
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 20:49:34 on
Mon, 16 Jun 2014, Paul Corfield remarked:
Are we allowed to know if your friend ever made it to UK shores and
out of the airport to his destination or is he still stuck at Heathrow
trying to escape? ;-)

Arrived safely, although I didn't look up what time the plane got in until
just now... 10.36pm

Tarmac or terminal

I'll catch up with them later in the week to find out what time they
exited the terminal

IME not less than an hour later :-( (unless you can "fast track")

tim

On Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:06:00 +0100, Mizter T
wrote:

(An aside - the N9 bus could be particularly troublesome for visitors
when buses go cashless next month - the least that's needed is a 24/7
Oyster vending arrangement at Heathrow's T5 and central bus station.)

I was at Heathrow last week for my usual X26 and it was minor chaos
even *with* tickets sold on the bus... It's Heathrow that needed to
be cashless first, with proper ticket sales at the underground and bus
stations, and usable machines at the bus stops, for the many people
who arrive with no coins. You could make a similar, but less clear
case for some of the London terminals.

While cashless should work everywhere else in London, Heathrow is
going to be interesting (I'll find out two days after introduction)
and it seems to me that areas outside Greater London, far from
Palestra, will have less public troubles.

Meanwhile, I await the better software on the Underground machines,
that can't even provide a Travelcard starting tomorrow, instead
offering me two identical products with different past expiry dates
(irrelevant for a new purchase) because that's what was found on my
Oyster card.

Richard.

In message , at
07:13:12 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014, Neil Williams
remarked:
Admittedly, if you get in after the last bus at 0143 you're stuck
with a taxi

You would have a job, I recall the runway closes strictly at 0000.

And then spend an hour and 43 minutes taxiing to the stand, walking two
miles through the terminal, standing in the immigration queue and
collecting your bags?

Although in fact quieter aircraft are permitted from 23.30 all night,
under a quota system.
--
Roland Perry