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Woking to Heathrow
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. 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. |
Woking to Heathrow
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 -- Graeme Wall This account not read. |
Woking to Heathrow
In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote: In message , at 06:45:45 on Sun, 2 Apr 2017, remarked: https://www.uber.com/en-GB/drive/lon...-requirements/ The main complaint is that they don't (do much checking). And reportedly the problem with insurance is they don't track cancellations I'm not even sure there's a mechanism for that even if they wanted to They could do spot checks on the drivers, say once a month on average for each, and blacklist the ones without insurance. I think you mean take them to court to get 6 points on their licence? No, but the licensing authorities and police are. -- Colin Rosenstiel |
Woking to Heathrow
In message , at 12:29:00
on Sun, 2 Apr 2017, remarked: https://www.uber.com/en-GB/drive/lon...-requirements/ The main complaint is that they don't (do much checking). And reportedly the problem with insurance is they don't track cancellations I'm not even sure there's a mechanism for that even if they wanted to They could do spot checks on the drivers, say once a month on average for each, and blacklist the ones without insurance. I think you mean take them to court to get 6 points on their licence? No, but the licensing authorities and police are. Why would Uber snitch on their customers (and make no mistake, Uber's customers are the drivers, passengers are the customers of the drivers). -- Roland Perry |
Woking to Heathrow
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. |
Woking to Heathrow
On 02/04/2017 18:58, Graham Harrison wrote:
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. That's fairly recent, thanks for the update. Ignore my remarks then. [snip] 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. When we go to Buenos Aires we are visiting her indoors' rellies, so tend to go direct there and then travel on later, which is the practical option anyway of heading south or west. Last time we did Iguacu we took a long distance bus from BA that does an overnight run. It's better than it sounds, the initial bit out to Zarate to cross the Parana river is quite interesting but then it gets fairly boring until you are most of the way there, that's the bit you do at night. Also when we did it, open-jaw tickets were very expensive.[1] The modern system of booking each leg separately makes it a much more economical proposition to do it the way you did. PS Hope you enjoyed the trip, Iguacu is much more impressive than Niagara. [1] At the time straightforward return tickets weren't particularly cheap either. -- Graeme Wall This account not read. |
Woking to Heathrow
"Graham Harrison" wrote in message
... A bit of flexibility and thinking a little out of the box can sometimes bear fruit. One possibility may be to fly via Dublin or Shannon. You can pre-clear US immigration and customs (you arrive in the USA as a domestic flight) and, with a bit of creative ticketing, you can save a small fortune on UK departure tax. -- DAS |
Woking to Heathrow
In message , at 18:58:17 on
Sun, 2 Apr 2017, Graham Harrison remarked: 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?! That's because you were in fact paying the "right" price, and people paying more were mainly doing so for the perceived benefit of both a direct flight and easier access (for them) because it's Heathrow. Market forces do play a small part in that the airline would prefer to sell the lucrative trans-atlantic leg to a passenger they subsidise on the domestic leg, rather than have them fly from Manchester direct to the USA on different airline, leaving them an empty seat. There's also a certain amount of "no-one got fired buying a direct ticket on a well known airline from Heathrow" effect. -- Roland Perry |
Woking to Heathrow
On Sun, 2 Apr 2017 12:22:51 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote: In message , at 11:14:10 on Sun, 2 Apr 2017, tim... remarked: The point about Uber's model is that they don't own them but that doesn't mean that the driver does either - he could be "borrowing" it (FTAOD - I'm not making some pedantic point about Lease-Hire) The driver can't just turn up in a random borrowed vehicle. Uber must approve, and knows exactly what car he drives. It presumably does some checks on its ownership, suitability, whether it's licensed and insured for private hire, etc. https://www.uber.com/en-GB/drive/lon...-requirements/ The main complaint is that they don't (do much checking). And reportedly the problem with insurance is they don't track cancellations I'm not even sure there's a mechanism for that even if they wanted to They could do spot checks on the drivers, say once a month on average for each, and blacklist the ones without insurance. Presuming lack of access to insurers' databases then that depends on production of paperwork for policies which could have been since cancelled. --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. http://www.avg.com |
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