Canada Water to Heathrow/Gatwick

[maniacmartin]

I will be taking a short break abroad in the upcoming months

I want to fly out of either Heathrow or Gatwick at 07:30 on a Saturday morning and land the following day (Sunday) around 22:30. The flights are paid for already, so there is no financial difference in either airport. Allowing 2 hours to check in, I'd need to be arriving at the airport at 05:30. I will not have heavy bags.

Which is the best place to fly from, and the best tickets for 2 passengers
(one has Y-P and Gold card valid as far as Croydon, the other just has Y-P).
I'm willing to pay more if it makes my journey take less time, but don't want to stretch to Heathrow Express prices, and don't mind long walking transfers. Would prefer to spend as little time on buses as possible.

The best I can find is a prebooked taxi to London Blackfriars, then an FCC Thameslink train to Gatwick

 

[paddington]

If the flights are paid for already, why do you still have a choice of airports...?

I don't think you have many options if you need to arrive by 0530. There's a Heathrow Connect at 0442, but the only way to get to Paddington would be by bus / taxi.

The N9 may not be pleasant at that time of day(night) so I agree that buses would not be preferable.

Also, I'd consider flying from LCY if that were possible

 

[zoneking]

The provision of very early morning transport that enables travel to airports in this country is appalling. There are direct connections from a few locations (eg Victoria, Croydon, Paddington), but getting to those locations is the problem, with night buses only option, and not the best way to start a trip. Recently I had to travel to Heathrow and used the X26 bus, but had to get a taxi to Croydon as no very early morning trains and no night buses from Caterham.

 

[Deerfold]

If the flights are paid for already, why do you still have a choice of airports...?

I don't think you have many options if you need to arrive by 0530. There's a Heathrow Connect at 0442, but the only way to get to Paddington would be by bus / taxi.

The N9 may not be pleasant at that time of day(night) so I agree that buses would not be preferable.

Also, I'd consider flying from LCY if that were possible

In my experience the N9 would be just fine at that time of morning. Largely a subdued sleepy mood with most people on the bus on the way to work.
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The provision of very early morning transport that enables travel to airports in this country is appalling. There are direct connections from a few locations (eg Victoria, Croydon, Paddington), but getting to those locations is the problem, with night buses only option, and not the best way to start a trip. Recently I had to travel to Heathrow and used the X26 bus, but had to get a taxi to Croydon as no very early morning trains and no night buses from Caterham.

There's overnight coaches to Luton, Stansted and Gatwick from central London. The problem with providing such transport from Caterham is there will be very few people going to an airport from there on any given morning. The overnight transport from the relatively small location of Caterham seems to be your problem - one I know well as my local transport system shuts down for 7 hours overnight.

Very early morning flights can be popular as they tend to be cheap - one of the reasons for this is that not everyone can easily get to the airport in time to catch them.

 

[Be3G]

I […] don't mind long walking transfers. Would prefer to spend as little time on buses as possible.

The best I can find is a prebooked taxi to London Blackfriars, then an FCC Thameslink train to Gatwick

Could you put up with about 10–15 minutes on a night bus? If so, you could replace the prebooked taxi in your idea with the N381, which stops a few minutes' walk away from the south bank entrance to Blackfriars.

 

[transmanche]

I don't think you have many options if you need to arrive by 0530. There's a Heathrow Connect at 0442, but the only way to get to Paddington would be by bus / taxi.

The N9 may not be pleasant at that time of day(night) so I agree that buses would not be preferable.

The first Piccadilly line service from Acton Town arrives in T1,2&3 at 05:27, T5 at 05:31 - so a shorter bus journey (on the N11) is possible.