Return trip to/from different UK airports

[Bazball]

Hi all, seeking some help on an upcoming trip where the outbound is to one airport and the return is from another.

The logistics:

Travelling out on a Friday and back on a Monday a few days later. 20th-23rd March.
Outbound: Folkestone to Gatwick for a 10am flight
Return: Stansted to Folkestone with flight landing at 5pm

Discounts: I have a network railcard

Questions: is there a valid return ticket which will cover this journey in its entirety? Second, what's the likely cheapest way to do it considering I have to travel at peak time on the Friday? Last, is it worth doing contactless payment from London to Gatwick on the way out instead of a ticket all the way to Gatwick?

(I'm not fussy about more convoluted trips)

Any help much appreciated!

 

[Haywain]

is there a valid return ticket which will cover this journey in its entirety?

No. I'll leave others to comment on the cheapest options.

 

[redreni]

One of the problems is you're travelling out in the morning peak, so any return ticket would need to be an Anytime Open Return. These seem quite difficult to obtain for a reasonable price for these journeys or any longer journey I can think of that would cover the intended travel.

I would therefore suggest a series of single tickets.

Prices of flexible tickets as below, but you might consider Advances for the Folkestone to Gatwick leg. You might also consider waiting until you land to buy your Stansted to Folkestone ticket(s) as you may still find Advances that are worth committing to once you know your likely arrival time at Stansted Airport station.

Flexible tickets:
Anytime day single Folkestone to Gatwick Airport route Not London no Railcard £29.20.

Off-peak Day Single Stansted Airport to Tonbridge route Any Permitted with Network Railcard £17.10 (but you can't travel before 7pm on this ticket which might be inconvenient if your flight is punctual and queues at the border are not silly.)

Anytime Day Single Tonbridge to Folkestone with Network Railcard £18.55

Splitting at Tonbridge as shown above might save a few quid, but you may find it more convenient to just buy an Anytime Day Single route Any Permitted from Edit: Elsenham Newport (Essex) to Folkestone (£43.20) (sorry - just realised the only valid origin routeing point for that Elsenham ticket is Stansted Mountfitchet, which rules out starting short at Stansted Airport) so that you can depart whenever you wish and use HS1.

Unless anyone has a better idea? I haven't checked things like splits via Hastings on the Folkestone to Gatwick leg.

Edit: Taking the coach from Stansed Airport to Stratford and then the train from Stratford International could make sense time-wise as well as fares-wise. It would cost whatever the coach fare is plus £28.40 for a super off-peak single Stratford International to Folestone route Plus High Speed.

 

[Llandudno]

Blimey, assuming you are using a budget airline I suspect that your flights haven’t cost much more than the train tickets you need to buy to get to/from the respective airports!

 

[Bazball]

Blimey, assuming you are using a budget airline I suspect that your flights haven’t cost much more than the train tickets you need to buy to get to/from the respective airports!

Spot on. Return flights plus an internal flight in destination country are just £20 more than the UK trains.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Feb 2026 ==

One of the problems is you're travelling out in the morning peak, so any return ticket would need to be an Anytime Open Return. These seem quite difficult to obtain for a reasonable price for these journeys or any longer journey I can think of that would cover the intended travel.

I would therefore suggest a series of single tickets.

Prices of flexible tickets as below, but you might consider Advances for the Folkestone to Gatwick leg. You might also consider waiting until you land to buy your Stansted to Folkestone ticket(s) as you may still find Advances that are worth committing to once you know your likely arrival time at Stansted Airport station.

Flexible tickets:
Anytime day single Folkestone to Gatwick Airport route Not London no Railcard £29.20.

Off-peak Day Single Stansted Airport to Tonbridge route Any Permitted with Network Railcard £17.10 (but you can't travel before 7pm on this ticket which might be inconvenient if your flight is punctual and queues at the border are not silly.)

Anytime Day Single Tonbridge to Folkestone with Network Railcard £18.55

Splitting at Tonbridge as shown above might save a few quid, but you may find it more convenient to just buy an Anytime Day Single route Any Permitted from Elsenham to Folkestone (£43.20) so that you can depart whenever you wish and use HS1.

Unless anyone has a better idea? I haven't checked things like splits via Hastings on the Folkestone to Gatwick leg.

Thank you

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Outbound: Folkestone to Gatwick for a 10am flight
Return: Stansted to Folkestone with flight landing at 5pm

Until they re-examined their use of data, there was a potential problem that HMRC could accuse you of emigrating if you left by one route and returned by another.

 

[redreni]

Spot on. Return flights plus an internal flight in destination country are just £20 more than the UK trains.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Feb 2026 ==


Thank you

I've updated my reply - don't buy that Elsenham ticket I suggested!

 

[zero]

Until they re-examined their use of data, there was a potential problem that HMRC could accuse you of emigrating if you left by one route and returned by another.

This occurred when UK residents flew into an airport in the Republic of Ireland and thus no entry to the UK was recorded by UKBF.

It would not have happened for people flying into Stansted regardless of how they departed the UK, barring some exceptional scenarios such as a computer failure that went unnoticed or an international flight being accidentally released into the UK arrivals stream.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Blimey, assuming you are using a budget airline I suspect that your flights haven’t cost much more than the train tickets you need to buy to get to/from the respective airports!

Something which, in the age of low-cost carriers ('budget airlines'), is nothing unusual at all.

Edit: Taking the coach from Stansted Airport to Stratford and then the train from Stratford International could make sense time-wise as well as fares-wise. It would cost whatever the coach fare is plus £28.40 for a super off-peak single Stratford International to Folestone route Plus High Speed.

The coach between Stansted and Stratford is a good option - the road network near Stratford means journeys are often relatively rapid from the end of the M11 motorway via the A12 (this stretch in NE London being the 'M11 Link Road').

The competing coach operator(s) to National Express between Stansted Airport and London chop and change with some regularity, but at present it's the wonderfully named 'Flibco' with fares apparently starting from £6.99. Check fares for both.

Full details of coach and bus services from Stansted can be found here:
www.stanstedairport.com/getting-to-and-from/by-bus-and-coach/
(though ignore the NX 260 route shown on the map to Canterbury - this is discontinued, it didn't last long)