London Airports 101
With several airports around the city, it can take a while to get a hang of traveling from London. I’ve gathered up my best tips and information about all the airports in London to help you travel nice and smoothly!
First off, if you’re a student studying abroad in London for a semester, you’ll be needing a short term student visa. You can either get this for free upon arrival at any London airport or pay a fee to get it beforehand online. You’ll want to apply for your visa online, because while the airport visa is free, it is a single entry visa. This means that if you are traveling around Europe, you’ll need to get a new visa every time you re-enter the country. This isn’t the biggest hassle in the world (just make sure to have your papers like return flight info and letter from your abroad institution with you for every trip - I suggest leaving it in your suitcase!), but it does take up some time at Immigration and a lot of room in your passport. I majorly regretted not paying for the visa beforehand; my passport got very close to filling up while I was abroad because the student visa stamp takes up about half a page in your passport, so imagine getting that every time you re-entered the country. Unnecessary!
Heathrow is London’s largest and most convenient airport, but usually the most expensive for flights. If you do fly into Heathrow, you can grab the Heathrow Express and then take the Tube from Paddington Station or book a seat on an EasyBus. You can also take the Tube all the way into Heathrow, but it can take up to an hour depending on how far out you are staying.
Cheap airlines often fly to the other three airports in London: Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted. These are all about an hour from London, and besides Luton, are pretty easily accessible. I often flew out of Gatwick and Stansted while I traveled and took an EasyBus to those airports from my flat. Luton easily has the slowest Immigration so I would avoid traveling from there and another airport called Southend.
Cheap airlines also have very strict luggage requirements. Oftentimes you are only allowed one personal item, i.e. your purse must fit into your carry on. I always bought something small at the airport like a water bottle or a yogurt and paid 10 pence for a bag - I would hide my purse in the bag and place my purchase(s) on top of the purse. Nobody ever checked, and meanwhile, people had their clothes all over the floor trying to make everything fit into one personal item. I have also seen people wear their jacket and hide their purse underneath it. One time, I wore a scarf and draped the sides over my backpack straps because the line to the check in gate was face on to the agent, and he couldn’t spot my backpack behind me. If the airline allows you to bring one carry on luggage and a personal bag, they will often weigh the luggage, and while there is a basket to measure the size of your personal bag, they almost never care about that requirement as much as the luggage weight. This is majorly important, since they will charge you more for overweight luggage. Avoid this by using my tips to pack smart and light, paying beforehand for a checked bag (this is cheaper than paying overweight fees), purchasing a hand scale to check your luggage weight at home, and having a small suitcase! My personal favorite is the Away suitcase, on which I’ve written a review, because it’s the best suitcase I have ever used. Because it’s on the smaller side (yet fits so much!), agents often didn’t bother weighing my bag, even when I knew it was a bit heavier than the allowed amount - while people with larger carry-ons always had to have their bag weighed! In general, be nice to the airport agents and look unassuming, and you should have no problem with your bags.
Check in online and get your boarding pass before your flight! This is CRUCIAL or you will get hit with a large fee when you arrive at the airport. Most people miss the fine print when they book a cheap flight and think they can just check in at the airport and then are upset when they have to pay. This also means you don’t need to wait in the long check in line and can go straight to the security check! If you do this, arriving an hour to an hour and a half before your flight is more than enough time. If, however, you are planning to check in at the airport, give yourself at least two hours.
Hopefully this will help you navigate air travel in London! Keeping reading to find out the secret to scoring cheap flights to Europe and other cheap ways to get around Europe. Let me know in the comments if you have any info or tips I missed!