IF you have the ticket sent to your **US mobile phone***, you will be unable to retrieve it London unless you have a quad-band phone that works in the UK and Europe. And unless your quad-band phone is “smart” enough to receive email and download attachments, you are still out of luck.

So be sure you have any advance-purchase ticket PRINTED out in advance of leaving the US.

I would say the time to get to the airport is also about the same via car or tube/train–between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on time of travel. I agree with Nicky–I might be disinclined to take the car to the airport during rush hour. But taking bags on the massively crowded trains at this time of day can be a nightmare, as well. I sometimes can even fit myself into a train, let along a massive suitcase during rush hour.

And the tube to South Kensington may be 40 minutes, but this is the far edge of West London and doesn’t involve a transfer. If you’re going anywhere in central London, I’d say tack on an extra 20, and if you’re going anywhere in East London, you may be looking at an hour and a half in total on the tube. I’ve taken the tube from Shoreditch and I was seriously worried I would miss my flight–it was an hour and a half just from there!

I’m glad this issue could generate such debate. As always, there’s never one right answer!

On a very good day the car journey from, by way of example, Liverpool St (in the heart of the city) to Heathrow may take 60 minutes, more commonly 80 mins and on a bad day even twice that. Bloomsbury Cars (mentioned in the post above) say “allow 80 minutes minimum from pick-up in Bloomsbury to drop off at the terminal door at Heathrow. Allow an extra 30 mins minimum at peak times. And add on another 20 mins if travelling from the City rather than Bloomsbury.” None of this compares well with a short train journey. So that’s 130 mins for a peak time journey from the City to Heathrow – according to the company.

The second issue is that Private Hire and unlicensed minicabs are totally confused here. Bloomsbury Cars is licensed for Private Hire. They, and many similar companies, have been in business for years and are (generally) reputable. An unlicensed minicab is what my mate Dwight does in London. He lost one eye in a fight, doesn’t even know the name of the river of the river that flows through the city, and drives whatever old wreck he has managed to borrow off a friend (or nick) for a day or two. Unlicensed minicabs are of course best avoided.

Justin mentions that the tube is just too annoying as it is so slow. True, it stops a lot along the way. But it is frequent. Never less than 15 minutes intervals, sometimes as often as every five minutes. And journey time from Heathrow Central to South Kensington is just less than 40 minutes. No cab, licensed or not, could beat that.