Three hours from central London to Gatwick flight

[sparkysdream]

Is it cutting things too fine? Trying to squeeze in a matinee that finishes at 4pm to getting an internal flight at 7.05pm. Google suggests the journey is about an hour, train from Charing Cross and Thames Link to Gatwick but that is if each step goes to plan, and Easy Jet advice is to arrive two hours before departure.

The main thing to be concerned about is ‘conformance’ which is the time you must scan your boarding pass at security to be allowed through. That’s 60mins at LGW so you must have beeped yourself into security by 6pm.
Definitely doable if everything goes to plan and agree with PPs that your plan must include
Aisle theatre seats that let you slip out at a defined time (or understanding seat mates who are primed for your exit). Add contingency here. Yes you might have to miss the finale
Knowing exactly your route to the train and connections
Paying for fast track security
Getting the most reliable longer train service e.g Gatwick Express rather the one with least tube connections. The tube is pretty reliable tbf.

Id probably even plan to get an earlier train if you feel like you are stressed and leave well before the end. GE is every 15 mins and that could count. I’d be keeping an eye on a live departures board with my phone brightness turned right down or just a check at interval that all is going well.

It is really interesting! I’m probably more on the risk taking side, but also cautious about financial implications, so though it wouldn’t break us I would be very upset if I had to pay for new flights and a hotel. My travel insurance policy says allow sufficient time, so I think bookings that show a plan to arrive 2 hours before hand would be okay. So if there was a massive train issue it would cover it. If that were known before hand I think we’d have to forgo the show. I’d definitely be checking the situation at the interval, and would go for aisle seats near an exit.

I still haven’t decided though 🙈. I think I’m erring on taking a chance if my daughter wants to see Clarkston enough, but that’s now what I’m trying to gauge 🤯.

Me too!

It’s possible but it isn’t something I would do. I don’t think I could enjoy the show whilst clock watching. The last show we went to overran by 15 mins and we missed our return train. Thameslink is also notoriously awful and really unreliable at the moment.

Knowing that route I personally wouldn’t take the risk. Our train home goes from Charing Cross and going from there to London Bridge, where you’d have to change, can be notoriously slow. You’ve also got to rely on the Thameslink being on time from Blackfriars and there being no further delays down the line. You have got the option to go to Victoria and get the Gatwick Express but again you’re counting on no delays getting to the station, at the station itself or further down the line.

Once, some years ago, I left work in London (15 min walk to Blackfriars) at lunchtime to go to Gatwick for a 6pm flight. I was meeting friends at the airport and due to horrendous delays I finally charged into Gatwick to see my friends hopping around anxiously and the baggage drop off just about to close. I’ve never forgotten that feeling of panic, especially being sat on the line and just not moving. Scarred me for life it did!

@pontivex

The main thing to be concerned about is ‘conformance’ which is the time you must scan your boarding pass at security to be allowed through. That’s 60mins at LGW

Blimey that's excessive, I'm guessing that's for North Terminal because BA quote 35 min for South Terminal (same as LHR T5 FWIW).

Except LGW my check in limit for flying to Dublin last week was 40 minutes, not 60 at security. The check in lady told me it was standard

I'd probably do it. I'd make sure I had a good understanding of the difference possible routes because there are several and I might need to make last minute decisions to switch if one is messed up. I'd make sure I was comfortable with Citymapper so that I could quickly read routes/times and make snap decisions. But then I'm constantly doing that as I'm regularly on London public transport and there are often multiple options.

Then I'd check running of the train at the interval knowing that if we have to ditch the performance at the interval to make the flight because the trains are messed up then that's what we have to do. Are you prepared to do that and not be devastated? Can you say 'we tried'?

I'd also be assessing what's the worst that can happen and can we deal with that? Will a hotel and a new flight be a big financial problem or a bloody annoying expense?

The way I see it is you likely don't need those two hours at Gatwick. So a little bit of delay on the train can be considered as using part of the contingency in the two hours. It's just a question of how close to the sun you are prepared to fly.

Tbh I'm wondering why you would even put yourself through all of this . If you're going to shell out for London theatre tickets then what's another 100 for a room for the night plus the first flights out in the morning tend to be some of the cheapest. You might get some saving there.

I’ve done similar recently. It all worked fine but we made sure we were ready to leave cinema not theatre as soon as it finished. And didn’t stop for a wee and we’re fairly brusque getting out. All trains were on time and we were ready to use fast track security at Gatwick if needed. But the lines there were much faster with new security. We even had time to get a sandwich to take on flight.

Well the flights are already booked, as is the show for the previous night. It’s just looking at a way to not waste those tickets and let my daughter see a play she would love to see, which is possible if I swapped for the following day’s matinee. I’m definitely not shelling out for more flights and another night just to make that happen. In fact my daughter isn’t as desperate to see Clarkston as I first thought so I think that’s making the decision to not do it and stick to our original bookings.

StrawberrySquash, thanks, you’ve summarised exactly the points I’ve considered and concluded I would be up for it. However my daughter is paying for her share from cat sitting money and doesn’t want to shell out more for the additional play. That suggests she isn’t as desperate to see it as she seemed at first so that’s swinging things towards sticking to the original plan.

I see your update. I would not do it because I would not trust the theatre to end at 4pm.

There's engineering works at weekends if that's when you're travelling. They lay on coaches between stations sometimes.

Just realised it isn't weekend but you still really need to be familiar with getting across London. The rush is almost 4pm start on working days.

I’ll update this incase it’s of any use to others. We did end up changing the tickets thanks to Clarkston releasing £25 literal on stage tickets, so had Benjamin Button for the Tuesday matinee with 3 hours until our flight from Gatwick.

I got seats right by the exit, checked on the train situation at the interval then used Citymapper to get to Embankment then Blackfriars for Thames Link. It was perfectly smooth and we were through security by 5.20pm for a 7.05pm departure. And the flight was delayed nearly an hour on top of that, which a poster called as more likely than a train delay, so were spot on!. So there was time to accommodate about an hour of delays should they have happened.

Thanks for all the advice/ debate here it was helpful in making the decision, and the advice to use Citymapper made our whole trip so easy.