Am I unreasonable not booking an overnight stay before our Heathrow flight?

[SillyDenimMember]

So we've booked flights for an amazing 2 week Canadian fly/drive holiday with our DS, all planned very last minute/less than 6 months.

My partner is now panicking and suggesting changing or outbound flights as they are booked for 2pm departure from LHR for a 13 hour flight with 1 short layover arriving at destination late in the evening.

It will take us approx 3 hours to get from home city to LHR by train (of which there are plenty) and my partner likes to be at the airport 3 hours before check-in.

The sticking point...

Partner would like to either change flights to do early morning outbound and stay at a hotel near LHR, or keep the 2pm but still stay overnight the night before.

My argument is that there is plenty of time to not have to book a hotel and make our way to LHR on the day in time for check-in, even if there were some train disruptions. E.g. 4 hour drive in a hire car as a backup.

My partner thinks I'm unrealistic and stupid for not planning extra time for things to go wrong.

Am I being unreasonable?

We had a similar flight time last year from LHR and decided to stay the night before even though it wasn't strictly necessary. We stayed in the Sofitel, it was 5 minute walk, nice rooms and good food.
Meant we were nice and relaxed in the morning and could shower/breakfast and just walk to the check in desk.
I would as I would imagine the train tickets will be fairly expensive anyway and means there is less stress if anything happens.

I’d stay in the hotel too, have a nice relaxed start to a dream holiday. I’d not be happy relying on the train service and having an early start to such a long journey. What’s your objection to the hotel stay?

Shuttle buses run regularly throughout the day from the premier inn hotels to t3/4 and there is a separate bus for t5. Think it costs £3 each person but arrive at the premier inn departure point (at the rear of the hotel) early as these buses fill up . The pe hotel staff give printed timetables re these buses to their guests.

I’d book a hotel too. Trains can easily be delayed or cancelled and a 4 hour drive before a long flight will be stressful and tiring. Plus there could easily be traffic and you’d have to allow time to stop for the loo etc. a hotel stay would mean a much nicer start to your holiday. No early get up, nice breakfast, no stress. I’d choose this option.

Just book the hotel, no stress, no late trains, no motorway delays, nice and easy.

My DH and I have done this a couple of times on long haul flights. It takes the stress out if it, holiday gets to start earlier and you can take your time getting ready on flight day. We had business lounge access so we took full advantage of that!

I usually fly about 2pm to Chicago. I always stay the night before. Anything could happen on the day. I live about 2.5 hours away from Manchester airport and I am not stressing about getting there on the day. I stay the night before and wander down to check in after check out.

Saying that, it's just me usually, so not that expensive I suppose.

We’re staying night before at airport hotel which is an hour away. Ours is a much earlier flight though and because both kids get travel sick it seemed best way to get them cleaned night before then going on a plane covered in sick. I figured also it means I do all the house stress the day before like have I locked doors and turned stuff off rather than morning of flight so it spreads the stress out a bit.

Just book the hotel the night before to stop
him flapping. We are about 30 minutes from Heathrow, 45 from Gatwick, anything before about midday we still book hotel rooms the night before. It’s not unheard of for M25 junctions to be completely closed for accidents and it’s not a risk worth taking.
on a side note, you think less than 6 months is a last minute holiday booking?! Blimey you’d have kittens at how cavalier towards holiday booking we are 🫣😂

I think the consensus is in and we'll just book the hotel before the flight. Thank you all for the sage advice. Hopefully it'll stop the 'flapping' 😂

Enjoy and honestly indulge - eek every little bit of pleasure out of your hotel stay!

Sorry eke - I can spell I promise!

We're flying from Heathrow at 1.30pm and we're about 3 hours from the airport. We've booked a hotel (very surprised at how reasonable it was) so we have absolutely no stress the morning of our flight. We can get up have a leisurely breakfast, checkout it 12noon so perfect for us.

I stay the night before regardless of flight time as I don’t trust the rail/tube/road network to be ok on my travel day, plus i can relax more without adding a long drive/train on to a long flight day.