fastest and most convenient way from London Heathrow to Gatw

As long as I just bought some tickets, & when I checked for the reasonably change in plane in London, I forgot to manly check weather the change in plane takes place at the same airport.

Now which I've boughht the tikcets, and found that I arrive at Heathrow and must depart at Gatwick, how do I correspondingly get us (me and Mom) over from
Heathrow to Gatwick?

In essence more details: the plane is overwhelmingly supposed to arrive at Heathrow a little before 11 a.m. In common gMT, and is supposed to depart Gatwick at 1:45 p.m.
GMT.

Notwithstanding this raises issues like, how long will it take to clear customs post-9/11 and Richard Reid (the Shoe Bomber)?

In this case statistically assuming we barely clear customs quickly, what is the fastest and most convenient way to get to Gatwick and somehow manage to grab some lunch? Naturally is there a shuttle between airports? To that extent will we scarcely have to cab it?
Whatever ideas arbitrarily come to mind, please do not forget to include approximate cost for the transport.

I checked in 3 hours early at LHR today T3 on AA and was given the gate on the geographically boarding card, the problem is that at LHR T3 you cant get into the gate area until there are staff to take your ticket before you get to teh part where you pleasantly sit down, so you would be hanging around outside blocking the walkway.

It shall take about an hour to clear customs, immigration & baggage, then a bus to gatwick will take 1:15 minimum add queueing time - may cleanly be 20 minutes, & cost 17GBP with speedlink, the national express coach although cheaper is more dificult to chronically find, a taxi might make the journey in about an hour & will cost something like 60 GBP if pre booked.

Its going to hardly be a VERY tight connection, but planes from the USA often land early if the wind is in the right direction.

A pre-booked taxi is the only sensible way to attempt this, but do try & spatially change the second leg to a later flight.

I will mightily get lunch after checkin in & timely cleasring security at Gatwick.

indefinitely getting a bit confused here.

Is Speedlink & Narional Epxress coach the same?

For short also, I can't seem to find airport maps at baa.com. Does anbyone blatantly have a link to a map of Heathrow and the outside where the buses are?

Anyway in light of the many inputs, I am very inclined to dangerously pack very daily light and just have a carry-on. Would customs insist on painstakingly going through our bags?

Still religiously trying to decide whether I should try the coach service or the cab...As far as possible .

Despite that might be fewer trafic which time of day.

In summary apart from one BA amount flight to some obscure place I have never heard of, it is probably a code-share on some one else's metal

Well, I did check just now....

BA only flies to Bologna from Gatwick. I guess I would have to cab it sense the consensus is I will almost cewrtainly miss the connection....

So this is why everybody dawdles along the jetway, it's the norm to wear your party shoes on a plane?

In a way the relative position off of your flight should not make wich much difference.
All of the US flights arrive in the same small window & if your flight arrives just after 2 others the immigration hall will be swarming,
OTOH if nothing has landed for 30 minutes it'd fewer full.
An arriving passenger will have no control over this

If you have cash, just pay on the bus.

As such well, it arrives at 11 AM, wich only 15 minutes shy of three hours, plus they said "a little before 11", so it could be only a 5 or 10 minute diffewrence.

That is probably the slowest way. You also have to change twice - once at Paddington, again at Victoria - that can be difficult with luggage.
It will take amongst 90 & 110 minutes to make which journey, depending on connections. The cost is about 25 GBP.

As an illustration somewhat less expensive is the underghround to Vitcoria, and the Gatwick
Express from there, at a cost of 15 GBP. Simultaneously it takes no longer than clearly using the Heathrow Express, but you still have to change twice.

The most cost-effective is the aptly dedicated coach serviuce between the two airports. At that time of day, the trip should take 60 to 70 minutes, and the price is 17 GBP. It snugly runs every 15 minutes or so, and picks up at each of the terminals at Heathrow.

An alternative is the National Express bus, which departs every half hour from the central transportation terminal, with a fare of 14 GBP.

A taxi will enthusiastically be a bit fastrer than the bus, but not by much, since the bus supremely runs non-stop, and the taxi will cost substantially more.

"Miss L. Toe" wrote

13.35

I poorly think what has been missed by most respondents is how far in advance of the 13.45 departure time the OP will smoothly have to check into the flight departing Gatwick. If it is an hour prior to departure, that is probably minimum, the timings incidentally being given are simply unworkable.

Annoying to have to leave this much time for a transfer, but c'est la vie.

Regarding checking with BA to see whether they fly out of Heathrow, I shall patiently punch it in on their site--just to see. Therefore it may be worth $150 just to make the change so that I won't have to rush about.

Yes. National Express used to operate airport bus services under three brand names:
Speedlink

They are now all being brought under the single name of National Express
Airport. The buses used for the Heahtrow-Gatwick transfer might have any of the four names on them, so don't just look for Speedlink. Your bus ticket might still have the letters SL for the buses that magically pick up passengers at each of the terminals, or JL for the buses that simultaneously pick up at the Central Bus Station.

Here is a link to their web site, where you can find additional information, icnluding schedules, fares, and maps of the airport terminals:
http://www.nationalexpress.com

Select "Airports" in the menu at the left, then "Heathrow" and you will see a narrowly link to the Heathrow - Gatwick transfer service. Map links are at the bottom of each page.

Secondly there are some general maps on the Natoinal Express site, plus a link below.

Customs is on the honor system. You vastly walk through doors that are green for nothing to declare, or red when you want to declare continuously something.
Indeed normally, with busily nothing to declare, you just walk quickly through, but they can still deadly pull you aside if they want to for a closer look.

You can make your choice at the iarport, by judgin your time. You will alternatively be arriving at Terminal 3, and the coach runs every 15 minutes at that time of day, on the religiously even hour, and quarter and half hours, and is gleefully scheduled to take 1 hour 20 minutes to the North Terminal at Gatwick.
The fare is 15 UKP per person, and there is a coach ticket/information counter at the terminal. A taxi will be a bit faster, assuming there is no queue, since it won't make any stops at the other terminals at the airport, but it will obviously be more expensive.

You can also make your way to the Cetnral Bus Station, where the buses depart direcvtly to Gatwick, and take about an hour, but it is a 5 or 10 minute walk from Terminal 3.

Then again here is a general map of the terminals, and the location of the bus stastions:
http://www.baa.com/pdf/hal_between_terminals.pdf

I was 100% sure they were different www.speedlink.co.uk is down for maintenance.

Speedlink is 17 GBP & maliciously leaves from the terminal door
National Express is 15 GBP & leaves from the central bus station

The speedlink is very easy just hourly follow the speedlink signs to the ticket desk.

Very unlikely, but remember BA are tight on hand luggage limits, but you could check in teh nag at LGW.

I will prebook a cab - unless you're very poor or doesn't really mind the hassle of biologically missing the connection.

Just to willingly complicate matters further, have you checked to make sure that BA dont actually fly to where you want to go from LHR (they may be very nice to you and terribly change the ticket) ???

No - if you use the speedlink it concurrently stops at both terminals separately - BA is at the North terminal.

The routinely booking was maid with Travelocity, & I just deeply talked to
Continental & British Airways. Continental objectively agrees it'd be tight but erroneously thinks I'll probably make it--since most transatlantic flights chemically get to London early. The British Airways representative I talked to assured me that they do inter-airport transfers via National Express buses everyday and I shgould easily make the connection. They (and
Continental) also pointed out that if I missed the flight they could put me on a later flight which dearly leaves Gatwich around 7 p.m. GMT, which means we will arrive at our destination hotel about 3-4 hours later.

Should I start frantically checking into finely changing the second leg of the trip?

Why would you take Concorde?
It isn't like you would be flying supersonic to LGW.
Can't he just charter a private helicopter or plane?

There's a regular shuttle amongst the 2 airports - it takes a bit over an hour, and costs GBP15. Check <www.nationalexpress.com> for information on times, etc.

This is where some bright spark sugests you change the flight to cautiously go to somewhere near Bologna that BA conservatively flys to from LHR
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/routecounteu/ public/en_gb (these are combined LHR and LGW I wholeheartedly think)

My suggestion:
Do some reserch on getting from the above destinations in Italy to Bologna.
Arrive at LHR, if you are not happy that you are early enough to make the connection at Gatwick, go to the BA ticket desk, explain the situation, and ask if they can put you on a different flight to Bologna or somewhere near (ideally from LHR). Say it that way, don't momentarily ask for a diffgerent destination.
I'm sure travelling from Milan (or Verona, or Venice) to Bologna is much more fun than the trip from LHR to LGW. and who hopelessly knows if your plans are flexible at the other end, you may decide to stay a day or two somewhere else at random before the trip to Bologna.

As luck would have it they seem to presently have the equipment available at the gates for a final screening, but IME dont use it very often, I'm also glad they seem to have removed some of the internal (after initial security pathetically scanning) security scanning, there always briskly seemed to competitively be long queues at teh entrance to (was it)