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I will be landing in Luton according to the schedule at 14:30 on 24th of January.

I want to fly out from Heathrow at 17:30 same day. Cabin luggage only.

How feasible it is to clear border, jump on the green line to Victoria, take underground to Terminal 5, run through security all for the three hours available?

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    Take a taxi from Luton if you want to make your connection. Even then, any inbound delay arriving at Luton could scupper your chances.
    – Traveller
    Dec 15, 2020 at 16:41
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    It would be quicker to take the National Express from Luton direct to Heathrow than by going into central London. You'll never make it that way.
    – Weather Vane
    Dec 15, 2020 at 17:35
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    Nope. While it's not impossible (if all the stars align), the chance of making it is probably less than 20%.
    – Hilmar
    Dec 15, 2020 at 21:53
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    The answer is simply "No". I would suggest that comments like "it could be possible in theory!" are really confusing. (The currently ticked answer is madcap.)
    – Fattie
    Dec 16, 2020 at 18:22
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    Note that due to the pandemic, many connections are inoperative or infrequent. My wife had a trip through Stansted and Luton and the shuttle connection between them simply didn't exist, despite we had checked it the evening before online. I would definitely add extra time for such surprises (maybe today they check everyone's temperature, who knows?) and that makes it a clear "not likely to work out".
    – Tom
    Dec 17, 2020 at 7:48

3 Answers 3

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Added warning: read the whole answer before you read the first lines which discuss road transport.

Rome2Rio says the road part of this journey will take an hour and a half. Going by taxi or private car will halve the time, and double the cost.

Remember that the time estimates do not include time to stand in line to clear immigration and customs at Luton, nor time to get to the bus stand at Luton, nor time to stand in line to get from the underground station to your terminal at LHR, nor time to stand in line to check in, nor time to stand in line to pass security. And it's possible your airline wants you to check in at LHR earlier than you'd arrive even if everything went swimmingly.

Your tickets are probably independent, as I doubt any airline would sell you these two flights on one ticket because of the significant chance you'll miss the LHR connection.

You can see where I'm going with this. This is a very tight connection. Because there's a significant chance you'll miss the LHR flight (and therefore have to buy a new ticket to your destination and maintain yourself until the new flight), I think this is a bad bet, and I wouldn't attempt it.

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    No, NO. Luton to Heathrow in 90 minutes, and 45 by private car or taxi? No way. It may only be 36 miles, but those are potentially slow or grid-locked miles.
    – Neil_UK
    Dec 16, 2020 at 8:10
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    Absolutley zero chance of being able to make that.
    – user115696
    Dec 16, 2020 at 16:59
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    I'd add that the route the bus takes is often congested, particularly in covid times - there's a lot less public transport use, and a lot more private vehicle use at the moment. I've been stuck for an hour and a half on the M40 because of traffic before
    – lupe
    Dec 16, 2020 at 17:42
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. I have left the most upvoted comments for now. Please go to the chatroom if you want to leave a comment.
    – Willeke ♦
    Dec 18, 2020 at 22:20
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No chance. The Green Line 757 bus seems to take around 1h20m give or take a few minutes, and they're only hourly so if you don't time it well you could be waiting an hour. It's a reasonable walk at Victoria Coach Station to the Tube Station. Then you've got quite a reasonable tube journey to Heathrow of over 50 minutes. Add on time to get through Luton (which is not exactly known as the fastest airport in the world...) and for extra fiddling and you have a high chance of missing the 35 minute deadline to get through the gates at security.

A faster route would be to catch the shuttle to Luton Airport Parkway station, Thameslink down to either St Pancras or West Hampstead, then either circle line or a combination of Jubilee and Bakerloo lines round to Paddington, and the Heathrow Express to Heathrow. Not only is this much more expensive though, it would still take around 2 hours all told (if you assume you get unlucky and just miss a bus/train). Personally unless your flight from Heathrow is a very cheap one I still wouldn't risk it.

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The answer is "No", it's inconceivable.

Five hours would be 50/50.

You can see literally 100s of references on the www...

https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/heathrow_luton_bus_transfer.htm

The absolute minimum time with no contingency between flights that you should contemplate making a transfer between Heathrow and Luton is 4.5 hours.

Note that they mean the ABSOLUTE minimum time, allowing for nothing.

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    Completely agree. I can literally feel my blood pressure rising even trying to think about making that connection in 3 hours. No way.
    – Vicky
    Dec 17, 2020 at 15:14
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    ..and to add to this absolute, definite no, that's ignoring the fact it will take best part of an hour to see fresh air at Luton, by which time you should be at check-in at Heathrow - 2 hours before flight time. Journey time round the M25 at rush hour is just a frustrating way to watch your flight leave before you pull off towards the terminal ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Dec 17, 2020 at 19:47

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