Advance First from Heathrow...is this legitimate?

[whole diary]

[Mookiemoo]

Am I the only one who would rather less hastle and just go to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) and then HEX rather than faffing with coaches (equally as unreliable as driving if the traffic is bad) - and hauling luggage on and off trains.

I'm already trying to work out step free access for the 20th with my two suitcases!

[basset44]

Hi All,

Often do Hayes and harlington from Cardiff to Heathrow if going up night before, its usually half the price of other advances taken a suggestion from this site and doing Slough  11.00 advance cheap Hotel and heathrow next morning.

Usually coming back into Heathrow buy cheap advance from Paddington allowing good time from Heathrow, if its arriving around peak wait in pub and if its tight catching the Heathrow express.

Basset

[inspector_blakey]

Just realized something...my figure of 70 fares was only from Heathrow T5 to Whitland by rail (i.e. departing from the railway station, HWV, and not the T5 bus station, HWX). 

There's actually yet another set of fares from HWX to WTL routed "RailAir Reading" or "AP RailAir Reading"! That's 6 walk-up and 16 advance, for a grand total of 92 fares in all. Gosh.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Confession time: I was originally going to post a claim of 90 (if only to outbid bignosemac!) - but, fearing that figure was rather too silly, I rounded it down, to just 70.   

[JayMac]

When I saw your answer of 70, CfN, I immediately thought you'd cheated and actually looked at NFM07, as 70 was the exact number of fares I'd counted after my guess. 

However, quickly realising that you are too fine an upstanding gentleman to cheat in such an underhand way, I was mightily impressed by your spot-on guess.

You really ought to try your prescience more often with some of the 'Lighter Side' photo quizzes. Keep guessing Taunton and you won't go far wrong!

The 'AP not London' is an interesting one. Does anybody really want to change at Hayes and Harlington and Reading and Swansea?

A lot cheaper though!

It would appear from subsequent posts that folks are prepared to change at Hayes and Harlington if it will bag them a cheaper Advance. Good on ya!

[inspector_blakey]

Taking HEx to complete the set this time, seeing as a reasonable advance first deal was available! Have used RailAir in the past, as well as Heathrow Connect. Although I bought a single on Heathrow Connect then collected a super off-peak ticket at Paddington, rather than going via Hayes. Only problem with Heathrow Connect from T5 is that you first have to get the free HEx transfer to Heathrow Central then change onto the Connect service. Noticeable how well used the Heathrow Connect services are closer in to Paddington as well. Plus the Siemens EMUs^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) are fairly comfortable and have reasonable luggage space, so all in all definitely a good budget alternative to HEX, and only a little slower.