V-Flyer

Long time lurker, first time nervous poster.

Firstly, can I say how much I have enjoyed lurking on this forum as you are such a knowledgeable and friendly crowd.

I have gained so much valuable information and have used this to plan a special 60th birthday trip for me and my wife to San Francisco with a trip to Yosemite, down the Pacific Coast Highway returning from Las Vegas.

We would normally fly premium economy but having read all the information with regard to flying ex AMS etc. we have decided to give this a try so that we can experience Upper Class.

We are looking at flying ex Brussels and would appreciate any advice as to how long I should allow between arrival and return to LHR.

The option we are currently considering is flying LHR to BRU at 14.00 arriving at 16.10. We then have a choice to return at 17.20 or 21.30. We would prefer the 17.20 flight but is this possible? We will already have checked luggage in at the hotel at Heathrow so will be hand luggage only.

A further question regarding which hotel to use at Heathrow. We have looked at the Hilton at T5 as the Brussels flight is from T5 but this looks someway from the terminal. Are there any closer hotels anyone would suggest?

Any advice or guidance would really be appreciated.

firstly welcome to vflyer
The earlier flight sounds far too tight for my liking
I'd go the night before and have a relaxing evening in Brussels , if that's not an option then def the later flight
The Sofitel is a very good hotel

This post on Flyertalk might help

The Hilton is not near T5, it is an off-airport hotel.
I would also vote for the Sofitel, it's connected to T5 via a walkway.

Thanks for your replies Blacky1 and Hamster. Much appreciated.

Have you considered going by Eurostar? 2 hours and 5 minutes travel time, connect, and about 20 minutes to the airport from Brussels midi. Can get a seat for under 40 quid one way.

Thanks for the suggestion Smid. I will definitely look into that.

the eurostar option is definitely worth considering, for the perfect journey take a picnic and a bottle of bubbly with you - no issue taking bubbly through the security check

for the train from BRUXELLES-MIDI to ZAVENTEM-NATIONAL-AEROPORT, buy and print your tickets in advance...

http://www.belgianrail.be/en/travel-tic ... ckets.aspx

...for two second class singles it'll cost you 17 euro, or you can splurge on first class which'll cost 20.60 euro for two but tbh there's not much difference, don't buy the combined eurostar+domestic ticket on the eurostar site, it's generally poor value

depending on how fast you walk, allow about 10-15 minutes from eurostar platform to the domestic platforms at midi, but the trains to the airport are frequent so no need to dash

note - as with france, it is strike season in belgium, so do check beforehand in case there's anything planned, you can build in some contingency if you stay over in brussels, plenty of nice places to eat, i never had a bad vlaamse stoverij, and i had a lot

As mentioned by Sungod, it's strike season so currently EVERY Saturday for rest of July and for whole of August there are strikes on Belgian Rail - but even their own website can't say what effect there will be (i.e. some trains may run, Eurostar may run - but nothing is for sure as this Saturday is the first one!) ... if you can avoid then do so!

Wow, when I lived there, I was pretty lucky, never saw a strike delay my homeward visit over the 2 years of regular travel. Is the saturday thing a new thing?

I think strikes of the belgian rail system might not stop the eurostar, but might complicate the belgian rail system to the airport...

Bit of info the Hilton is surrounded by trading estates

To be fair, as Smid said, it's not that often the SNCB are on strike (even on national disputes the trains run to get the strikers to the protests usually!) but recently there have been on-going disputes on Belgian Rail about safety, pensions, ticket office closures etcetera (London residents / commuters will be familiar with this type of thing there recently, I guess).

This latest round of consecutive Saturday strikes on Belgian Rail are only expected to be joined by around a third of the staff involved (the conductors) so they are hoping to operate a fairly decent service (with seasonal coast extra trains getting cancelled and frequency reduced on many routes) but, as I said, this is the first one of this new set of strikes so neither SNCB nor Eurostar/ICE/TGV/Thalys are certain that all International trains will run at all or on time or whether supposedly unaffected international trains may get blocked / delayed by other trains stuck in the wrong location.

All,

Thanks for your replies.

Lost the vote on flying or Eurostar 3 to 1 so flying to Brussels with BA. It was a good idea, never been on the Eurostar, but had to bow to the majority. Booked the Sofitel following your feedback and it looks great.

Also booked the flights BRU to SFO returning from LAS. Every one excited and just the 10 months to wait. Owe this to all the information I have gleaned from this site so a big thank you.

Plenty of planning to do regarding the road trip to keep me busy in the mean time.

Thanks again.

Dave