Here’s the golden rule: allow 3 to 4 hours between arrival and your next flight. The coach takes an hour. Add 30 minutes for waiting. Then add another hour for security and walking through Gatwick’s endless corridors. Yes, the ones that smell like duty-free perfume and regret.
If you’re on a tight connection—say, 2 hours—you’re playing with fire. Fire and baguettes. Don’t do it. Change your flight or pray to the travel gods. They’re listening, but they’re also capricious.
One Weird Trick: The “Self-Transfer” Disaster
I once had a friend who booked a 90-minute connection. She took the tube. She ran through St. Pancras. She made it, but her bag didn’t. She spent the next week in Barcelona wearing airport socks. Moral of the story: never cut it that close. Ever.
