It's not particularly well advertised, but Heathrow Airport operates a service called "Heathrow Freeflow" whereby you can ride quite a number of buses in the local area absolutely free so long as you embark and disembark within the area covered by the service.
You can catch a bus from the Central Bus Station or from Terminal 5. The routes go past many of the same hotels that are serviced by the Hoppa bus that runs infrequently, takes you on a meander around all the hotels in the area, and costs £4.50/person.
The snag with the free service is that it doesn't take you right up to the door of the hotel, but many of the hotels along Bath Road (for example) have stops within a few hundred metres. So it's down to whether you're willing (and able) to drag your suitcases that far to save £4.50 per person per journey. Example: for a party of 4 going to a local hotel and back to the airport, that's a total potential saving of £36.
(You can also use the same buses to make quick hops to the airport if for some reason you want to buy stuff that's not available near your hotel.)
NOTE: the deal link leads directly to the PDF map of the free bus zone on the official Heathrow website.
Top comments
octopus
3 May 174#7
I doubt anyone staying in a Heathrow hotel will go to such lengths to save themselves a few quid!
Genki
3 May 173#2
You're right, it's not new. But I'm always surprised how few people know about it.
BTW, depending on where your hotel is, there can be a suitable bus as often as every 3-5 minutes (because many different bus routes overlap along Bath Road). That's compared to a potential 30+ minute wait for the expensive Hoppa.
All comments (42)
solsurf
3 May 172#1
this has been the case for years, well done on bringing it to the attention of people. Heathrow is a big place and this tends to be the way staff get around too. often cabs won't(or didn't) take people to local addresses as they would miss out on good fares to london after waiting for ages in the cab waiting area which I can understand.
Ajibee to solsurf
3 May 171#16
Cabbies can't refuse to take you on local journeys - they might not like it, and they might try to say no, but the fact is that if you stand your ground and point out that they have to take you they will. It is a condition of them operating from the airport that they do so. They need to take the rough with the smooth, and besides, it used to be the case, and probably still is, that if they get back in the queue at LHR within 60 or 90 minutes then they go to the front or something like that.
Genki
3 May 173#2
You're right, it's not new. But I'm always surprised how few people know about it.
BTW, depending on where your hotel is, there can be a suitable bus as often as every 3-5 minutes (because many different bus routes overlap along Bath Road). That's compared to a potential 30+ minute wait for the expensive Hoppa.
Lucky88
3 May 171#3
Wow love the map.
stevenhp1987
3 May 17#4
I always use the free bus to get to Heathrow after staying in a hotel the evening before. I'm surprised if people don't know, it's very high up when you search for info on getting to Heathrow...
phead
3 May 17#5
You can also use a contact less card instead of an oyster card on Piccadilly, more useful for none london folk.
IndyS to phead
4 May 17#38
This applies across the London tube and bus network, zones 1-6.
Rmeehan
3 May 171#6
Also, not commonly known, is that your Oyster/Contactless payment card is not debited for Piccadilly line journeys between the Heathrow terminals. There are many more buses too and from Terminal 2 &3, so it may be worth going there and using the tube to transfer to Terminals 4 & 5, and vice versa.
octopus
3 May 174#7
I doubt anyone staying in a Heathrow hotel will go to such lengths to save themselves a few quid!
Spark to octopus
3 May 172#8
Why? Heathrow hotels aren't always expensive. I stayed in one a couple of years ago for £28.
Zameen to octopus
3 May 17#9
so what you are saying is that nobody has done it since this has been in place having booked a Heathrow Hotel ?
bankieboy to octopus
3 May 171#10
Well we arrive at T5 and stay overnight at the Hilton T4 before flying from T4 the next morning. On our return we stay overnight at the Hilton T4 and fly out from T5. We will, most certainly, use this option by getting either bus 482 or 490. In case you think me Mr Rich, the hotel both nights is under £80.
Jorg11 to octopus
3 May 171#11
My family have stayed in the premier inn in Bath Road twice this Year and used this free service both times saving us £50 in total!!
solsurf to octopus
3 May 171#12
the busses are every couple of minutes , you can wait 30 plus minutes for the hotel bus
notavalidaddress to octopus
4 May 17#25
I frequently get the bus to the end of the free travel area and then walk for 5-10 minutes to the Premier Inn - often quicker than waiting for the Hotel Hoppa.
jimbojones1989
3 May 171#13
Brilliant, Can also use this to access the picadilly line at the airport for a day out in london
miyagawa
3 May 171#14
Awesome. I regularly use Heathrow, and had no idea that the bus was free in the general area.
amour3k
3 May 17#15
This is a BEAUTY!. :-)
faxmax
3 May 17#17
Which one?
jchung07
3 May 172#18
Apologies, this maybe a silly question, how do you know where each hotel is in relation to that map?
psd99 to jchung07
4 May 17#24
Most of the major hotels on that map are between Hatch Lane and Harlington Corner, more towards Harlington corner though.
That's probably why the majority of the hotels go that way on the Bath Road /A4
goodfera
4 May 17#19
Yes, use Heathrow often to see business visitors staying and hotels and some cab drivers do not want to do local journeys, but when you show you know the rules, they give in !
goodfera
4 May 171#20
Also have had days when there has been an accident and taxi system "melts down", so after waiting at hotel for 30 minutes have given up on taxi and walked to catch free buses, which still manage to run !
ian18
4 May 17#21
Not a deal. Should be under freebies.
Mentos
4 May 17#22
If there's 2+ in your group consider a cab. From Hotel -> LHR try uber or local cab. From/to the bath road hotels it'll be cheaper then you think. Hopper makes no sense at all.
I use LHR a lot and live quite close. The black cabs can really take the ****. Worse still some of the wardens that are supposed to control them can almost appear scared/intimidated. It's certainly not "fair enough" as someone else put it. That attitude will lead us down the path to other countries where it's far worse (ever been to Rome and tried to get the supposed capped fair?).
As someone else mentioned if they return within a set time (short fare) they do get to jump the main queue. The issue is they often know when the "Juicy" flights are arriving and want to stick around for a fare into Central (outside controlled zone). It's not only the passengers that suffer, but also the drivers that aren't in the dominant "clique". As they are forced to take you.
I insist any driver that refuses to take me is removed from the queue.
psd99
4 May 17#23
Good post, been doing this for decades now
sometimes I push the boat and get on for another stop. Hate walking in the cold rain! lol
Bastieng
4 May 17#26
Who tried this, is this free travel to Heathrow is good?
ultrak3wl
4 May 171#27
Heathrow Airport might prefer to position this as a wonderful freebie they are providing but the truth is that they have banned hotel courtesy buses. In any other major airport you can get a free shuttle but not Heathrow. This is in line with their other passenger-bashing activities such as making it impossible to pick up someone without paying through the nose etc.
Spark to ultrak3wl
4 May 17#30
Tell me about it. I still can't believe how expensive the Heathrow Express is. Even premium business class tickets on Japan's fastest bullet trains don't cost that much.
hcc27 to ultrak3wl
4 May 17#31
Yeah have to agree. The Chinese consortium which now owns HRW instituted the 'no-pick up on the concourse' rule, so every pick-up makes them money as you're obligatory made to enter the pick-up areas within the car parks.
The UK has sold its soul to the devil.
ultrak3wl
4 May 171#28
The official map doesn't make it clear which bus you actually should get. Here is a list of which bus for which hotel from which terminal.
Spark
4 May 17#29
It was a Comfort Hotel but has since been taken over by Mercure.
starbidder
4 May 172#32
Credit to Rob as this was written and posted by him on the UK's most trusted frequent flyer website Head for Points 4 MAY 2017
TheDean
4 May 17#33
Can I use this to get to the Marriot: Ditton Road, Langley SL3 8PT?
Rmeehan to TheDean
4 May 17#34
I don't think so. It is only buses travelling into and out of the airport, so really Hotels on the Bath Road parallel to the North runway. Heading to Slough would be the 81 bus route from Hounslow, which is not free, but you could change on the Bath Road for a free bus into the airport from the 81.
Thompy
4 May 17#35
Being from outside England this is great news to me..
Question.
Travelling from terminal 3 to the travelodge centrial on bath road between 6 & 7 pm. Which bus or route should i use?
Rmeehan to Thompy
4 May 17#36
The travel Lodge Central is just outside the free travel zone so it will cost £1.50 on oyster or contactless card - 105 or 111 buses go past on the opposite side of the road. You get off at Cranford Circus, just before these buses leave the bath road.
Thompy
4 May 17#37
Rmeehan thank you very much. With 4 of us going thats still a return saving of £24 compaired to the hoppa.
Thank you once again
To be clear, I never saw his article (and looking at the timestamp on my initial deal post, I believe I posted before he wrote it) and indeed I'd never heard of his site until you mentioned it. I posted this deal because I happened to check that the free bus system hadn't changed in advance of heading to the Heathrow area in the summer, and, after doing so, I thought "hey, not many people know about this..."
rachelduchy
9 May 17#41
The Hoppa is such poor value this is a no brainier especially if travelling light. The Bath Road isn't all very expensive hotels, I've paid fifty or less on occasion (Premier, Heathrow Hotel and Skyline) . Getting the bus instead of the Hoppa is no different to eating in the Bath Road Macdonalds for breakfast rather than paying £20 in a hotel. Requires a bit of effort but the end result is the same at a fraction of the cost.
rachelduchy
9 May 17#42
As for posting about this. I've certainly posted other places about this last at least two years ago , first at least a decade ago as I first became aware of it the year Princess Diana died .......... so Rob if anything was a little tardy in his posting !
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Opening post
You can catch a bus from the Central Bus Station or from Terminal 5. The routes go past many of the same hotels that are serviced by the Hoppa bus that runs infrequently, takes you on a meander around all the hotels in the area, and costs £4.50/person.
The snag with the free service is that it doesn't take you right up to the door of the hotel, but many of the hotels along Bath Road (for example) have stops within a few hundred metres. So it's down to whether you're willing (and able) to drag your suitcases that far to save £4.50 per person per journey. Example: for a party of 4 going to a local hotel and back to the airport, that's a total potential saving of £36.
(You can also use the same buses to make quick hops to the airport if for some reason you want to buy stuff that's not available near your hotel.)
NOTE: the deal link leads directly to the PDF map of the free bus zone on the official Heathrow website.
Top comments
BTW, depending on where your hotel is, there can be a suitable bus as often as every 3-5 minutes (because many different bus routes overlap along Bath Road). That's compared to a potential 30+ minute wait for the expensive Hoppa.
All comments (42)
BTW, depending on where your hotel is, there can be a suitable bus as often as every 3-5 minutes (because many different bus routes overlap along Bath Road). That's compared to a potential 30+ minute wait for the expensive Hoppa.
That's probably why the majority of the hotels go that way on the Bath Road /A4
I use LHR a lot and live quite close. The black cabs can really take the ****. Worse still some of the wardens that are supposed to control them can almost appear scared/intimidated. It's certainly not "fair enough" as someone else put it. That attitude will lead us down the path to other countries where it's far worse (ever been to Rome and tried to get the supposed capped fair?).
As someone else mentioned if they return within a set time (short fare) they do get to jump the main queue. The issue is they often know when the "Juicy" flights are arriving and want to stick around for a fare into Central (outside controlled zone). It's not only the passengers that suffer, but also the drivers that aren't in the dominant "clique". As they are forced to take you.
I insist any driver that refuses to take me is removed from the queue.
sometimes I push the boat and get on for another stop. Hate walking in the cold rain! lol
The UK has sold its soul to the devil.
Question.
Travelling from terminal 3 to the travelodge centrial on bath road between 6 & 7 pm. Which bus or route should i use?
Thank you once again
Not Bath Road .