Originally Posted by
JungleBus
Last time I flew from London to the states was in 2009, when it was like $2.05/£. The UK hadjust doubled their departure tax - at that time for Heathrow only - as a way of making up budget shortfalls due to the market crash, and later expanded the increase across the country. Departure tax, fees, etc came to something like $180pp, but with today's exchange rate should be around $130-140. Since then, I've flown through Heathrow enroute to other European destinations, and departure taxes are considerably lower, around $40 - pretty much on par with AMS or CDG connecting to other EU countries.
London City is the only really convenient airport to central London, Stansted and Gatwick both have express trains but are fairly far out, and Luton's a pain to get to. The differences in departure tax aren't enough to justify going to the extra effort of flying out of another airport. Heathrow now has the most flights to the US, by far, although its stupid terminal system still makes it a bit of a pain in the butt to creatively nonrev out of.
Originally Posted by
orvil
I non-reved out of LHR in September. The departure tax came to $120.00. I'm going back in January to see the stuff I missed. Screw the tax, life's too short. Go do what you want to do.
Thanks, fellas. Yes, that's well within reason. From reading about how some suggested perhaps other destinations might be better alternatives in order to avoid the costs involved with LHR I thought I should ask. I was afraid it could be something several times larger. The wife and kids really would like to see London so that's what's at the top of the list come March. I will have to start digging for other tips as well: suggested hotels that won't blow the budget, but at the same time aren't just a notch or two above a hostel.