Subject: Re: Heathrow and London transportation
Hi Ziners,

I would recommend against purchasing Heathrow Express tickets on their web site. We did, but when their bus failed to show up at Heathrow, and the next bus (scheduled for 30 minutes later) also failed to show up, we went to the ticket office seeking a refund and were told "We never refund tickets purchased over the Internet." Apparently if we had bought them over the counter they would refund them, but we were out of luck. Of course we had all the paperwork, etc.

Another questionable policy: with Heathrow Express, you have to get on the exact bus that you purchased tickets for. You can't get on an earlier bus or a later bus to the same destination, even if the departure time differs from yours by less than an hour. So if your plane is early or late, or if your bus fails to show up, you are stuck.

Moral of the story: if you must use HE, buy tickets just before boarding the bus, and only when you can see the whites of its eyes.

Dave & Karen Votaw in Salem, Oregon