Gatwick Express, Thameslink and Southern down together — and your flight doesn't care. The good news: strike dates are announced in advance, which means this is the one travel crisis you can beat by moving first. Here's the playbook.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before pickup
A strike is the rare crisis with a published date. The moment it's announced, three clocks start ticking.
Every pre-book firm's strike-day diary fills days ahead. Book the moment dates are announced — your fixed fare doesn't change, but availability does.
Strike-day coach seats to Gatwick vanish fastest of all — they're the budget refuge for a whole railway's worth of passengers. If that's your plan, buy the ticket today, not at the stop.
With trains down, everyone drives. Add 30–45 minutes over normal Gatwick advice — when you book with a flight number, we set the strike-day buffer for you.
Immune to the timetable. Door to terminal at the normal price, with strike-day traffic priced into the pickup time rather than into the fare. From London, Surrey, Sussex, Kent and the no-station villages that were driving anyway. Groups: one MPV beats four coach-seat gambles.
Sometimes exists, never trustworthy. Strike days occasionally keep a skeleton service in a narrow daytime window; last trains run absurdly early and cancellations cascade. Check National Rail for your specific date — and never put a flight on it.
The budget refuge — if you're early. Direct coaches to Gatwick keep running and fill to the last seat. Book the moment the strike is announced; on the day itself, walk-up is a lottery.
Possible, with two catches. Strike-day roads are heavier and Gatwick parking on a busy date isn't guaranteed cheap or close. If it's a long trip, the parking bill alone often funds the taxi both ways.
The strike-day price is the normal price — locked at booking, buffer built in.
Flight number in — fixed fare, strike buffer and a car that doesn't read union ballots, out.