London Gatwick (LGW)

Paying by contactless

• Adults can pay for Southern and Thameslink by touching a contactless bank card, or a phone or watch with Apple Pay or Google Pay, on the yellow reader at the ticket gates at Gatwick and again at the gates in London.
• Each person travelling on contactless needs a separate card or phone, but a phone or watch counts as a different card from the bank card linked to it, even on the same account, so one parent can pay for two people, one touching in with the card and the other with the phone.
• Use the same card/phone every time, and keep your phone charged, or you risk overpaying.
• Hold only one card or phone to the reader, and keep other cards away from it, or the reader may charge the wrong one.
• Many cards from abroad work, but your bank may charge an overseas transaction fee.
• Contactless only charges adult fares, so children aged 5 to 15 need a paper ticket or e-ticket (see Children’s tickets below), unless they already have a Zip Oyster photocard, which pays child fares from Gatwick on Southern and Thameslink.
• If you use the same card or phone all day, Transport for London’s (TfL’s) daily cap stops your fares for the train from Gatwick on Southern or Thameslink plus any Tube, bus and train trips in Zones 1 to 6 at £24.10 off-peak, or £40.80 if you travel at peak times.

Children’s tickets

• Under-5s travel free with a paying adult, and children aged 5 to 15 pay about half the adult fare, for example £10.65 for an Anytime single (one way) ticket to Victoria, or £7.20 to London Bridge, and unlike on the Tube, 5 to 10-year-olds don’t travel free from Gatwick.
• Kids for £2 lets up to four children travel for £2 each off-peak with an adult who has a paper ticket or e-ticket on Southern or Thameslink, but not with an adult who pays by contactless.
• Buy the adult and Kids for £2 tickets together, because once you have an adult ticket, such as an e-ticket, the children’s ones are sold only at a staffed ticket counter.
• When you have more children than adults, Kids for £2 makes a paper ticket or e-ticket cheaper than contactless, for example one adult and two children pay £25.30 off-peak at the machine to Victoria (£21.30 plus £4), against £32 with contactless and two child tickets.
• With a £12.50 Advance ticket to Victoria, one adult and two children pay £16.50, the cheapest train fare, but only on the train you booked; from 13 December 2026, Airport Advance tickets replace Advance tickets from Gatwick and let you take a later train, though children pay half the adult fare on them rather than £2, so that family pays £25 or more.

Paying at the airport

• Adults pay the adult fare of £10.70 on Southern and Thameslink by contactless or Oyster, or £19.20 if you touch in between 6.30am and 9.30am on a weekday.
• The station’s ticket machines and a staffed ticket counter are on its main concourse in the South Terminal, after baggage reclaim, and staff are there 24 hours a day.
• The machines take cash or cards, sell children’s and Kids for £2 tickets and print tickets you booked online when you enter the booking reference and a bank card, and staff are always there to help with them.
• The station’s machines top up Oyster cards but the station doesn’t sell them, though Gatwick’s Your Service Centre desk by check-in Zone J in the South Terminal does.
• The station’s ticket machines can be switched from English to French or German but not to Italian or Spanish, and Gatwick’s train page offers only an automatic translation.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• Southern and Thameslink sell tickets on their websites and apps with no booking fee, and you scan the e-ticket on your phone at the ticket gates.
• National Rail shows train times and fares but doesn’t sell tickets, so it passes you to a train company’s site to buy.
• Anytime tickets aren’t tied to one train, so if your flight is late you can take a later train: an Anytime Day Single works until 4.29am the morning after the date shown, and an Anytime Single, which also covers the Gatwick Express, works for 2 days including that date.
• Southern’s Advance single (one way) tickets to Victoria start at £12.50 and Kids for £2 works with them, but until 13 December 2026 each one is for one named train (see Tickets to avoid below for the Airport Advance tickets that replace them from that date).

Tickets to avoid

• Until 13 December 2026, Southern’s Advance tickets are valid only on the train you booked, so if a late flight makes you miss it you need a new ticket, and from that date Southern and Thameslink’s Airport Advance tickets, bought at least a day ahead, let you take a train up to two hours after the one you booked, though never an earlier one.
• Tickets marked Southern only or Thameslink only aren’t valid on the other company’s trains or on the Gatwick Express, so check the route printed on the ticket before you board.
• An adult Anytime single (one way) ticket to Victoria from the ticket machines costs £21.30, twice the £10.70 contactless fare off-peak, so only buy one to get Kids for £2 for your children, though to London Bridge it costs £14.40 and to St Pancras £15.10, which is less than the £19.20 contactless fare in the weekday morning rush.
• Trainline usually adds a booking fee of 59p to £2.79 (none for same-day bookings in its app from the UK, and different fees for bookings from abroad), and some other ticket sites charge one too.

Paying by contactless

• Adults can pay for the Gatwick Express by touching a contactless bank card, or a phone or watch with Apple Pay or Google Pay, on the yellow reader at the ticket gates at Gatwick and again at the gates in London.
• Each person travelling on contactless needs a separate card or phone, but a phone or watch counts as a different card from the bank card linked to it, even on the same account, so one parent can pay for two people, one touching in with the card and the other with the phone.
• Use the same card/phone every time, and keep your phone charged, or you risk overpaying.
• Hold only one card or phone to the reader, and keep other cards away from it, or the reader may charge the wrong one.
• Many cards from abroad work, but your bank may charge an overseas transaction fee.
• Contactless only charges adult fares, so children aged 5 to 15 need a paper ticket or e-ticket (see Children’s tickets below).

Children’s tickets

• Under-5s travel free with a paying adult, and children aged 5 to 15 pay about half the adult fare, for example £12.05 on the Gatwick Express, and unlike on the Tube, 5 to 10-year-olds don’t travel free from Gatwick.
• Kids for £2 lets up to four children travel for £2 each off-peak with an adult who has a paper ticket or e-ticket on the Gatwick Express, but not with an adult who pays by contactless.
• Buy the adult and Kids for £2 tickets together, because once you have an adult ticket the children’s ones are sold only at a staffed ticket counter.

Paying at the airport

• Adults pay £24 at any time on the Gatwick Express by contactless or Oyster, and Gatwick Express journeys don’t count towards Transport for London’s (TfL’s) daily cap.
• The Gatwick Express leaves from the same station as Southern and Thameslink, with the station’s ticket machines and a staffed ticket counter on its main concourse in the South Terminal, after baggage reclaim, and staff are there 24 hours a day.
• The machines take cash or cards, sell children’s and Kids for £2 tickets and print tickets you booked online when you enter the booking reference and a bank card, and staff are always there to help with them.
• The station’s ticket machines can be switched from English to French or German but not to Italian or Spanish.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• The Gatwick Express sells tickets on its website and app with no booking fee, and you scan the e-ticket on your phone at the ticket gates.
• Booking on the Gatwick Express website saves 10% on most adult single and return tickets.
• Anytime tickets aren’t tied to one train, so if your flight is late you can take a later train, and the Gatwick Express’s Anytime Single works for 2 days including the date shown.

Tickets to avoid

• The Gatwick Express charges £24 by contactless, against £10.70 off-peak on a Southern train to the same station, Victoria, and the timetable shows it only a few minutes quicker (31 minutes against 32 to 36).
• Tickets marked Southern only or Thameslink only aren’t valid on the Gatwick Express.
• Trainline usually adds a booking fee, and some other ticket sites do too, but the Gatwick Express website and app don’t charge one.

Children’s tickets

• National Express takes 25% off Standard and Fully Flexible fares for children aged 3 to 15, and one child under 3 per adult travels free (book any others as children).

Paying at the airport

• National Express sells coach tickets at desks inside International Arrivals in the North Terminal and in Arrivals and on the lower forecourt in the South Terminal, staffed from 8am to 5.30pm, and from ticket machines there that work 24 hours a day.
• National Express charges a £2 booking fee at its desks.
• National Express drivers sell tickets for cash only and may not have much change, so buy your ticket before you board.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• National Express sells coach tickets on its website and app, and sends you an e-ticket to show on your phone.
• Most direct coaches to Victoria Coach Station cost £6 to £6.50 if you book ahead, but ignore journeys that change coach on the way, which cost £18.60 or more.
• These prices include a £1.50 booking fee, which you don’t pay if you’re logged in to a National Express account.

Tickets to avoid

• National Express’s Standard tickets, the cheapest it offered on this route when we checked, can’t be refunded, and changing one costs £5 plus any difference in fare and works only before the booked coach leaves.
• On any fare, a late flight that makes you miss your coach means buying a new ticket unless you have Change & Go, which lets you board any coach up to 12 hours before or after the one you booked, if there’s room.
• Change & Go costs £5 per adult and £2.50 per child each way when you book, and you can add it later in your National Express account up to 24 hours before the coach, or for £6 per adult and £3 per child each way at a National Express desk, including those at Gatwick.

Paying at the airport

• Airport Cars Gatwick, the airport’s official taxi firm, has desks in both terminals, and you can pay before the trip or pay the driver at the end, by card on the payment machine in the car or in cash.
• Tipping is up to you, but 10% is standard.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• You can book Airport Cars Gatwick ahead on its website at a fixed price, and pay online as you book.
• Airport Cars Gatwick changes the date or time of a booking at no extra charge, and cancelling by phone at least 24 hours ahead costs nothing.

Things to avoid

• Don’t get into a minicab you haven’t booked, including one whose driver comes up to you, because minicabs must be booked through the company, not with the driver, and unbooked minicabs are illegal and uninsured for passengers.
• If the driver or the car doesn’t match your booking, don’t get in, because it isn’t safe.

Paying at the airport

• Uber and Bolt show a price or estimate in the app before you book, and Freenow shows a fixed price for its Ride cars or an estimate for a black cab, which runs on the meter.

Booking ahead online or in an app

• Uber lets you reserve a Gatwick pick-up up to 90 days ahead and cancel free up to 60 minutes before the pick-up time.

Things to avoid

• Don’t get into a minicab you haven’t booked, including one whose driver comes up to you, because minicabs must be booked through the company, not with the driver, and unbooked minicabs are illegal and uninsured for passengers.
• If the driver or the car doesn’t match your booking, don’t get in, because it isn’t safe, and for a Bolt ride, check the car’s colour and make and the driver’s details in the app first.