Air line flight prices

Balders said:

And some of the fares to the USA are mind boggling out of Belfast/Dublin via Heathrow - those fares are predominantly cheaper than just going Heathrow to the USA using exactly the same flight.

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This. If I'm travelling long haul I'll rarely fly to where I wanna go from where I am. Daft as it may sound. An upcoming trip to Vegas in Business from Dublin is marginally more expensive than economy from London. The actual saving is 65% at nearly £2000 a head!

The madness is we start our trip in Dublin and change at LHR onto exactly the same BA plane to fly direct.

The only extra consideration my end is £17.50 for a one way to Dubbers and an extra 4 hours of my time. On the way back there is no inconvenience as I don't don't take the final leg to Ireland.

It's not just Dublin though. There are some great fares on the same basis out of Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and others. The later are often good options when travelling east and the savings can be even more significant.

Recently see OSL to SYD in Business via LHR for £1600 instead of £6k from London.

Herr Tubthumper said:

Thanks. The missus came home last night and plonked two Radiohead tickets for Stockholm in my hand. I'm very lucky!

I've never been but am pretty sure I'm going to like the city. Any tips will be appreciated.

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I'll see you there, booked my flight Wednesday. Can't wait for the gig, the venue looks immense. Let me know if you want a run or a pint in Brewdog

Airlines are *****. Generally, however I've had great experiences with BA, VA and Emirates.

I usually fly WestJet.

Flew into Calgary last night, with a 1 night stopover here, before flying to Vancouver (in 2 hours time).
My plans changed, so I wanted to fly out of Calgary and straight into Vancouver last night.

I was more than happy to pay the fare difference and a booking change fee, all good.

But nope, no deal.
The flight to Vancouver last night had 33 empty seats on it, taking the same route as my flight will this morning.

Check in desk couldn't help, wouldn't help, no way of transferring me onto an earlier flight at a cost.
I'd have to book a whole new flight if I wanted to travel last night.
Absolute shite.

BA, VA & Emirates have all accommodated such requests.
Teaches me for going budget. Get what you pay for.

Hotel and this mornings breakfast not too shabby though.


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Edit: Just realised way O/T, probably needed to vent.

Just to give you an idea of what prices us agents can get:

Referral where the customer (who thinks she's the world's best Amateur Travel Agent) had booked return flights to Miami plus accommodation in Orlando and was looking for return flights from Miami to Turks and Caicos plus 7nts accommodation there (why she wanted to book it in bits, god only knows!) plus her daughter needed to fly out to Miami to meet them so needed return flights to Miami plus the return to Turks and Caicos. She had found BA cheapest for the BA flights return to Miami fir her daughter at £1,100. The flights Miami to Turks were £240 (plus baggage) Obviously she thought this was pricey, hence asking for my help.

I could get a fare with American using the same return BA flights (codeshare) plus the Turks return all on one ticket (no extra for baggage for the Turks return as all on one ticket) for £652, a saving of at least £688 without the baggage charge if she did it herself!!

Most of the time, multi leg or what we call "open jaw" (fly into one place, fly back from another) flight tickets are generally way cheaper than buying all the tickets separately and you get the protection of if a connecting flight is delayed and you miss your connection, the airline have to put you on the next flight free of charge, whereas on separate tickets, if you miss the connection, you have to pay again for the next flight(s)

pastafarian said:

book outward leg
clear cookies
book return leg

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Does it not also work to book in private mode?

big nuts said:

I'll see you there, booked my flight Wednesday. Can't wait for the gig, the venue looks immense. Let me know if you want a run or a pint in Brewdog

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Agree about the venue, it's the largest built hemisphere in the world I read. Sure, I'll be up for both a run and a pint in Brewdog. Let's arrange nearer the time.