Monday 10 December 2007

Cheap Air Fares

Air fares have been on my mind recently. A few months ago, we were contemplating flying to the UK for a party on the 29th December. Checking on the interweb, I found that we could fly with Easyjet from Madrid to Gatwick for €26 each - and slightly more to come back. But we didn't book it then, and watched in dismay as the fares rose dramatically, rapidly wiping out any budget that we may have had. Obviously, Christmas/New Year is a peak time for airlines. If you want to fly from Madrid to Liverpool on January 2, it will cost you a staggering €268 with Easyjet!

So, forget the holiday season, go for the January sales if you can. From about the 8th Jan, prices plummet. Ryanair will get you there (or within 500kms, depending on weather, and obviously your baggage is going to Stavanger) for 1 centimo. Plus taxes, of course, which will add about €22.50. Easyjet are a much more honest company; their advertised fares include taxes, so €22.83 is the lowest fare during this period (the flight is 33 centimos, the rest is tax). Given the choice between Ryanair and Easyjet, the latter gets my vote every time. Even if it does cost 32 centimos more.

The moral, obviously: book early!

2 comments:

Grumpy Goat said...

Back in May 2006 I went tall-ship sailing around Menorca. "Balearics!" I hear you say. "It's true," I tell you.

We were all encouraged to book early, 'cos Sleezijet was £50 each way from Grotport Airwick as at December 2005. The best I could find out of Dubai was £150 return, flying BA from LGW. Naturally, there was the DXB-DOH-LGW on top of that. But no-one would sell me the BA tickets at the time.

When the BA flight was at last purchasable in April 2006, it had risen to over £250.

I ended up on the same flight of some of the other tall-ship crew members, all of whom had obtained £99 return tickets.

"Balearics!"

nzm said...

As a good friend of ours says, "Only turkeys fly at Christmastime."

Well, I found it funny...