Cheap flights to / from UK

[managesoft]

Got a surprise "gift" of airmiles from husband today so my trip will only cost the 40€ airport tax. I think business travel is great... he goes to all the meetings in exotic places and I get all the airmiles

I hope he's paid the tax on those airmiles

BTW it is worth checking the same flights you get with the likes of ebookers and others against the airline, it's not unusual for them to be cheaper with the airline,
Also worth checking code shares, I've found BA flights which were cheaper if I bought the flight via Finnair than if I booked the same flight direct with BA, something to do with the way the codeshare seats are allocated!

[simon]

Also worth checking code shares, I've found BA flights which were cheaper if I bought the flight via Finnair than if I booked the same flight direct with BA, something to do with the way the codeshare seats are allocated!

Checked what you said MS.

Same flight on the Finnair site leaving 28/12 return 7/1 2 adults 2 children
1579.40 EUR

Same flight from BA 800 EUR.... I know which one Im going to take.

Thanks for the advice though

[peteh]

ebookers is anyones best bet.

BA is anywhere between 30-40% cheaper than Finnair (!!!!!!!!!) same flight.

Ryanair. - avoid this airline, a pilot friend, of a friend refuses to travel this airline due to saftey reasons.

[bretti_kivi]

ryanair wasn't particularly bad - i've not travelled worse except maybe on the defunct Air UK....

plus you can get the price down from the uk to tampere to not much. £80 for two adults inkl. taks isn't bad at all, methinks...

03/12 - 07/12 - friday out!

bizarre: to get really low the other way i have to travel on a thursday??! but then 02/12 - 09/12 = 100 euros, also for 2 adults...

okay the trip kuopio - tampere is 3.5 hours and 55euros per head, but it's still cheap... but remember, boys and girls, you get what you pay for...

Bret

[Rosamunda]

Ryanair. - avoid this airline, a pilot friend, of a friend refuses to travel this airline due to saftey reasons.

What do you mean? Don't the pilots know how to fly? Are the planes held together with string?

I've flown with them several times and we managed to get to London OK, in what appeared to be a fairly well-equiped plane. No food served on board so zero risk of salmonella poisoning or listeria....

Surely people are being paid to keep a check on these airlines and - would they really be up there if there were "safety" issues?

On the other hand, a friend of one of my friends did skid off the road on his way to Tampere airport last January - so I guess remoteness of terminal building could be an issue

[Mook]

Ryanair. - avoid this airline, a pilot friend, of a friend refuses to travel this airline due to saftey reasons.

So it's Ryan-scare then?

[simon]

Ryanair. - avoid this airline, a pilot friend, of a friend refuses to travel this airline due to saftey reasons.

So it's Ryan-scare then?

Dont give up your day job Mook

[deojuvame]

ebookers.fi doesn't seem to have their act together. They seem to have a huge problem with the onlin epayment system- more specifically, they send you bills even though you seem to have paid online with the online payment system.

I've also heard of people ordering tickets with ebookers.fi and getting large numbers of OTHER PEOPLE'S tickets. Hrm...

So if you do use them, keep a close eye on what's happening.

[managesoft]

What do you mean? Don't the pilots know how to fly? Are the planes held together with string?

I've actually been on a ryan air flight where when I sat in the seat it gave way under me! And as the flight was full I was offered the choise of continuing to use the seat or waiting for another flight! I did complain after but never even got a reply! Needless to say I have never flown with them since!

They have also been warned several times at different airports for landing with less than the minimum amount of fuel on board!

And Dublin airport have complained that they ignore the rules when it comes to taking off and landing, they are meant to take off and clime as quickly as they safely can to reduce the noise footprint, however that uses more fuel, and they therefore use as much of the runway as they can and clime slowly and gently to save money, (At the cost of more noise to the surrounding area!
When landing they have been warned for not clearing the runway as quickly as they should, Again they would rather use the full length of the runnway to land rather than use reverse thrust to slow down and exit earlier, this sometimes means that the plane behind has to go around again!
These in themselves aren't major safety issues, but they are indicitive of Ryanairs attitute! Money is everything!

[hemuli]

What do you mean? Don't the pilots know how to fly? Are the planes held together with string?

Not strings, but with jeesusteippi . That fits with Ryan-air.

(learn a new Finnish word everyday)

[alloydog]

ebookers.fi doesn't seem to have their act together. They seem to have a huge problem with the onlin epayment system- more specifically, they send you bills even though you seem to have paid online with the online payment system.

I've also heard of people ordering tickets with ebookers.fi and getting large numbers of OTHER PEOPLE'S tickets. Hrm...

So if you do use them, keep a close eye on what's happening.

Interesting, my family have used ebookers several times of the past few years & we've never had a problem. Good luck I suppose ?

[Rosamunda]

These in themselves aren't major safety issues, but they are indicitive of Ryanairs attitute! Money is everything!

otherwise they wouldn't offer cheap tickets....

I think they fulfill a useful role in bog standard air travel. I just hope that all these govt sponsored safety inspectors do their job properly. I can't believe the Finnish authorities would let them use Tampere airport if there were any real safety issues. After all, I don't think Ryanair actually has a huge positive impact on the local economy or employs many locals etc. Only one flight a day actually leaves Tampere.

[managesoft]

I just hope that all these govt sponsored safety inspectors do their job properly. I can't believe the Finnish authorities would let them use Tampere airport if there were any real safety issues.

I wouldn't count on it, wasn't there a story last year about certain airlines which had been banned from a couple of countries because of safety issues, but (and I can't remember which) either the info hadn't been passed on to other countries they flew too, or those countries had choosen not to act on it!

[deojuvame]

Interesting, my family have used ebookers several times of the past few years & we've never had a problem. Good luck I suppose ?

I've used ebookers online for flights a few times before and never run into problems until this current situation irritated the bejeezus out of me and I started asking around to see if it was a good company or not.

I called up to Kalevankatu and gave them an earful about my current situation, and it turns out they've discovered that on http://www.ebookers.fi, the credit card information submitted to them doesn't actually go anywhere so it can be charged. (wtf?) They just don't bother to actually TELL anyone, you have to call up and bug them.

So I went there in person and continued my rant, but the agent I was dealing with turned out to be such a capable sweetie I felt kinda guilty.

So I dunno. I'll probably feel a lot more mellow about the whole situation once I get that particular cheap airline ticket in my hot little hands.

And yeah I'm probably not going to use their web service again. I'll probably go in person from now on...