A common rant among loco flyers: 'the flight was only £5 but it cost me £30 to get to the bloody airport'. Londoners complain about schlepping out to Stansted, but some of the Ryanair flights will leave you a lot further out than that ('Frankfurt' Hahn and 'Barcelona' Girona, can you hear me?).
Of course, there are ways around these problems. Bus timetables can be found, cars can be hired.
It dawned on me that perhaps we're going about it the wrong way. Why not find your cheap flight first, then choose your holiday destination second? Hahn provides excellent access to the Mosel Valley, and Girona is great for the Costa Brava.
Whatever you do, don't tell Michael O'Leary: at the moment, there's no extra charge, but if he ever finds out that he's taking you where you actually wanted to go...
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
SOTW: Finesse your flight search with ITA
Site of the Week (SOTW) is where I delve into my bookmarks to bring you the key websites you need to be a smarter traveller. Some will save you money, some, time and some will make life easier. All of them are tried and tested gems which I use daily when planning my travel.
A few weeks ago, my friend Sean was planning his mid-life crisis. No, not a motorbike, but a final voyage into the wilderness before he stopped having a pregnant wife and started having a child.
Such trips, of course, need to be made to far-off destinations which are difficult to get to cheaply - especially if you start from here. It's one thing finding a cheap flight to the Costa Brava, but quite another to get yourself to Ulan Bator. Plugging in NCL and ULN (yes, I did have to look the ICAO code up) into Expedia simply wasn't going to hack it.
I gently nudged Sean towards one of my favourite flight-search websites. "You know it's serious," he said, "when it doesn't have any W's in it". He's right. Just take a look at the URL: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/. Doesn't that just scream Raw Power at you?
ITA Software is the engine behind the Orbitz travel agency, among others. It doesn't sell you tickets directly, but it whirrs and crunches away to find a huge number of results, and it has one of the most powerful search interfaces you can find. The query language takes a bit of getting used-to, but I think you'll find it's worth it in the end.
As for how to use it ... if a picture's worth a thousand words, then a video must be close to a small novel (works best in full-screen mode):
Once you've found the flights you want, it's time to input the details into Kayak, or any other online travel agency. You can even print out the 'show booking details' page for your local travel agency.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Death by a thousand cuts
A few days ago, an email pinged my way from bmi:
But it went on to give me some news that didn't make me feel particularly valued. You see bmi, along with pretty much every airline these days, charges travellers for the privilege of giving them our custom. In the past, the airline has waived this fee for holders of its branded bmi credit card, which actually did make me feel a little valued. But now it's decided to unwaive the bugger with effect from next month. They've sweetened the deal a little by offering triple destinations miles, but only for a limited time.
Like the rest of the industry bmi faces unprecedented market conditions at the moment, going to extraordinary lengths in their drastic cost cutting drive, so its tempting to sneak in a charge of a few quid here and there. They're loyal customers, after all: it won't drive them away, right?
Wrong. In isolation, you might get away with it. But when it comes on the back of catering downgrades, mileage devaluation and route cutbacks - not to mention uncertainty over the future of the airline as an independent entity - it all adds up. Surely your best customers are worth a few quid?
Dear Richard,it began. Oh goody. I am valued. Yay.
As a valued member of Diamond Club, and bmi credit card holder,
But it went on to give me some news that didn't make me feel particularly valued. You see bmi, along with pretty much every airline these days, charges travellers for the privilege of giving them our custom. In the past, the airline has waived this fee for holders of its branded bmi credit card, which actually did make me feel a little valued. But now it's decided to unwaive the bugger with effect from next month. They've sweetened the deal a little by offering triple destinations miles, but only for a limited time.
Like the rest of the industry bmi faces unprecedented market conditions at the moment, going to extraordinary lengths in their drastic cost cutting drive, so its tempting to sneak in a charge of a few quid here and there. They're loyal customers, after all: it won't drive them away, right?
Wrong. In isolation, you might get away with it. But when it comes on the back of catering downgrades, mileage devaluation and route cutbacks - not to mention uncertainty over the future of the airline as an independent entity - it all adds up. Surely your best customers are worth a few quid?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
British Airways goes all WEB 2.0
Word reaches Peanuts not Included that even the airlines - an industry for which the term 'legacy' seemed to be invented - are joining the social networking party.
BA and BMI bods, with varying degrees of officialdom, have been lurking on various internet fora for a while, but BA has gone one better by tweeting under the name of @British_Airways (North Americans would be better off following the subtly-different @BritishAirways). At the moment @British_Airways is serving up a very creditable mix of special offers (read: marketing), banter, and one-to-one help for fellow tweeters.
Companies tweeting is nothing new of course - across the pond @JetBlue and @SouthwestAir are well followed, and @flyairnz must have made a lot of friends by helping out the Twitchhiker - but it's good to know these things make their way over here.
Do you know of any other semi-official lurkers embracing the bleeding edge of social networking? Is it a good thing? A fad? Would you trust a twitter with your flight details? Post below and I'll follow it up.
Running the gauntlet
A Basque friend of mine has just stuck her head into the lion's mouth. She has covered herself in petrol and is about to strike a match. She is, in-short, playing with fire.
On her way to the Basque Country, she will change flights at Stansted Airport. Not in a nice, step-this-way-to-the-flight-connections-centre-madam fashion like they show you in the adverts, but on her own. From easyJet to Ryanair. With a baby.
If you've never run the gauntlet of a loco connection before, you probably don't know the feeling of terror that it engenders.
Good luck, Jo.
On her way to the Basque Country, she will change flights at Stansted Airport. Not in a nice, step-this-way-to-the-flight-connections-centre-madam fashion like they show you in the adverts, but on her own. From easyJet to Ryanair. With a baby.
If you've never run the gauntlet of a loco connection before, you probably don't know the feeling of terror that it engenders.
Good luck, Jo.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
In the beginning
Years from now, people will look at Peanuts not Included and think to themselves 'I wonder what he wrote for his first post. How did it start? I bet it was something interesting, something wild, something profound'. It is, dear reader, none of those. It is an introductory, sandpit-playing 'what does this button do?' post. So I'm sorry about that.
Peanuts not Included? What the devil is it?
For as long as I can remember, I've been a sucker for the low-cost airlines. Ever since Stelios first offered to fly me to Scotland for the price of a pair of jeans, I've been on the bandwagon. I've visited places I can't pronounce, in countries I didn't know I wanted to go to. I've bored friends with my tales of 1p flights. I've spent too little on flights and too much on coffee. And I can't remember the last time I got a bag of peanuts included.
In some ways it's got harder. For example the toothpaste-police are out to get us now, which makes carry-on baggage more awkward than it was. And the locos are always dreaming up ever-more inventive ways of extracting your cash. It can be hard to stay one step ahead sometimes.
But the possibilities are also growing, flights are credit-crunchingly cheap, and there are still juicy airmiles bonii to be had for those who travel on the grown-up airlines and want their peanuts included. It's just a matter of knowing where to find the latest tips.
So there you are. Where it started, where it's going. Please do come along for the ride.
Peanuts not Included? What the devil is it?
For as long as I can remember, I've been a sucker for the low-cost airlines. Ever since Stelios first offered to fly me to Scotland for the price of a pair of jeans, I've been on the bandwagon. I've visited places I can't pronounce, in countries I didn't know I wanted to go to. I've bored friends with my tales of 1p flights. I've spent too little on flights and too much on coffee. And I can't remember the last time I got a bag of peanuts included.
In some ways it's got harder. For example the toothpaste-police are out to get us now, which makes carry-on baggage more awkward than it was. And the locos are always dreaming up ever-more inventive ways of extracting your cash. It can be hard to stay one step ahead sometimes.
But the possibilities are also growing, flights are credit-crunchingly cheap, and there are still juicy airmiles bonii to be had for those who travel on the grown-up airlines and want their peanuts included. It's just a matter of knowing where to find the latest tips.
So there you are. Where it started, where it's going. Please do come along for the ride.
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