at what point do you decide that a flight ticket is 'worth it' ?

Murphy_The_Cat

Moonchild wrote: »

I have no loyalty to mileage schemes, so they don't come into the equation. I guess a similar equation would work for most people who are regulars to certain parts of the world.

That'll be me then .

I'm a big fan of the AAdvantage scheme that AA run. With a bit of findangling, you can work on buy 3 flights to the US, get the 4th flight to the US free and as that also includes Hawaii, it is one hell of an incentive for 'loyalty'.

LillythePink

I would say the main factor that we look at is where we have to fly from and the times of the flights.

As we live in Guernsey, we have no choice but to travel to the UK (Gatwick, Southampton, Manchester or Standstead) so that bumps the cost up. Not to mention hotels when we get to the UK either from here or when we land flight time dependent.

This year, we are going to California a few days before the schools break up - so are taking dd out early.

We fly to Gatwick on the Tues night and then travel to Heathrow for our hotel and flight out on Wed.

Coming back, we do the opposite - although we get into Heathrow at lunchtime, if all went to plan we would have made it back round to gatwick for our return flight home, but OH wants to stay over as if we missed our flight, it would cost us a lot more to rebook than a hotel costs for a night!


If you want to know expensive re flights.....Guernsey to Jersey or Alderney (10 to 15 mins flight time) cost.....£65 return.......the cost has come down since the last time I flew as it was £85

Matt2389

jackieblack wrote: »

For us, our holiday is the most important thing we do as a family each year and, in truth, to be able to afford this is the reason I work. With teenage DD, the number of years we have left as a family to visit some of the places we all want to visit are limited - at some point she is not going to want to holiday with Mum & Dad anymore (:sad:) so for us it is a question of 'how much do we want to visit this destination' vs 'how much can we afford to spend?'

This year's trip is going to be the most expensive we've ever taken but it incorporates somewhere that we've all wanted to visit for several years and if we don't do it this year I'm not sure the opportunity will arise again. I never thought we'd pay this much for a holiday, but it is more than just a holiday to us - it is a shared experience that we will never get again.

We are restricted to school holidays and both DD & DH get really bad ear pains on descent/landing so its direct flights only for us (as indirect flights mean multiple landings), both of which make it more expensive!

Where are you going? Just out of curiosity lol..

moneylover

Hastobe_Katt wrote: »

We home swap (sometimes include our car) and use hospitality clubs so the flight is the only real expense of the holiday. Last year we went to NY at Easter and paid £250 each return for the flights - our swap partners had a 4 Bed 4 Bath house in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn (just 20mins walk from downtown Manhattan). In the summer we went to Aruba for three weeks again on a home exchange - flights were £620 each return and car hire was under £300.

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This alll sounds amazing you must live somewhere very nice yourself to be able to do these swops.
We live in Essex in a large modern house, near Chelmsford which is 30 mins from London by train and, whilst it is very nice, I cannot think that anyone would house swop with us.
You will have a lovely time in Bath its a beautiful city and very easy to get to Bristol too and also some amazing countryside. Enjoy it!

Doshwaster

Moonchild wrote: »

I have no loyalty to mileage schemes, so they don't come into the equation. I guess a similar equation would work for most people who are regulars to certain parts of the world.

It's interesting that some people have no loyalty at all and will fly with whoever is the cheapest and most convenient. Others will go out of their way to collect frequent flyer points.

I fly BA a lot with work and collect BA miles and points that way so when I fly for leisure it's very tempting to stick with BA as I can spend my miles and get some perks (lounge access, priority seating, priority upgrades) though my BAEC status - even if it means a longer trek to Heathrow.

When flying to the US I would never go past BA but when flying East of Suez I would typically go for Emirates. Around Europe I have no problem with EasyJet but would avoid Ryanair unless there was no alternative.

Moonchild

Doshwaster wrote: »

It's interesting that some people have no loyalty at all and will fly with whoever is the cheapest and most convenient. Others will go out of their way to collect frequent flyer points.

I've tried very hard - I actually enrolled with FT to try and find a suitable Frequent Flyer Scheme. However, my routings are a bit loopy. My last work trip was LHR-SIN-DPS-KUL-LGK-PEN-HKG-LHR (which was SQ for LHR-SIN//HKG-LHR with cheapos in the middle) and my two holidays were LHR-DPS-JOG-LHR (Malaysian), and LHR-BKK-USM (Etihad & Bangkok Airways). And SQ tends to be V class (non mileage) but they do a lot of routes I need (Lombok), so often convenience & price = lots of miles without mileage.

BA is hardly ever relevant for me. And SQ doesn't earn me miles!

Starrystarrynight

The main thing that spurred us to book our flights for this year was when we found them for only a tenner more than we paid last year. I had expected to pay a lot more, so booked on the spot. The same flights are now £180 more than we paid, so we're pleased.
We also look at only direct flights, and even though LHR is a good 4 hour drive, we think it's more convenient. We can usually get the Travelodge at Heathrow Central for £19 and get good price parking, and I think that's much less stressful than trying to fit in with a more limited choice of flights from Manchester, or having to change flights.

lynzpower

We naffed around a bit this year, flights to USA went up 100 quid while we were faffing around, so did some creative exploring to other airports. fortunate to be able to go from london ( where we live) or man ( parents, who look after the dog) or bournemouth southampton (in laws look after the dog

We are flying from london now as it was about 60 quid cheaper than Manchester, and into a different airport with better short transit times, using 4 different and 4 airlines, now changing in toronto.

Was gutted I naffed about we lost about 100 quid through trying to find a cheaper deal

jackieblack

Matt2389 wrote: »

Where are you going? Just out of curiosity lol..

This year? Still finalising the itinerary, but we're flying into Seattle, driving south into Oregon for a few days, back up the coast to the Olympic Peninsula (Twilight territory - teenage daughter) then over to Vancouver Island (the main focus of our trip - hoping to encounter Orca in their natural habitat) then to Vancouver, Whistler and back to Seattle for return flights.
Flying in/out of Seattle rather than Vancouver has saved us nearly £1000, but going end of July for 3 weeks so costing a small fortune as peak prices.

I dread to think how much flights in/out of London will cost next summer, with the Olympics taking place July/August!:eek:

Hastobe_Katt

moneylover wrote: »

This alll sounds amazing you must live somewhere very nice yourself to be able to do these swops.
We live in Essex in a large modern house, near Chelmsford which is 30 mins from London by train and, whilst it is very nice, I cannot think that anyone would house swop with us.
You will have a lovely time in Bath its a beautiful city and very easy to get to Bristol too and also some amazing countryside. Enjoy it!

We live in quite an ordinary house in Staffordshire. If you live 30mins from London, you'd be inundated with offers!