flights to spain-advie needed please

misswig

Hi

I'm looking for some advice. I have a fixed 2 week annual leave from work smack bang in the middle of the school summer holidays. I am wanting to go to spain to visit my parents but the price of flights for me and my nearly 3 year old son are ridiculous-around about £400!!! :eek: and thats without hiring a car etc (My parents dont have one and live in the sticks). Is there any milage in waiting for any last minute deals or are prices likely to increse from hear on in??

Vxx

carolt

Yes it is expensive, isn't it?

We regularly visit my parents-in-law in Spain and have to go in school holidays as kids at school! and as a rule, budget airlines, eg easyjet gets more expensive as time goes on. But charters and scheduled airlines don't and may reduce prices as time goes on to fill seats if spare capacity (though less likely in summer holidays)....

We get cheap tickets by booking literally within minutes when easyjet release a new season's seats (on their email list for offers etc - worth signing up to for the future) - that way save literally hundreds, as even within a few hours of release, prices have usually gone up by a couple of hundred pounds. At the moment, easyjet have just announced a sale though actually still pretty pricey.

Worth having a look at more obscure budget airlines eg flybe or airlines like monarch etc - depends where you want to fly to/from.

Tesco have a charter airline - excel - that you can use clubcard deals vouchers for that flies to Spain - useful if you have enough spare Tesco vouchers lying around. They also do ferries to Bilbao - depends where you're trying to get to.

Until we discovered easyjet's emailing service re release of seats, we often used to fly Iberia - efficient and huge range of flights.

Another option that can make it cheaper is flying eg via Madrid/Barcelona - as lees popular summer holiday destination, may get cheaper fares - but obviously more hassle.

Good luck! :cool:

pompeyrich

Where do you want to fly from and where to in Spain, some dates would be good too. As Carol mentioned excel, or XL.com, are usually pretty good. BA have London- Barcelona for £100 each 4-16th August and other dates around that. If you can avoid the weekends you should save money too.

LesD

...and, of course, you can use Skyscanner or Flightchecker to seek out the best prices.

bagand96

carolt wrote: »

Tesco have a charter airline - excel - that you can use clubcard deals vouchers for that flies to Spain - useful if you have enough spare Tesco vouchers lying around.

I'm sure its just the way it reads, but tesco DO NOT "have" (i.e. OWN) XL, or any other airlines!!! I couldn't imagine if they ever had to run anything as important as an airline, with peoples lives at risk! Believe me it doesn't bare thinking about. On a lighter note, yes you can use Clubcard vouchers towards flights with XL!

As carol rightly said the lo-cost airlines will just get more and more expensive towards the date. You may be able to bag a last minute bargain charter flight, but that is never guranteed.

Post your dates and airports, I'm sure people here wouldn't mind having a look for you.

alanrowell

Most people will be travelling weekend to weekend - out from the UK on a Friday or Saturday, returning on a Sunday or Monday. Try flying out of the UK between Sunday & Thursday, returning Tuesday to Saturday. It means losing a couple of days

misswig

pompeyrich wrote: »

Where do you want to fly from and where to in Spain, some dates would be good too. As Carol mentioned excel, or XL.com, are usually pretty good. BA have London- Barcelona for £100 each 4-16th August and other dates around that. If you can avoid the weekends you should save money too.

I would prefer to fly to Alicante, however i could always go to Valencia or Murcia at a push. Dates are fixed from 27th July to 12th August. I will certainly try looking at alternative airport. Many thanks

misswig

LesD wrote: »

...and, of course, you can use Skyscanner or Flightchecker to seek out the best prices.

Bizarrely. For the dtaes and airport required, neither of these have come up with the best prices quoted so far . I will again search for different airports though

pompeyrich

misswig wrote: »

I would prefer to fly to Alicante, however i could always go to Valencia or Murcia at a push. Dates are fixed from 27th July to 12th August. I will certainly try looking at alternative airport. Many thanks

Where from misswig? Try Lastminute.com, on their search page there is a box, "my dates are flexible" tick this and it will show prices on a grid of 5 or 6 days around your dates, so if you put in 30/7-10/8 it should cover your dates. Then check with the Airline direct to see if thats cheaper. Read the results carefully, just tried Lon- Alicante, best fare £94 but out of Stansted back to Gatwick, good luck.

LesD

misswig wrote: »

Bizarrely. For the dtaes and airport required, neither of these have come up with the best prices quoted so far . I will again search for different airports though

If you've found better prices than S/S or F/C, can you post 'how' here. It may help others with a similar problem to you.