London-Glasgow flights

jjac_2

Hi MSE,

I've recently accepted a job in London and I'm moving down from Glasgow early 2014. However, my fianc!e is remaining home and my plan is to go to and from the two cities as much as possible.

I'm basically asking for advice on booking regular flights from London airports to Glasgow Int'l and if there's any deals or promotions I could benefit from.

I'm looking to fly at a frequency no greater than every second Friday evening from London to return Sunday afternoon. So that's at the most twice a month, not including holidays or special occasions. Looking at advance bookings, there are flights from London City to Glasgow Int'l with BA for ~£150 return, or Gatwick-Glasgow with EasyJet for around £100 return. There's a little volatility as these obviously depend on the time of year and events also.

Are there any deals or promotions I should be aware of that would further reduce these prices? I had in mind there might be a frequent flyer programme, but I'm not sure I'd be flying enough or far enough to qualify.

All advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Jason

Caz3121

As a weekly London commuter (live Edinburgh, work London) I find that deals for those sort of times do not exist. I travel down on a Monday or Tuesday morning and back on either a Thursday or Friday night and recently (dud to not being able to book too far in advance) have been paying £500+ for flights! (fortunately expensed) Monday morning flights are often sold out so Sun night flights start to rise.

My advice - book early and when comparing prices eg BA v's Easyjet consider the differences of what is included. Look at the cost of getting to/from airport in London
eg the BA flight will include elements that Easyjet will charge extra for - so if comparing 2 x LGW-GLA flights one on BA and one on Easyjet, the cheaper flight may end up being more expensive.

Sign up for a BA Executive Club card - with that amount of flying you are unlikely to get much in the way of status but you will earn 1,000 Avios each return and 9,000 + £35 could get you a return ticket (subject to availability) - you can convert your Tesco points in too

Remember Glasgow 2014 too

opinions4u

I'd throw the following airports into the mix.

Edinburgh
Southend
Luton

You might find, if the cost / time of the journey at each end is tolerable, some worthwhile savings.

The Sunday leg may make the train preferable with £29.50 afternoon single fares.

Alan_Bowen

I commute on BA, if all you do is domestic you will get 10 tier points for every flight, 60 flights (30 round trips) will get you silver status, you can use the executive lounges(none at London City but much shorter check in times and great planes with less likelihood of delays), choose your seats at the time of booking and technically board in advance of other passengers.

Flights to City Airport tend to be more expensive than from Heathrow but Friday nights will never have the cheapest fares. The one thing I do advise is to book as far ahead as possible, fares rise the longer you leave it. I generally book 6 months at a time but occasionally need a last minute booking when you get burned alive with the fares

mad_rich

As has been said before, Friday night and, to a lesser extent, Sunday night, are popular flight times. You will be competing with a lot of fellow commuters, so don't expect dirt cheap fares.

If you're considering Edinburgh, have a look at Little Red (Virgin's Domestic flights) too. Also consider the Caledonian Sleeper. Also consider getting your fianc! to meet you in some European capital for the weekend!

Definitely worth signing up to the Executive Club. The rewards for flying domestic aren't huge, and you could probably earn many more via Tesco or a credit card, but they do add up. BA does have the occasional fare sale, so it's worth signing up to their newsletters.

Back when bmi existed, they had something called Routepass, which gave a discount on a book of tickets valid for one route. It also had the benefit that you earned frequent flyer status on the whole booklet upon purchase, so you could effectively be a Silver card holder from day one. This is long gone, and I'm not sure BA do anything similar, but it might be worth asking a travel agent?

jpsartre

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

60 flights (30 round trips) will get you silver status

I can't find it on BA's website but I'm pretty sure 50 flights (25 round-trips) will get you to silver.

budgetflyer

Silver is 600 TPs. Each flight is 10TPs

jpsartre

I know but you can attain status just by the number of flights though. For instance, Blue to Bronze is 300 TP or 25 flights. I'm pretty sure Bornze to Silver is another 25 flights.

Obviously_the_best

By the time you've done check-in, collected bags etc, it most likely won't be much slower getting the train, which booked in advance from https://www.nationalrail.co.uk could work out a lot cheaper.

The megabus sleeper bus is also an option.

paulineb_2

12 weeks ahead you can get to Scotland from London for as little as 12 quid each way on the train. Theres also the megabus which starts from £5 if you can suffer it.

Im going to London from Glasgow with BA next week and I paid less than £100 return, if you book up in advance its cheaper.

Theres also the caledonian sleeper, again if you book in advance you can get a bargain berth from 19 quid each way. National express also run buses and the greyhound service runs a night bus as does megabus.

Doshwaster

jpsartre wrote: »

I know but you can attain status just by the number of flights though. For instance, Blue to Bronze is 300 TP or 25 flights. I'm pretty sure Bornze to Silver is another 25 flights.

That's right. BAEC Silver is 600 Tier Points or 50 eligible flights and 4 of the flights must be on BA metal (so you can't get BA Silver by just flying Iberia or American)

Making Silver on just domestic flights is tough going but it is well worth it for the business class check in, fast track security, priority seating and lounge access.