What's your best 'ridiculously cheap travel' story?

Ath_Wat

JGB1955 said:

Got a first class train from Glasgow to Aberdeen for less than a coffee and cake....

Me too.

Ticket was £350; coffee and cake were £475.

williewonder

I got a return from Heathrow to Mumbai with Virgin for £350. This was 2006 and went backpacking around India for 18 weeks.

jackieblack

Back in the days of Airmiles, when the taxes on flights were included 

greenface2

Me & Mrs Greenface  5 days in Budapest , 5star hotel (corinthia) £119 each inc flights . Breakfast was Approx £25 each which we declined and ate out . 5 days in Brataslava 3 star inc flights and breakky £99 each .2016 and 2017

MalMonroe

I'm a single parent and some years ago when my daughter was a teenager I collected tokens from Andrex toilet roll (of all things!) We had cheap flight to Nice and half price hotel. Had a lovely 7 day holiday. We often laugh about our toilet paper hol. When I've told other people they say they can't remember Andrex offering such a thing. They never did again, so I don't think it was very profitable for them. We went to Monaco and Cannes and had a whale of a time. 

CKhalvashi

eDicky said:

In the early 90s rail travel in Russia was extremely cheap for Russians and ex-Soviet country citizens including Lithuanians, but with a foreign passport I would have to pay normal fare, considerably more.

I was going from Moscow to Ulan Ude, Buryatia, a six-day ride on the Trans-Siberian. Luckily for me, a party of four Lithuanians on their way to the same seminar had one of them drop out, so they offered me his ticket at their cost price. I readily accepted, in the knowledge that we would have to take care to conceal my Britishness, but at the time I had a huge moustache and many Russians mistook me for a Georgian.

So we set off the next day from the main station, in the front compartment of the first coach, the best available but fairly basic, the usual stern Babushka in charge and no amenities apart from a hot water urn.The days passed and we became good friends, sharing simple food we had brought and watching the scenery pass etc. Brief stops were made in the stations of various cities, one highlight being the luxury of freshly boiled potatoes sold by vendors on the platform sometimes at night. Occasionally I needed to be hidden under a blanket in the top bunk during inspections by officials and FSB/KGB officers. One of the girls made a mistake one morning when I was standing in the corridor watching the scenery, popped her head out of the compartment and asked me loudly in English, "Dicky, do you want a cup of coffee with milk..?" Oops...

Then, arriving one morning at our destination after six days, it was like leaving our home. We bid farewell to the Babushka, and the last thing she said to my friends was, "Well done, you took very good care of the Englishman"..!

Nothing wrong with the highlighted part, you should be very proud

The babushkas still exist, at least on trains within Belarus and Ukraine (I haven't been to Russia for a very long time, or to Belarus for almost 2 years, but was in Ukraine very late last year and she was present on Lviv-Mukachevo and back train).

It always seems to me that the price of trains in the region has come down every year, with the notable exception of the Yerevan-Tbilisi line. I can't remember how much we paid, but it was really expensive, much more so than the £12pp minivan (which apparently has gone from 40 to 50 lari now, but still about £12pp) we'd used to get to Armenia in the first place.

martindow

MalMonroe said:

I'm a single parent and some years ago when my daughter was a teenager I collected tokens from Andrex toilet roll (of all things!) We had cheap flight to Nice and half price hotel. Had a lovely 7 day holiday. We often laugh about our toilet paper hol. When I've told other people they say they can't remember Andrex offering such a thing. They never did again, so I don't think it was very profitable for them. We went to Monaco and Cannes and had a whale of a time. 

This reminds me of the distastrously conceived 1990s Hoover offer where they offered a pair free BA return tickets to the USA to anyone spending over £100 on a vacuum.  Lots of people bought a vacuum as a way of getting incredible bargain tickets and sent off forms to redeem the offer.

Hoover tried to backtrack when they realised the costs they were on the hook for.  Eventually after the threat of legal action they were obliged to honour the original deal. 

This brought the UK division of the company to its knees and eventually, its reputation in ruins, it was sold off to become Candy.

Read all about it here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_free_flights_promotion

exotic_elaine

Back in December 1999, just before the Millenium, there were lots of media reports about strange things that will happen when we reach the year 2000 such as planes falling out of the sky....etcetera. I just so happened to ignore that scaremongering thought that i may be the perfect time to go abroad I managed to bag a holiday to Jamaica with flights and room only accommodation for £120 - just two weeks before Xmas! Absolute bargain. My friend and I still recall that was one of our best holidays.
 

aquiline

In 2008 the girls and I were looking at going abroad. Out of the ten of us, five decided to go because the others thought the £320ish was a bit much for a week in Ibiza. So we booked the holiday - flights, transfers and self catering hotel.

The girl who booked the holiday checked her bank and saw they had pre-authorised the card for £1, but not the balance. She waited, checked again, nothing else. Called the travel company who said there was nothing else to pay but to call the bank, just in case. Called the bank, had no idea what they were on about. 

We got the Megabus (£1.50 each) to the airport, expecting our flights to be cancelled. Boarded the plane, got the transfer, got to the hotel, all hunky dory. Had a week in Ibiza, best holiday ever, flew back, all fine and it cost us 20p each because they never did charge us anything other than that £1. Travel company has since gone out of business 😬

Daisita

In 2008 I flew from Granada to Barcelona with Ryanair for €0.02! Card fee was an extra €10.70  I was a student studying abroad at the time.