Summer travel to/from the UK

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tamada
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Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 25, 2022, 8:39 am

I was checking on some flight options for a UK (MAN) trip in August. My preference has been to get a o/w ticket so I can tweak my return without penalty or even chose another airline. However, I see there's a trend towards making a r/t ticket only about 20% more than than the o/w fare. The last time I recall that being the case was maybe about eight years ago. I also noted that o/w fares this summer are about 30% higher than they were pre-Covid so airlines are clawing back money lost due to the pandemic and trying to get customers to fly with them on both legs like in the olden days.

Even the regular mid-east carriers who traditionally had the edge on fares and multiple flights options seem to have upped the ante.

All except Saudia who started serving Bangkok three months ago with two transit destinations, either Riyadh or Jeddah. At the moment their o/w fare is only ฿14,400 and the r/t exactly double. Both options are about half the price of my usual carriers such as Finnair, KLM and BA. BA is operated by QR at the moment and about ฿6k more than QR...go figure. TG are surprisingly offering a more competitive r/t airfare than usual of ฿43,430 albeit with a stopover in MUC or FRA and using Luftwaffe for the European hop.

So flying SV via Jeddah means dry flights for about 20 hours each way but saves almost 600 quid on an r/t ticket for beer and skittles AFTER one deplanes.


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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by 747man » May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm

But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by stattointhailand » May 26, 2022, 3:50 pm

I doubt the shuttle fare will be over 600 quid.

The money will be going to a good cause (our new striker :-" )

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 26, 2022, 4:09 pm

747man wrote:
May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm
But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??
No problem.
SVrt.jpg
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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by 747man » May 26, 2022, 5:18 pm

tamada wrote:
May 26, 2022, 4:09 pm
747man wrote:
May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm
But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??
No problem.
SVrt.jpg
Hmmm !! Must JUST Be starting that Route, But Yer Welcome to it !! Have YOU Flown with Saudia ?? I Wouldn't even if it was " FREE "....

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by Udon Map » May 26, 2022, 11:16 pm

tamada wrote:
May 25, 2022, 8:39 am
I also noted that o/w fares this summer are about 30% higher than they were pre-Covid so airlines are clawing back money lost due to the pandemic . . . .
There is, of course, more to the story. In April, 2020, early in the pandemic, jet fuel was going for 27¢/gallon in New York. In the beginning of April, 2022, it was $7.61/gallon in NY, an increase of over 2,800%.

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by Barney » May 27, 2022, 12:03 am

747man wrote:
tamada wrote:
May 26, 2022, 4:09 pm
747man wrote:
May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm
But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??
No problem.
SVrt.jpg
Hmmm !! Must JUST Be starting that Route, But Yer Welcome to it !! Have YOU Flown with Saudia ?? I Wouldn't even if it was " FREE "....
747 it appears you haven’t flown Saudia for some time.
They are a good airline.
Brand new 787’s on the route.
Good legroom in economy.

If you can’t go without a drink then it’s not the airline for those punters.


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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 27, 2022, 9:09 am

Barney wrote:
May 27, 2022, 12:03 am
747man wrote:
tamada wrote:
May 26, 2022, 4:09 pm
747man wrote:
May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm
But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??
No problem.
SVrt.jpg
Hmmm !! Must JUST Be starting that Route, But Yer Welcome to it !! Have YOU Flown with Saudia ?? I Wouldn't even if it was " FREE "....
747 it appears you haven’t flown Saudia for some time.
They are a good airline.
Brand new 787’s on the route.
Good legroom in economy.

If you can’t go without a drink then it’s not the airline for those punters.


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Agreed. I am about thirty years past the time when I thought sucking down as much free booze as I could on a flight was fun. Nowadays, it's restricted to the wee bottle (or two) of wine with dinner.

I can get a lot of beer or wine or gin in The Vault in Oswaldtwistle with the 500 quid saved on airfares. Might even take a day trip to Blackpool.
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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by BillaRickaDickay » May 27, 2022, 1:37 pm

Recently returned to the UK, early May, Scoot were offering cheap
Non stop flights so I thought I would give it a go.
No Thrills, buy your food, buy your seat, buy your Wi-Fi etc added to the the basic fare, I paid less than £200 for the Non stop flight.
No Entertainment so you need to take your own PC/Tablet, The Plane looked new and plenty of on board provisions to keep you going.
Just bought my return ticket to Thailand, I wanted to take extra Baggage on this trip, Scoot again came up with a good deal, 40kg for 1800bht.
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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by stattointhailand » May 27, 2022, 2:00 pm

747man wrote:
May 26, 2022, 5:18 pm
tamada wrote:
May 26, 2022, 4:09 pm
747man wrote:
May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm
But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??
No problem.
SVrt.jpg
Hmmm !! Must JUST Be starting that Route, But Yer Welcome to it !! Have YOU Flown with Saudia ?? I Wouldn't even if it was " FREE "....
It will be free if there's any truth in the rumour that some red mapites have started a gofundme page to buy a one way ticket?

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by 747man » May 27, 2022, 4:01 pm

Barney wrote:
May 27, 2022, 12:03 am
747man wrote:
tamada wrote:
May 26, 2022, 4:09 pm
747man wrote:
May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm
But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??
No problem.
SVrt.jpg
Hmmm !! Must JUST Be starting that Route, But Yer Welcome to it !! Have YOU Flown with Saudia ?? I Wouldn't even if it was " FREE "....
747 it appears you haven’t flown Saudia for some time.
They are a good airline.
Brand new 787’s on the route.
Good legroom in economy.

If you can’t go without a drink then it’s not the airline for those punters.


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Barney, NO Mate I Haven't flown Saudia for a While....But A Good Airline You Say ?? Up2u M8 !! Good Legroom in economy ?? Is That AFTER They've CHOPPED Them OFF ??.....And it's NOT the Drink that worries me, I Don't Partake anyway as I am Diabetic...I Just Wouldn't Fund Terrorist Airline Companies, That's ALL !!

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 28, 2022, 7:38 am

BillaRickaDickay wrote:
May 27, 2022, 1:37 pm
Recently returned to the UK, early May, Scoot were offering cheap
Non stop flights so I thought I would give it a go.
No Thrills, buy your food, buy your seat, buy your Wi-Fi etc added to the the basic fare, I paid less than £200 for the Non stop flight.
No Entertainment so you need to take your own PC/Tablet, The Plane looked new and plenty of on board provisions to keep you going.
Just bought my return ticket to Thailand, I wanted to take extra Baggage on this trip, Scoot again came up with a good deal, 40kg for 1800bht.
That's a good option, especially as a non-stop, thanks. I recall years ago when Norwegian started and had dirt cheap, no frills travel on new Dreamliners. The only bear trap was working out your own transfer as Oslo was the hub and you couldn't book Bangkok to London via Oslo on a single ticket. Their flights to NYC were incredibly cheap too. Looks like they have shrunk to a pan-European carrier only.

I just did a quick check on Scoot and their cheapest bare-bones o/w to LGW mid-August is ฿11,150. A 20kg baggage add-on is ฿1956 and a more practical 30 kg (+10 kg) baggage is another ฿1910. So about 340 quid which is decent enough but a bit of a bugger getting into LGW around 8 p.m.

Plugged in a return flight on Scoot for September and with a 35 kg bag add-on, it's about £670.

Did a quick r/t fare check for Aug/Sep and with 30 kg add-on to Gatwick and 40 kg add-on to Bangkok and it came in at £1138. Not too bad at all.
Last edited by tamada on May 28, 2022, 8:21 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 28, 2022, 7:47 am

Udon Map wrote:
May 26, 2022, 11:16 pm
tamada wrote:
May 25, 2022, 8:39 am
I also noted that o/w fares this summer are about 30% higher than they were pre-Covid so airlines are clawing back money lost due to the pandemic . . . .
There is, of course, more to the story. In April, 2020, early in the pandemic, jet fuel was going for 27¢/gallon in New York. In the beginning of April, 2022, it was $7.61/gallon in NY, an increase of over 2,800%.
Ouch! Just did a flight search with KLM using my air miles. Three months ago, the cheapest BKK-MAN o/w was 36,000 miles +$97.50 which was on KL via AMS (preferred). Right now, the cheapest is 97,500 miles +$157.35 but on AF via CDG (horrible airline/airport). If I want to go "all Dutch", that's 216,000 miles +$156.80

Sky highwaymen!
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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by Barney » May 28, 2022, 10:09 am

747man wrote:
Barney wrote:
May 27, 2022, 12:03 am
747man wrote:
tamada wrote:
May 26, 2022, 4:09 pm
747man wrote:
May 25, 2022, 3:19 pm
But.....Saudia DON'T Serve MAN....Slight Problem there Ain't There ??
No problem.
SVrt.jpg
Hmmm !! Must JUST Be starting that Route, But Yer Welcome to it !! Have YOU Flown with Saudia ?? I Wouldn't even if it was " FREE "....
747 it appears you haven’t flown Saudia for some time.
They are a good airline.
Brand new 787’s on the route.
Good legroom in economy.

If you can’t go without a drink then it’s not the airline for those punters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Barney, NO Mate I Haven't flown Saudia for a While....But A Good Airline You Say ?? Up2u M8 !! Good Legroom in economy ?? Is That AFTER They've CHOPPED Them OFF ??.....And it's NOT the Drink that worries me, I Don't Partake anyway as I am Diabetic...I Just Wouldn't Fund Terrorist Airline Companies, That's ALL !!
No worries 747
But thanks for expanding on why you really won’t fly Saudia.


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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by Galee » May 28, 2022, 10:30 am

tamada wrote:
May 28, 2022, 7:38 am

Plugged in a return flight on Scoot for September and with a 35 kg bag add-on, it's about £670.
You can do return flight to Gatwick in Sept for 662 UK sterling with Qatar.

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 28, 2022, 11:05 am

Galee wrote:
May 28, 2022, 10:30 am
tamada wrote:
May 28, 2022, 7:38 am

Plugged in a return flight on Scoot for September and with a 35 kg bag add-on, it's about £670.
You can do return flight to Gatwick in Sept for 662 UK sterling with Qatar.
That's a good deal, thanks. I already saw that on some summertime searches their prices were consistently lowest of the mid-east carriers (apart from Saudia). I used Qatar to escape from KL to Manchester late last summer. Full flights and a very busy transit at Doha as they were just about the only carrier who flew throughout the pandemic lockdowns. The summer peak travel will have also have passed but I need to be in Australia for October so don't want a rushed UK trip but if that's what happens, so be it.
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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by Barney » May 28, 2022, 2:08 pm

I’ve been checking many international airlines and their routes that I could use in the near future.
Looking at EVA Air which doesn’t have what I want but I noticed they have Bkk to Heathrow direct starting 620 pound


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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 28, 2022, 4:27 pm

Barney wrote:
May 28, 2022, 2:08 pm
I’ve been checking many international airlines and their routes that I could use in the near future.
Looking at EVA Air which doesn’t have what I want but I noticed they have Bkk to Heathrow direct starting 620 pound


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EVA were a popular choice for UK bound travelers before C-Day. Some of my mates were also using them to come in from the US and spoke highly of the service. Great bang for the buck.

Just plugged in dates and got £695 r/t. Economy Basic and Standard have a generous 30 kg baggage allowance. The early evening arrival in LHR isn't too handy for someone headed north but it's defo an option.

Ta
tam
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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by arjay » May 29, 2022, 10:33 pm

I have mainly used EVA and found them very good. The disadvantage was the BKK - LHR leg arriving into LHR early evening, which made onward travel difficult and at a time when I wanted to sleep. Thai was OK too.

I prefer to avoid the Middle Eastern airlines, as whenever I looked they involved 4 hour stopovers in the middle of the night, and I didn't want to be stuck in the stopover country in the event of a medical problem, or if due to a late arrival of the first leg, I missed the onward flight.

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Re: Summer travel to/from the UK

Post by tamada » May 31, 2022, 11:28 am

If this keeps up, maybe LHR will be a quicker option.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... e-24096088
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