Archive for the ‘Deals’ Category

How Far Can You Fly From London For Under £400

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

January is usually a good month for special offers when it comes to airfares. Prices in 2011 are a little higher than over the last few years. However, let’s take a fun look at how far from London (UK) you can fly return for £400 or less.  The fares are valid at time of writing for various travel dates in 2011.

Amman, Jordan
Easyjet will fly from London Gatwick to Amman from 27th March 2011. Return prices can be as low as £120, with another £18 for a checked bag. This is an excellent deal.

Tel Aviv, Israel
British Airways has a sale fare from London Heathrow for £282 return, book by Jan 25th. Easyjet flies to TLV from London Luton and its cheapest return fare is around £220 including luggage.

New York, USA
Kuwait Airways can fly you non-stop from London Heathrow to New York JFK using a Boeing 777. The cheapest return economy fare comes in at £269 all in. KLM (via Opodo) offers a price of £279 return via Amsterdam. BA and Virgin Atlantic sale fares are at £315.

Toronto, Canada
Thomas Cook Airlines flies with an Airbus A330 and has fares from £278 return all in. In comparison, Air Canada comes in at £384 and BA at £379.

Cairo, Egypt
bmi has a current sale fare of £298 return for this route. Codeshare partner Egyptair has similar prices.

Abu Dhabi, UAE
Turkish Airlines has a promo fare available to the Emirate for £314 return – with a connection in Istanbul.

Los Angeles, USA
US Airways has a competitive £342 fare to LA – however you need to make a connection in Charlotte, North Carolina. Or take a non-stop flight: Air New Zealand (£389), BA and Virgin (both £394).

Lagos, Nigeria
Opodo has a special KLM return fare to Lagos for £381.

Mumbai, India
Swiss has a reasonable return airfare of £390 from London Heathrow with a stop in Zurich.

swiss air

Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya Airways has a fare of £391 return for its B777 flight. Netflights has limited availability of the same flights at £371.

San Diego, USA
American Airlines has fares to San Diego for £396 which can include London to Los Angeles with BA plus a hop with American Eagle to SAN. Other connections are also possible.

No current flights to south-east Asia or south America are available for under £400. Air Asia X flights from Stansted to Kuala Lumpur (and beyond) can sometimes creep under the mark during promo sales, but not at the moment.

Please note that the new 2011 updated version of the Ultimate Airfares & Upgrades Guide has just been released – 80 pages of info on airfare strategies, how to find low business class tickets, mileage anomalies, upgrade tips etc.

Tags: london
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Business Class Airfare Offers from London

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

British Airways have today started their ex-UK Club and First Class sale for destinations worldwide along with their extended economy sale which has been running for some time. Bookings must be made by Feb 9th 2010.

Fare levels are not as low as some previous sale offers, but here’s a look at some standout fares. You might also check with Virgin Atlantic who normally match BA sale fares on overlapping routes.

BA Club World Offers – note, various travel dates apply.

Montego Bay £1,099
Doha £1,199
Muscat £1,199
Male £1,299
Bangalore £1,299
Delhi £1,299
Mumbai £1,399
Tampa £1,349
Orlando £1,349
Antigua £1,399
Barbados £1,399
Tobago £1,399
St Lucia £1,399
Montreal £1,549
Sydney £2,799

For completeness let’s take a quick look at current business class offers from various airlines for ex-London long-haul flights.

Lufthansa offers a business class trip deal to Johannesburg (via Frankfurt) for £1,419 for early April. If you are up for a trip to Cairo then fellow Star Alliance member EgyptAir will get you to Jo’burg for £1,215 in business  – fare bookable on Netflights.

Oneworld’s Finnair can get you to Beijing and Shanghai in business class from London via Helsinki for £1,685. Hong Kong is also available, at £1,689.

Etihad has a few decent Pearl Business Class offers from London Heathrow via Abu Dhabi – bookable by Feb 1st:

Delhi £1,199
Bangkok £1,329 (£1,281 on Netflights)
Jakarta £1,679
Sydney £2,899

Emirates has the following companion fare business class deals available (2 people must book together) via Dubai – available until Feb 1st:

Johannesburg  £1,648
Mauritius £1,649
Seychelles £1,653
Christchurch £2,739

You can fly with China Airlines business class via Taipei to Sydney from London from £1,713 via Netflights. China Airlines use Airbus A340 and A330s for this route.

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Economy Airfare Deals from London for 2010

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

As we have just entered 2010 (and happy new year to readers) lets take a look at the airfare market from London to see if there are any decent economy class offers available. Looking back 2009 had some spectacular deals – however, as airlines have cut schedules this winter and with business class revenue remaining under pressure, it is likely that economy prices will be firmer during 2010.

So what’s on offer currently? Unfortunately nothing really outstanding – but lets summarise the market…

As always British Airways is holding its January sale to destinations worldwide – this runs until 26 January. Standout fares are:

Rome £49 one-way
Moscow £109 one-way
Cairo £269
Hyderabad £346
Mumbai £349
Nairobi £399
Montego Bay £399

Travel dates vary, check on BA’s site. Note, bmi currently has a “sale” fare to Moscow for £214 return.

Predictably Virgin Atlantic is also holding a sale with similar fares on routes that overlap. They also have a reasonable £669 economy fare to Sydney for travel between 16 April and 20 June. Premium economy is available at £1,148 for the same dates.

Emirates has a £592 fare to Perth, Australia from London Heathrow for travel between 20 April and 30 June. Book by 1 February. You can also fly to Sydney for £678 or Melbourne for £667.

Malaysian Airlines has sale fares to Sydney, Perth and Auckland for £639 – book until 18 January for travel between 15 April and 31 May.

The cheapest fare Down Under: Netflights has a £563 fare from London to Perth with Royal Brunei and £577 to Brisbane during April. An acquaintance recently flew with them to Oz and reported service was pretty good – just watch the layover connection time in Brunei as some of the cheaper fares can leave you waiting overnight at the airport. (There is also a refuelling stop in Dubai).

royal-brunei

Air New Zealand has flights to Hong Kong for £417, book by 27 January and travel between 21 January and 31 March. Qantas can get you to HKG for £422 on similar dates. They also have a £613 fare to Perth, £659 to Melbourne and £668 to Sydney between 16 April and 20 June.

Swiss has some very limited availability fares from London: Mumbai £337, Hong Kong £396 and Shanghai £410.

KLM can get you to Kuala Lumpur for £465 and Singapore for £479, book by 1 February. Check dates on klm.com.

Air Transat-Thomas Cook have one-way flights from London Gatwick to Toronto (£129) and Vancouver (£149) – limited dates available. Note Air Transat uses an Airbus A310 whereas Thomas Cook operates A330 equipment.

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How Far Can You Fly from London for Under £400?

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Let’s take another look at the airfare market ex-London to see where we can fly for £400 or less. The last time we did this in April ‘09 we could get pretty much anywhere except South America and Australaia. This year has seen some incredibly low fares – in early summer Singapore Airlines had sub-£400 fares to Australia and New Zealand.

Qantas and British Airways held a very limited “Ashes Cricket” sale in July with return flights from London to Sydney priced at an amazing £215 – flights sold out within minutes. The Middle East carriers have also had some consistently aggressive prices to Asia and Africa.

As of today what can we book for our £400??

North America

US Airways has some reasonable deals to New York (£283), Las Vegas (£327), Los Angeles (£349) and San Francisco (£354) bookable at Netflights.

Air Transat (operated by a Thomas Cook Airbus A330) can fly you from London Gatwick to Vancouver for just £298 return – out Sep 24th and back Oct 2nd. Air Transat flies to Toronto using an Airbus A310 from £258 around the same dates.

air-transat

Middle East

Qatar Airways has offers to Dubai (£229), Abu Dhabi (£239) and Bahrain (£251). Book by August 15th for travel Aug 15th to Mar 25th 2010 with some blackout dates applying over Xmas / New Year.

Netflights has even cheaper Qatar flights available to Bahrain (£233) and Dubai (£210).

Africa

Swiss and Egyptair have flights to Cairo for £250 return. Qatar has sale offers to Johannesburg (£352) and Cape Town (£382) – whilst the Joburg flight can be purchased on netflights for £327.

Egyptair can get you to Khartoum for £328 whilst Iberia has a deal to Lagos for £394.

India

Some good return deals are available to Mumbai with Qatar (£264), Etihad (£269) and KLM (£272). Qatar also flies to Delhi for £273.

Asia

Etihad will fly you to Kuala Lumpur KUL for £369 via Abu Dhabi. Travelocity UK has Etihad fares to KUL for £364 and Bangkok for £354.

Air Asia X can get you from Stansted to Kuala Lumpur for a base fare as low as £248 for some dates in November. Don’t forget to add on £5 each way for 15kg checked luggage and £12.60 for all meals.

Qatar will take you to Hong Kong for £297 (£280 on netflights, who also have Qatar fares to Singapore for £390). From Hong Kong you could also get on a cheap Air Asia flight to KUL or Bangkok.

Air France can fly you to Shanghai for £384 and KLM to Beijing for £389.

Central/ South America

More difficult to find deals under £400 – however Lufthansa has a special offer from London to Mexico City (£339) and Caracas (£379) – these are £10 cheaper if departing Birmingham. Their London – Sao Paolo fare of £419 is just over budget! Depart Sep 1st to Oct 16th, return between Sep 8th and Jan 16th.

Australaisa

No sub-£400 schedule deals on the market at the moment. The cheapest fare is Royal Brunei’s £469 to Perth and £489 to Auckland. Note, these flights stop in Dubai for re-fuelling and then transit in Brunei.

However it is “theoretically” possible to use Air Asia X to get to Oz for under £400. The cheapest Kuala Lumpur – Perth flights is currently £109 return, added on to the £248 cheapest base London – KUL fare does come to £357. Because separate bookings are needed it is more difficult to co-ordinate the dates to find sale fares that match up. That said, KUL is a good stopover location with great value hotels.

Final tip, if booking with online agents do check the fare restrictions and compare them to buying direct with the airline.

Tags: air asia x, etihad, london
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