I loathe airline websites. They rarely, if ever, allow us to go through the first stage of our decision process.
OH has to be in the London area for a meeting on 12th November. We’re fortunate, we have three airports within reach this side: Bergerac / Bordeaux / Toulouse
And three (if not four) airports the other side: Gatwick / Heathrow / Stanstead (reluctantly) and (who knows) London City.
So the first stage of the process for us is not price and certainly not to book a ticket but just to find out the timetables for all the airlines flying to/from these airports so that he can choose the most convenient. Not much to ask, surely? But seemingly it is.
Has anyone found a secret route to getting sensible timetable information out of airlines as opposed to being forced to buy a ticket? Thanks for any help.
Same problem as we want to fly to Bournemouth or Southampton in June. I’ve tried all the suggestions and found Skyscanner works best for us as you don’t have to specify exact dates so it gave us all the available flights in June. So thanks for that, very useful
Another vote for SkyScanner - not that I’ve used it in years. But none of those airports fly to London City outside “the season” . Which is a shame as London City so much nicer as an airport,
I’m going over on Guy Fawkes night (hopefully blowing Trump out of the water this time) by train. My eurostar tickets were €34 each way as chose cheap times.
Wow, I’m impressed! What site did you use? I need to get our son back to work after xmas as we are staying until the new year and thinking if I can get those sort of prices the train may he an option!
Yes, do it all the time with airlines and 'Pound of Flesh / Short ‘n Curlies’ BrittanyFerries. [€80 one way as a foot pax, anyone?]
I simply input a favourable date. On RyanAir you can advance/retreat from that date and see the alternatives.
On EZJ they give the option of seeing a three week view bar chart, with the cheapest highlighted in … Orange! No need to get to the ticket buying stage. Even if you do, to see the charges for luggage/seats etc, until you give them your card details you haven’t bought a tik.
Beware of buying a RyanAir tik from other than R/Air. [Opodo eg] You will have to complete an identification rigmarole that includes doing a selfie which, in my experience, takes MILLIONS of goes to get R/Air to accept. And avoid Paris/Beauvais. Scruffy. Too small for the hordes of yoof sprawling all over the inadequate dept hall …
Jet2 ex EGC would be best quality but they go further North in UK.
Depending where in London there’s a generally large train cost to and from STN. Buses for STN can be cheaper but still cost more than you might expect. If you don’t mind STN for that and STN horridness then if not much luggage Ryanair should be cheap.
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I’d aim for BA (to LHR) unless TLS is a pain fot you. Then 2nd choice Easyjet (to LGW). I usually find AF prices ridiculous. Both BA and Easyjet have a better choice of other flights at both ends if something goes wrong with the flight booked on the day.
Rome2rio can be good for a first glance at travel options between places as they don’t just cover flights.
You could take a look at Eurostar from Bordeaux as train is now only 2 hrs between Bordeaux and Paris snd it’s city centre to city centre. Buy from SNCF not Trainline to get a protected throigh ticket ie if one train is late you are still ok to do the rest of your journey on another train than booked. If timing and price work then Bordeaux to Paris on same ticket with Eurostar should feel more relaxed. If he has SNCF Senior Card a decent chunk of price will come off it as it works on the Bordeaux to Paris bit.
The whole point is to have a sensible timetable all in one place - not to have to go hunting here, there and everywhere. The reason he has to go back is stressful enough without then having to spend hours working out how on earth he’s going to get there. Nothing fun/exciting or interesting about this trip and I think the wretched airlines have no idea. And no, he’s not going to take a train. This is about getting there as easily and quickly as possible. And then coming home to recover.
Haven’t looked at any others, but they all have route maps. The Easyjet one works best on a PC and not at all well on a phone or tablet.
Once you know the routes, just put them into the booking bit and you will get times and prices for when you want to go.
You won’t find a printed style timetable like for buses on any airlines website.
Not what we need. The whole point is NOT to have to look up individual airlines. He knows where he’s going to, so what he needs is a Trainline equivalent for flights. I think Skyscanner will work best for him - thanks @ChrisMann and @geoffrey_Croshaw - here’s hoping.
Just take some of the routes and prices they suggest with a pinch of salt. I once looked up a route I used to take take regularly which has direct flights all year round and it suggested routes with 2 stops in very far apart places at a price 4 to 5 times what I pay. Just looked again now and it hadn’t changed.
Picking a few airlines and looking online takes five minutes per airline not hours and will get you reliable information.
I’ve had to do here to London outside of summer season before and the best I found was BA Toulouse to London Heathrow.
Can understand that as when stressed don’t want to do anything new.
However for other/future reference for years I used to fly from Geneva every couple of weeks to look after my mother. With Easy Jet it was cheap, but I hated it. And it saved very little time once one factored in check-in time, delays, getting through customs and then travel into London, etc. I now do a more expensive (!) but much calmer trip by train.
He has done it in the past - Bordeaux to London - but the killers for him are the metro in Paris, the appallingness (sic) of Gard du Nord and then the sheer awfulness of the Eurostar side compared with the TGV in France. So not really much calmer. He’ll do it again when there’s a line going straight through.
If connections work out then Bordeaux - Lille (Europe not Flandres) London is an option for the future also. I’ve done several changes at Lille that have been smooth.
Thanks Larkswood. This is not about price, but sanity! So a departure time of 6:50 from Bordeaux is a no go, especially from Billi! He’s booked and is going BA and coming back Easyjet at reasonable times, staying in the Premier Inn at Gatwick. We’ve agreed I’ll book for him in future as he finds the technology these days very stressful.
Surprised to find that he was directed to Lastminute via Skyscanner and that going direct to BA once he’d decided on his flight was more expensive. Another reason for me to do it for him. He just doesn’t see stuff properly on the travel websites.
