Price Of Flights

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

Have you ever driven it? Google maps says about 2,000 miles (32hrs) so at 50mpg that would be about 40 gallons each way. Say £500 fuel plus whatever stops, tolls etc. I know people who do, but obviously trickier if time constrained.

My guess is that realistically you'd be looking at 4-5 days in each direction, complete with the hotel bills that implies. Once you've factored in navigation, adapting to the different road traffic laws of the countries you're driving in, road signs in multiple languages, etc. etc., then unless you're a seasoned and practised driver in mainland Europe, my gut feeling is that you'd be doing well to average more than 500 miles a day.

Here in the US there is increasing evidence that for medium distance trips (i.e. 300-500 miles), for which it's a toss-up as to whether to drive or fly, an increasing proportion of travellers are opting to drive, thanks to increasing airport parking charges, lengthy queues for TSA checks, taxes and fees starting to creep up, etc. etc. I'm planning a trip from Redlands to Phoenix (352 miles door to door by car) for the week after next, and have established likely door-to-door times of 5 hours by road or 3.5 by air, assuming no delays or other problems with the flights, and $100 or so in petrol, or $250 by air once all the incidentals are paid for. Mainly for the flexibility of when to leave (it's a two day meeting, and day two could finish at any time between midday and 5pm), I've decided to drive. My wife pointed out that only half a decade ago, short-haul internal flying was so cheap that no-one in their right mind would even contemplate driving a trip like that. And of course if there are two or more people making a trip like that together, then from a cost perspective it's a no-brainer.

[interestrateripoff]

My wife pointed out that only half a decade ago, short-haul internal flying was so cheap that no-one in their right mind would even contemplate driving a trip like that. And of course if there are two or more people making a trip like that together, then from a cost perspective it's a no-brainer.

Incredible that the airlines could make money flying such short distances in the US.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

I did mean to bump this anyway but the ons bastards got there first.

I'm seeing serious price inflation for my summer flight basket and substitution won't wash. Neither will late Easter. Technically, for me, it was earlier this year.

[Dorkins]

I did mean to bump this anyway but the ons bastards got there first.

I'm seeing serious price inflation for my summer flight basket and substitution won't wash. Neither will late Easter. Technically, for me, it was earlier this year.

Flights to Lisbon in August are much higher than I have ever seen them for anything that doesn't involve seriously antisocial travel times. Still worth it though, best 2 weeks of the year.

[Austin Allegro]

I fly about four times a year between London and Budapest, using either SleazyJet or Swizzair. (Easyjet/Wizzair).

Prices for a return flight with luggage range roughly from between £70 absolute rock bottom, and £170 high season top whack. I usually seem to pay about £120.

When I first started flying there five years ago, I nearly always got change out of £100.

Mind you, it's still a good deal compared to the alternatives. The train takes about 24 hours and costs at least £200, more if you want a sleeping compartment; the coach takes 27 hours and costs at least £60.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Bumpage for deflation and low demand/over capacity.

Easyjet was lower than I expected but Thomas Cook was a rock bottom price and the plane was still 2 thirds empty...

So I'm calling transport deflation due to flight prices and short Thomas Cook, they've really ******ed up somewhere.

[frozen_out]

I think we've got serious overcapacity everywhere at the minute. I do Leeds to Düsseldorf regularly on Jet2 and that's just been cut from daily to 4 days a week, and that's never full.