AirAsia’s Stansted–KL flights make cheap long-haul travel easier
March 12th, 2009 by Tim Uden
Today AirAsia has started its London Stansted–Kuala Lumpur flights. This means that you can now fly from the UK to Australia on low cost airlines with only one stop en route.
In a previous post I mentioned how you can piece together relatively short hops on low cost carriers to make your own round-the-world trip. Before AirAsia started their Stansted-Kuala Lumpur flights, you would have had to make five separate flights on Tiger Airways, Air Arabia and easyJet to fly between Australia and the UK on budget airlines. Now it’s a straightforward journey on a single airline with one stop in Malaysia.
AirAsia’s regular one-way fares are around £179 between London Stansted and Kuala Lumpur but specials (like their promotional launch fares on sale last November) on this route go as low as £99 one way.
From Kuala Lumpur AirAsia has cheap onward flights to Australia and throughout South East Asia. Prices advertised on their website today include bargains such as Kuala Lumpur–Perth for £18 and Kuala Lumpur–Melbourne for £39; and those fares include taxes and fees.
Ryanair vs easyJet
February 4th, 2009 by Tim Uden
I was recently asked to book a return flight for someone flying from London to Barcelona, which highlighted the disparity between airlines that advertise prices inclusive of taxes, fees and charges and those that don’t.
I needed to book a flight departing in the last week of February and returning a month later with one checked bag, one cabin bag and no insurance or in-flight meals.
Ryanair’s advertised price for the return flight was just £3.79 and easyJet was £36.92, but after adding taxes, fees and other charges easyJet emerged the winner with a total cost of £52.42 compared with Ryanair’s £77.46.
Here’s how it all breaks down:
With easyJet the advertised fare in inclusive of taxes and airport charges, but not checked luggage charges or credit card processing fees. The cost of flights was £22.99 for the London Luton to Barcelona outbound flight on 25 February and £13.93 for the Barcelona to London Stansted return flight. After adding a £6 checked luggage fee for each flight and a £3.50 credit card processing charge we get a total price of £52.42.
Ryanair is one of the few remaining airlines to retain the deceptive practice of advertising fares exclusive of taxes and airport fees. The outbound London Stansted to Barcelona Reus flight on 27 February was free (plus £28.17 in taxes, fees and charges) and the return flight from Barcelona Reus to London Stansted on 27 March was £3.79 (plus £17 in taxes, fees and other charges). Then there is a £4.75 credit card handling fee (for each flight) plus a £9.50 checked luggage fee for each flight, which brings the total to £77.46.
Both easyJet and Ryanair use Luton and Stansted airports about half an hour by train north of London. You can pay £19 each way to take the Stansted Express and £11.50 each way for the First Capital Connect train to Luton Airport; but if you book in advance you can get to Luton or Stansted for just £2 with easyBus. That means that both airlines tie for the cost of the return trip to their London airport (£4 return for either airline).
However there is a huge variation in the cost of getting to the airport at Barcelona.
With easyJet you fly into Barcelona’s main airport and it costs €2.80 (£2.50) to take the train from the airport into the centre of Barcelona. But if you fly into Barcelona with Ryanair you land at Reus Airport near Tarragona, around 90km south of Barcelona. The bus to central Barcelona from Reus Airport will cost you €12 (£10.85) each way or €21 (£19) for a return fare (as long as you return within one month). So Ryanair saves a few pounds by flying into an out-of-the-way airport and you end up paying £19 instead of the £5 you would pay if you fly into Barcelona’s main airport.
So all up Ryanair’s £3.79 return flight ends up costing £100.46 for the return fare including airport transfers and easyJet’s £36.92 fare comes to £61.42.
In other words, Ryanair’s cheap fares are just a sneaky way to slug you with all sorts of hidden fees and charges and more expensive fares advertised by competing airlines can often work out cheaper in the long run.
Free ferry travel for stranded Sterling passengers
October 31st, 2008 by Tim Uden
When Sterling ceased operating on 29 October, they offered no refunds and simply told stranded passengers to buy a ticket on another airline.
Ryanair responded with a Sterling rescue fare where Sterling passengers can buy a ticket on selected Ryanair routes for £100/€100/889 SEK/699 DKK/749 NOK including taxes. To take advantage of this offer, passengers need to show their Sterling ticket and travel by 7 November.
This is a rather pathetic appeal considering that Ryanair is famous for advertising free flights. Ryanair had a great opportunity to promote their business to a whole new customer base but instead blew it with its greedy £100 flights for Sterling passengers, when regular passengers (booking 14 days in advance with travel from 8 November) can fly the same route for £26.85 including tax.
easyJet is a considerably more generous airline than Ryanair and their Sterling rescue package lets Sterling passengers travel on easyJet’s Berlin-Copenhagen, London-Copenhagen and Milan-Copenhagen routes for £35 inclusive of tax until Wednesday 5 November. To take advantage of this offer, Sterling passengers from the UK should call the easyJet customer services on 0871 244 2366 and passengers from outside the UK should call 0044 870 6 000 000 and quote their Sterling booking confirmation number.
Ryanair’s offer is just nasty considering that it is almost four times the price offered to non-Sterling passengers; however easyJet has a better offer, especially considering how much more expensive flights can be at such short notice.
DFDS Seaways are offering a much better alternative to the airlines with free travel from the UK to Denmark for stranded Sterling passengers. Both British travellers and Danish residents holding valid Sterling tickets can travel free on the M.S. Dana Sirena between Harwich and Esbjerg until Thursday 6 November. Sterling passengers can contact DFDS Seaways on 0871 882 0890 for further information.
Round-the-world on low cost airlines
October 7th, 2008 by Tim Uden
Over the last ten years, low cost airlines have become enormously popular for relatively short flights and with growth of Asian low cost carriers, it has now become possible to fly around the world entirely on budget airlines. But are the savings worth it?
Looking at various airline’s websites I have been able to put together a RTW itinerary with travel on the following budget airlines: Air Arabia, easyJet, Flyglobespan, Jetstar, Tiger Airlines and Westjet taking in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. Here’s how it all fits together:
- London-Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) – Flyglobespan £179
- Vancouver-Honolulu – Westjet CAD$491 (£257)
- Honolulu-Sydney – Jetstar USD$489 (£277)
- Darwin-Singapore – Tiger Airways AUD$100 (£42)
- Singapore-Chennai – Tiger Airways SGD$270 (£105)
- Chennai-Sharjah – Air Arabia AED650 (£100)
- Sharjah-Istanbul – Air Arabia AED736 (£114)
- Istanbul-London – easyJet EUR€30 (£23)
TOTAL £1097
All the above fares are inclusive of taxes, fees and charges but do not include additional charges for checked luggage or priority seating.
I purposely left open overland travel in Australia and North America because most people using this website are travelling to explore a destination and not to simply hop from one airport to another.
I checked with STA Travel for an equivalent round-the-world fare and was told that London-Singapore-Sydney-San Francisco and New York-London on Qantas and British Airways would cost £891 plus tax. STA’s website wouldn’t tell me what the tax would be but the Flight Centre website has a similar itinerary for £1279 inclusive of tax.
So you may save a couple of hundred quid flying on low cost airlines, but you could probably do it for a lot less if it didn’t cost so much to fly across the Pacific. Because of the lack of competition even low cost carriers like Jetstar can charge high prices for what should be a relatively cheap flight.
Budget airlines don’t offer the comfort of a regular airline, but one of the real differences is the lack of frequent flyer points. This normally isn’t such a big deal but on a round-the-world flight you can earn almost enough points for a free one-way flight between Australia and North America.
If you’re planning on making several round-the-world trips, then the cheapest option would be to make your first trip on a regular airline and earn your frequent flyer points. Then use the points for the trans-Pacific leg on your next trip and use budget airlines for the rest. In this case the second trip will cost only £563 plus whatever tax you have to pay on your free flight that you get with the frequent flyer points.