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Finding Bargain Flights

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BestWestern

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Afernoon All...

So I'm wanting to take my boy on his first flight, ideally just a short hop somewhere and back again rather than a holiday, although a one day stopover somewhere would be okay. Is there a 'clearing house' type website somewhere which lists cheap flights, as opposed to having to search every possible airport/airline option to see what's available?
 
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theageofthetra

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Agreed re Skyscanner. Put in in the 'From' part your nearest local airports and the 'to' part as 'Everywhere' -have done countless holidays that way. Also do each leg separately as it may be cheaper to go out of one airport and back to another.
 

Bletchleyite

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A UK domestic outside peak business travel times (e.g. midweek or a Saturday day trip) is a not so bad way of doing this. I took my nephew on his first flight from Brum to Edinburgh on that sort of basis.
 

miami

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A UK domestic outside peak business travel times (e.g. midweek or a Saturday day trip) is a not so bad way of doing this. I took my nephew on his first flight from Brum to Edinburgh on that sort of basis.

And has a big advantage if the child doesn't have a passport (or do non-BA domestic flights require photo ID for kids too?)

Any excuse to get out of Birmingham too, especially to Edinburgh which is a lovely city.
 

Mojo

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And has a big advantage if the child doesn't have a passport (or do non-BA domestic flights require photo ID for kids too?)

I travelled with CityJet on their Dublin to London City route (which is effectively domestic I suppose) and was not asked to present ID at any time.
 

Peter Mugridge

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Just a thought, but why not book one of the "fear of flying" courses for this? That way he will have everything about the plane and flight explained to him as well and it'll be an "up and back" flight which simplifies things somewhat.

Might be a bit out of range of your budget though. :cry:

http://flyingwithconfidence.com/courses/types/childrens

We run two fear of flying courses specifically designed for children and young people. Our half day Children's Workshop is aimed at children at junior school aged 7 to 11. For older children and teenagers at secondary school aged 11 to 17 we run our full day Teenagers' Course, including a flight on a BA jet.
 

WestCoast

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Skyscanner.net all the way.

If you type your local airport in and then search to "everywhere" it will list the cheapest flights. You can search for a specific day or the entire month.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A UK domestic outside peak business travel times (e.g. midweek or a Saturday day trip) is a not so bad way of doing this. I took my nephew on his first flight from Brum to Edinburgh on that sort of basis.

Out of Birmingham, the cheapest flights are usually to Dublin. Ryanair flights start at £7.99 and Aer Lingus at £19.99. Flybe to Edinburgh usually starts at £29.99.

From Bristol, the cheapest flights are also to Dublin starting £10.99 with Ryanair or £24.99 with Aer Lingus.

You will struggle to beat Dublin for availability at those sort of prices.
 
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fowler9

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Afernoon All...

So I'm wanting to take my boy on his first flight, ideally just a short hop somewhere and back again rather than a holiday, although a one day stopover somewhere would be okay. Is there a 'clearing house' type website somewhere which lists cheap flights, as opposed to having to search every possible airport/airline option to see what's available?

Book some time off work when your lad will be off school a few months in advance. Go on the websites of the regulars that fly from your local airport or one not too far away and see what is available. I have flown 10 times in the last 12 months and am about to go on the 11 & 12th times on Wizzair from Liverpool to Budapest for about £52 there and back. involves a few nights stay but you can go there and back same day to a few places quite cheap if you shop around.
 

tony_mac

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MSE does allow you to specify 'anywhere' within a budget. With Skyscanner, I think you need to select a destination country, but it obviously doesn't take long to go through the possibilities.

I guess you are specifically talking about a commercial flight, but a 30-minute trial lesson in a 4-seater is about £90-100, and he could sit in the back.
 

theageofthetra

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You do not need to select a destination country in Skyscanner. You can be as vague as UK to everywhere.
 

FQTV

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Some of the cheapest fares on a given route may only be available on routes with once a day (or less) service, or on services which will require an overnight stay.

If accommodation starts proving pricey then it may be worth looking at largely-forgotten 'day trip' fares that BA offer from Heathrow on Saturdays and Sundays.

The fares come out of special fare inventory that will (usually) only show on ba.com (rather than other sites) and only for same-day returns. Searching can be laborious on a route by route basis, but Paris, Nice, Madrid, Berlin etc are reasonably good bets, and total costs may be less than an otherwise unnecessary overnight stay plus a nominally lower fare.

Just a thought, anyhow.
 

fowler9

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Some of the cheapest fares on a given route may only be available on routes with once a day (or less) service, or on services which will require an overnight stay.

If accommodation starts proving pricey then it may be worth looking at largely-forgotten 'day trip' fares that BA offer from Heathrow on Saturdays and Sundays.

The fares come out of special fare inventory that will (usually) only show on ba.com (rather than other sites) and only for same-day returns. Searching can be laborious on a route by route basis, but Paris, Nice, Madrid, Berlin etc are reasonably good bets, and total costs may be less than an otherwise unnecessary overnight stay plus a nominally lower fare.

Just a thought, anyhow.

Pain in the bum if you live anywhere in the UK apart from London and want to go somewhere apart from London though.
 

lejog

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I travelled with CityJet on their Dublin to London City route (which is effectively domestic I suppose) and was not asked to present ID at any time.

The UK and Ireland are part of the Common Travel Area so no border checks are made when travelling from Ireland to the UK. Unfortunately the Irish now check flights into Ireland, so passengers have to prove they are Irish or UK citizens and thus entitled to travel under the CTA, presenting a passport being the easiest way!

As the Wiki link shows, an Irish High Court judge has commented that this is a Catch 22 situation.
 
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Hornet

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The UK and Ireland are part of the Common Travel Area so no border checks are made when travelling from Ireland to the UK. Unfortunately the Irish now check flights into Ireland, so passengers have to prove they are Irish or UK citizens and thus entitled to travel under the CTA, presenting a passport being the easiest way!

As the Wiki link shows, an Irish High Court judge has commented that this is a Catch 22 situation.

The reason for I/B pax being checked at Irish airports is that pax may have got connecting flights at UK airports from non UK airports and therefore may not have gone through UK Immigration. All pax therefore need to have some form of photo I/D at Irish airports. From 1984 to 2001 I could use my credit card as I/D. After 9/11 up to today I use my Driving Licence to pass through Dublin airport ex UK. (Only use a passport for non UK destinations and to get on Ryanair flights. Even ex UK with Ryanair I use my Driving Licence at Passport Control in Dublin).
 

stut

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Google Flights is a good source as well - it uses the same data as ITA, but with LCCs included. There's a couple of gaps.

The nice thing is that you can leave the destination blank and it will draw a map of destinations with prices. You can then filter by price, time, changes, airlines, etc and see what you end with. You can also enter multiple airports (for departure as well as arrival) and regions (for arrival). Have found some great fares through this!
 

berneyarms

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The reason for I/B pax being checked at Irish airports is that pax may have got connecting flights at UK airports from non UK airports and therefore may not have gone through UK Immigration. All pax therefore need to have some form of photo I/D at Irish airports. From 1984 to 2001 I could use my credit card as I/D. After 9/11 up to today I use my Driving Licence to pass through Dublin airport ex UK. (Only use a passport for non UK destinations and to get on Ryanair flights. Even ex UK with Ryanair I use my Driving Licence at Passport Control in Dublin).

Sorry, but this is nonsense.

Anyone arriving into a UK airport from outside the CTA who then has a connecting flight to another UK or CTA destination must go through UK immigration upon arrival at that initial airport. You cannot bypass it.

The requirement for CTA passengers to go through an immigration check at Irish airports is purely down to the Irish immigration authorities wanting to check all inbound passengers at Irish airports - nothing more than that. They decided that given this was the principal route into the country to check all passengers to ensure that they were entitled to enter Ireland.
 
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