mooseontheloose

[Help with Airfaire]

I'm very confused about plane costs!

Is that CanadianAffair site as cheap as it says? I just looked up a flight in June and got 415 CDN from Ottawa to London. Are there any catches with Thomas Cook?

I am also looking at the Ryanair site. A flight from London to Salzburg is 20 CDN? Am I just reading this all wrong or are these numbers right?!

Thanks

[mooseontheloose]

I'm smooth Check out my name/topic lol.

[WillTravel]

LOL about the name and topic.

There are thousands of successful Thomas Cook flights every year. The worst thing that can happen with a charter flight is that you get delayed for a few hours. But the four charter flights I have taken (on Air Transat, though) so far have all gone pretty smoothly, and I've been delayed with major carriers also.

If you aren't sure that you figured out the fare correctly, you can email or phone Canadian Affair.

And yes, Ryanair and EasyJet work very well too. Very rarely, one of their flights is cancelled, which can cause some inconvenience. Ryanair's ontime record in particular is outstanding, though.

[mooseontheloose]

Ok this is for my bro. We think he just found massive good deals combined, but want to know if it all works and if we've made mistakes!

CanadianAffairs.com -- Ottawa > London (Roundtrip, June/July) $420 CDN

Easyjet.com -- London > Prague $40 CDN

Then would make circle to Prague. $40 back to London and out.

Total = $500 CDN

Feedback?

[WillTravel]

What dates are you choosing for your trip? I'll look and see if I get the same. At least for me, Canadian Affair gives the price in pounds.

[moose]

Just put early June as departure. It only has 2 days...May 31 and June 7 I believe. Use early July as return. Woops lol. Maybe that little sign is the Pound and not the Euro =\ I still am not sure which are which these days.

[WillTravel]

CanadianAffair.com
1 person, 258 pounds total = $599.75 (go to www.xe.com for exchange)
Depart June 7, return July 5

Flyzoom.com
1 person, Depart June 3, return July 2
$663.05

All taxes are included with each. I bet the fares would be somewhat cheaper if you left from Toronto, but I don't know how convenient that is.

You also have to consider the cost of transport to and from London airports. My guess is that you could do this all for $800 Canadian, including the return airfare to London, the Prague flights, and airport transfers.

My only caveat would be to consider leaving an overnight in London each way, particularly for the return flight. If your EasyJet flight is delayed on the return and you can't get your flight, you will be in trouble because the flight rules are so inflexible. Similarly I advise getting to the airport with tons of time to spare.

[mooseontheloose]

Thanks. My goal was to keep it under 850 anyway, so that's fine. I couldn't beleive the 400 lol, I figured I'd messed something up.

Only problem with that is the low amount of flights. But it's nice to see I should keep near my goal. Problem is I'm trying to add a trip with my girlfriend. Going to do a backpacking thing and at the end spend 7 nights in Budapest with her. Found some nice hostels with 2person private for great price. So my problem is flying into a cheap city, doing a circle route, somehow getting to Budapest, then somehow back to my fly out city. And since we want to fly out together, it makes it even harder because she'll need to come into a cheap city. If it weren't for the Budapest thing it'd be much easier. Only problem is it's the only city i found that has a decent place to stay for 2 ppl per night.

Any suggestions are welcome cause I'm confused on how to do it.


-eyespy

[WillTravel]

What time is your girlfriend's flights and where is she flying to and from?
Does she also live in Ottawa? Sorry I lost the thread there.

What's your per-night budget for a double room? It might be obtainable elsewhere other than Budapest.

I'll reply later, will go to sleep now .

[moose]

Here's some examples for anyone trying to think of help for me.

Idea 1: I fly in and out of Brussels. Found cheap deal. From there I do circle and end up back at Brussels where I meet my girl. We fly out to Budapest together, then back. Is there any company running Brussels to Budapest other than EuropeByAir's $99USD plan?

Idea 2: I fly in and out of London. I fly from London to Prague. Do my circle, end in Prague. She comes to Prague, we train to Budapest. Back to Prague to London, to fly. Same problem as before. No plane from London to Budapest for the train travel kills the good deal!

I'm VERY stumped


-eyespy

[moose]

We havent detirmed exactly when. We're trying to sort out where and how first. Yeh she's in Ottawa but we can fly from Ottawa or Montreal and maybe Toronto. I can do alright per night. I'm using hostels all through my portion, with an avg cost of like 25 a night. I found a great couple of places in Budapest for 22-25 for a 2-person private. I can't find a deal like that at all anywhere else. She's on a much tighter budget. Maybe 30 at the max depending on airfaire.


-eyespy

Thanks for your help so far.

[WillTravel]

Obviously you will lose all the benefit of a cheap room in Budapest if it costs a lot of money to get there and back.

I would decide what the final amount you can spend on that excursion (transport + accommodation + food + attractions) is. Then you might find that a more expensive room in another city will pay off, if you spend less on transport.

For example, with a little effort, you can get a private room for two in Paris (albeit not in the most convenient area) for less than 40 Euros per night. You might be able to do the same in Brussels or another Belgian city. You can get a private room for two with ensuite at the Generator in Berlin for 40 Euros per night (a promotion I saw somewhere, although their web site is higher).

[moose]

Yeh I've noticed that. Either I get cheap room with bad travel costs, or good travel costs with expensive room. Either way I think it would be just inside the budget, but I'm still digging for a way to make it all work

[cnlneenan]

Have you thought about scratching Budapest altogether and going somewhere else that's very inexpensive? I'm not sure if it would fit into your plan (and maybe even more complicated and expensive for traveling), but I hear Lagos (Portugal) is a great little beach city and from what I've looked at is quite cheap. I hear also that Prague is also very cheap. Is your girlfriend against going to Prague for the week? That would probably work out pretty nicely too if you were doing your loop starting and ending in Prague, right?

Just some thoughts.

[eyespylazy]

Well the problem is I found a good deal to fly in and out of Brussels...a deal that would never work for Prague. No matter what I'll need to fly from Brussels to wherever. Ryanair only has a select few destinations for their great deals, and almost all of them are very expensive. So either way we'll need to do the extra flight, unless I come across an airline that will give me Brussels to Budapest for a fair price.

(Too lazy to login if you're wondering bout my name)