Author Archives: James

About James

Trained as an architect with a strong passion for transport matters. When trying to plan trip to France to visit various places in / between Monaco and Lyon, couldn't find easy way of finding out which airlines went where, so set up Flightmapping.com

Who rips you off more – Ryanair or Swiss Rail? The Swiss win hans down!

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An open blog post to @sbbnews

Now let’s make this clear – this is not an attempt to compare cost per mile or anything related to the fare itself. It is a simple expression of complete frustration at the total confusion caused by the booking system of a network I know and love.

I have visited Swizterland many times, and have always travelled by train, usually taking advantage of one of the four day Swiss travel passes to continue across the country. In Switzerland, the rail network is a natural extension of the flight, as the two main airports of Geneva and Zurich are not just connected to their respective city centres, but also to a huge selection of destinations beyond.

The fact that the Swiss travel network is so well integrated needs little introduction – the trains are really just the start, with onward links provided by bus, ship and even cable car, although these often require a supplement, as do many of the scenic mountain lines.

So what have they done now to incur my wrath? I am trying to do a simple comparison of some onward journeys by rail, just looking at connections between major cities like Geneva and Zurich. I said last week that trying to get public transport information from UK public transport website Transport Direct was like having teeth extracted. Trying to book a train with Swiss Railways is like having your face smashed in, and then going to the dentist for repair work.

Here’s my list of gripes:

  • Try booking a ‘supersaver’ ticket – firstly, you can only do so upto 15 days in advance, not much good for someone planning a holiday. Surely these fares are supposed to encourage early booking?
  • No way of finding the best fare, just trawl through different times and see what comes up.
  • Double up! Clicking through to the supersaver price includes the standard price in the basket – e.g. Basel to Bern discounted CHF 15.20 (approx. £10) + Standard CHF 38.00, gives a total of CHF 52.40 – why would anyone buy two tickets for the same train?
  • ‘Almost free of charge’ supersaver tickets – sounds like Ryanair again, but we’re initially only offered sample prices to Lucerne. Eventually a sample price from Geneva to Zurich is offered at CHF 28 – with the best price found being nearly twice that.
  • Zurich and Basel confusion – now I know enough German to understand that HB stands for Hauptbahnhof or Grand Central, but most users would not. I also understand that the SBB in ‘Basel SBB’ stands for Swiss Railways, as opposed to the side of the station that serves France. Again, I would not expect most users to understand this geographical quirk, unless they had been there. We are also lazy, so we type ‘Zurich’, not ‘Zürich’ or Zuerich – after all, the menu does at least start in English.
  • Enter name and date of birth. Why on earth should I give these details just to get a price quote? And again, the British way of writing dates is with forward slashes, not dots – not that we should dictate this to our European cousins, but an intelligent system should either not ask in the first place, offer a drop down, or understand both.
  • No indication of train type (minor gripe). This is more of a geeky personal preference, but some of the mainline services, for example between Zurich and Milan, feature some impressive mountainous sections, which are much more enjoyable when onboard a tilting train. The only was of knowing which trains are tilting is to see if bikes are not conveyed – as the ETR 470 sets don’t take them.
  • Other fees? I haven’t even got to whether or not there is a credit card fee, service charge or booking fee, as most users would be long gone by now.

Note: Isn’t this all a bit Anglo-centric? After all, Switzerland has 4 official languages, none of which is English?

A Swiss visitor to the UK could indeed quite rightly complain that Virgin Trains or any other operating company don’t offer them the opportunity to book in German or French – and as for Italian or Romansh!

Yet, like it or not, English is the language of international travel. Of course, speaking the local lingo in any destination is always a big bonus, but it helps to have a website which helps you get there in the first place.

In that respect, I’m afraid SBB.ch is a total fail.

The shocking lack of European capitals served by flights from Birmingham

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As I see that the Birmingham Airport twitter feed has many comments about the runway extension and the High Speed 2 railway proposals, I thought it was worth a quick reminder of just how many major European capital cities are not served by flights from Birmingham Airport.

Now I’m not just talking about Vaduz or Andorra-la-Vella, which don’t even have airports, these are major European capital cities, including the capital of the largest country in the EU (Germany), aswell as other major players such as the Spanish capital Madrid and the Polish capital Warsaw. Even Lisbon and Rome will not get Birmingham flights until the end of March 2012.

European capitals not served by flights from Birmingham

(but these are served by flights from Manchester or other UK regional airports):

City Birmingham Manchester Edinburgh
Notes
Athens (previously operated by various airlines)
Berlin (previously operated by BACON)
Helsinki
Lisbon (YES) (new route starts 31 March 2012)
Moscow
Oslo (previously by Ryanair to TRF?)
Rome (YES) (new route starts 25 March 2012)
Stockholm (previously by Ryanair to NYO?)
Vienna
Warsaw (previously operated by Norwegian)

Now, surely I’m not being fair on Birmingham here? Aren’t there many other European capitals and major cities which are served by flights from Birmingham?

European Capital* Cities which are served by Birmingham flights:

City Birmingham Manchester Edinburgh
Amsterdam*
Brussels
Copenhagen
Dublin
Istanbul*
Paris
Prague
Zurich*

In virtually all of the above cases, other the cities served from Birmingham are also served from Edinburgh. European cities which are served by Birmingham flights, but not by flights from Manchester, are few and far between.

If there is any unfairness, it is that there are numerous cities in Germany which are both more commercially important than Berlin, and which are served from Birmingham. Yet, Berlin is still important in its own right, both for business, and as a key city break destination. If there are flights to Berlin from several other UK airports, then why not from Birmingham, especially as the new Brandenburg Airport should create an opportunity for new routes.

Surely, it would be easier to create incentives for the airlines already at Birmingham to open up new routes to some of these key cities, rather than chasing much harder to win contracts for flights to Asia, which have so far failed to materialise in any great way from Manchester, and which would be even less likely to work from Birmingham, given its proxmimity to London. And why should anyone fork out a hefty High Speed 2 rail fare to arrive in some field right on the edge of the Birmingham Airport complex, when Virgin Trains will take them to within a two minute shuttle ride of the main terminal building, with an only marginally longer journey time?

Notes:

  • * Amsterdam is nominal capital and most important commercial city in the Netherlands. Seat of government is in The Hague.
  • Zurich is both commercial capital of Switzerland and main gateway airport to Bern.
  • Istanbul is largest commercial city in Turkey.

How to save 36% on New York car hire

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New York is one of the most popular destinations for people taking long haul flights into the USA, and many people jump straight off the plane and head into Manhattan without even thinking about hiring a car.

Yet a car is ideal for exploring the huge range of places that can be reached beyond New York itself, so here’s a simple way to save upto 36% on New York car hire.

The advice is simple – just land in the right place! So many people put a huge amount of effort into squeezing every last penny off their flights that they don’t think about the additional costs at each end of the journey. For a long time, we have warned against the costs of flying into Newark Airport and taking a taxi into Manhattan – this will set you back around $100 including tips and tolls, compared to $60 from JFK – but the journey back to Newark will cost an extra $15 surcharge on top. This relates to the fact that Newark Airport is in the state of New Jersey, and New York taxis cannot pick up passengers there and vice-versa, so you are paying an out-of-state surcharge, and you pay the tolls in both directions (although the Holland Tunnel is only chargeable heading in to Manhattan).

When it comes to New York airport car hire, the advice is the same, except in reverse – this time, it is much cheaper to pick up your car at Newark. Again, local taxes play their part here, and these vary from state to state.

So, I looked at a week’s Newark Airport car hire in March, and this came out at £167 for JFK or just £114 for Newark – a saving of 32%. Look forward to November 2012 and the JFK rate ramps up to £197, putting it amongst the world’s most expensive car hire locations. Meanwhile, for the same period, Newark Airport car hire comes in at £145, a massive 36% cheaper.

This was for the cheapest car available, so the savings will be greater for family cars. However, the more people there in the the group, the more difference small savings in airfares will make. If you are taking New York flights from London, you can select the best fare / car hire combination to either airport.

If you live near airports such as Birmingham or Manchester, there can be an instinctive urge to look for flights from London, when local flights are available without the hassle and cost of getting to Heathrow. Many UK regional airports offer direct flights to Newark with United Continental, but sometimes indirect flights to JFK via another European hub can be cheaper. Beware that if you are adding on a hire car, this could be a false economy.

Check New York Airport car hire with Car Rentals .co.uk

The end for Galway flights?

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Next Monday sees the last Aer Arran flights from Galway, as the airline says they are no longer competitive. This marks the death knell for the airport in terms of passenger flights, but unlike in the UK, airport bosses can’t blame air passenger duty for their own failings. It looks like improved road links between Galway and Dublin have a lot more to do with it.

Aer Arann flights had operated to Lorient in France, and Edinburgh, London Luton, London Southend and Manchester in the UK. Domestic flights to Waterford were also available.

Could Galway be rescued by Ryanair? This can’t happen, as the runway at Wateford, being just under 1,300m long, is too short to be able to handle Ryanair’s Boeing 737-800 jets. British regional airlines like Eastern and Flybe do have the right kind of aircaft to operate commercial flights from Galway, but they are unlikely to be interested in operating any of the routes Aer Arann have cancelled, as if they can’t work for them, they are unlikely to work for another airline. One possible exception might be London – Flybe have a well established operation at Gatwick, which is better connected to central London than either Southend or Luton. Flybe already operate a small selection of other flights to Ireland from their various UK regional bases. They might just be tempted to look at Gatwick to Galway flights, but don’t count on it.

Why did BAA sell Edinburgh Airport, not Glasgow?

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So BAA have confirmed which Scottish airport they are going to sell, and they have gone for Edinburgh, not Glasgow (see news).

So this leaves us wondering – why did they sell Edinburgh when it was showing stronger growth than Glasgow? This might raise more cash, but BAA are only selling because of competition regulations, they would rather maintain ownership of all their Scottish assets.

Perhaps they see an upturn being due at Glasgow, especially considering the recent poor performance of Prestwick, and the prospect of attracting a certain Irish carrier to Glasgow’s ‘main’ airport?

How can you have a flatbed on a Boeing 747 for just £35?

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The answer, I’m afraid is not quite as glamorous as you might hope, but it is still a bargain:

Jumbo Stay: Image courtesy of Hostelbookers

Travelling to Stockholm? Late or early flight through Arlanda airport – or just someone who, like us, loves planes?

Well, if that is the case, then the answer is simple – stay at the unique (because it is a bargain airport hotel as much as any other reason) Jumbo Stay hostel, developed from a former Pan-Am Boeing 747.

Flightmapping has been fortunate to have slept on flat bed transatlantic flights, and at Jumbo Stay, and he knows which one is more comfortable! The irony is that this hostel shows how much space in the air is at a premium. Even the most luxurious First Class cabins (Jet Airways, Emirates A380 etc) still have less space than Jumbo Stay, which is a bargain hotel, especially by Stockholm standards.

Budget airline car hire ripoffs exposed (Malaga Airport car hire)

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At a time when budget airlines are increasingly being criticised over their ever-extending list of unavoidable extra charges, there is perhaps one area where they are being even more brazen, and this is when it comes to adding on a hire car to their flight booking process.

We looked at flights to Malaga from all the major budget airlines which offer flights from the UK to Spain, and this time compared the cost of the car hire for one week, rather than just looking at the cost of the flights to Malaga, which showed relatively little variance in price, even from different UK regional airports.

Out of six airlines we looked at, five included a car hire quote as part of the booking process, which customers had to opt out of in order to avoid booking through the airline’s partner. Jet2 was the only airline not to include an opt-out-only car hire booking quote, so this had to be looked up separately.

In most cases, the airlines have entered into an affiliate agreement with a major car hire provider — Hertz in the case of Aer Lingus and Ryanair, Europcar with easyJet and Avis with Flybe. In all of these four cases, the cost of a hire car was substantially more than the cost quoted using car hire comparison engines, with Aer Lingus working out at the most expensive at £312.80, a staggering 627% more than the cheapest price. Of the airlines which gave a direct booking option, Ryanair were the cheapest at £122.99, even though this was also booked through Hertz.

Meanwhile, the Bmibaby were by far the cheapest of the airlines which included car hire booking as part of the flight booking process, as they are powered by car hire comparison engine Cartrawler, who compare prices across a number of different car hire companies, instead of sticking to just one major brand.The price with Bmibaby was £67.48, but even this was still more than half as expensive again as the cheapest option.

Jet2 were the cheapest of the airlines we looked at, coming in at £51.06, and this was through their Jet2cars.com website, which is powered by Carhire3000.

AIRLINE PARTNER COST
RYANAIR HERTZ £122.99
EASYJET EUROPCAR £129.00
AER LINGUS HERTZ £312.80
BMIBABY CARTRAWLER £67.48
FLYBE AVIS £157.98
JET2 CARHIRE3000 £51.06

Cheapest Malaga Airport Car Hire

So what was the cheapest option? We looked at two leading car hire price comparison websites — carrentals.co.uk and carhiresearch.co.uk, and both gave us car options for just £43.

Conclusions

Car hire might well be an optional extra on low-cost airline websites, but users still need to make sure they opt out of it to avoid being charged.

These airlines aren’t stupid, so we can only assume that they have done their calculations, and they know that they will get a certain percentage of people who will opt in at these prices. Quite how anyone will pay over £300 for a week’s basic off-season car rental in Malaga is beyond us, but Aer Lingus clearly seem to think that some people will. The lowest prices we looked at might be for the very cheapest model car with less well known agencies, but the price differences are still vast. Where is the logic in booking cheap flights and expensive car hire?

 Do you need a car for a visit to Malaga?

Meanwhile, another option is to consider whether or not you need a hire car at your destination in the first place. We are developing a new website, Carornocar.com, to provide advice on car hire and public transport options in a range of destinations around the world. Do you think a hire car is necessary to make the best out of a trip to Malaga and the surrounding Andalusia region? Or can you get around without one? See what we say, and let us know whether you agree or not – Car Or No Car’s Malaga Car Hire Verdict.

Notes:

  • Comparisons were done for Malaga Airport car hire between 22nd and 29th March 2012, searching for the cheapest car available with no extras added on.
  • Since doing initial check, prices were checked again on October 20th, with the cheapest car coming in at an even lower price – just £39!