Tag Archives: Aer Lingus

The cheapest flights to Switzerland involve flying to an airport in a neighbouring country, and we’re not talking about France

Posted on by
5

Switzerland might have much more a reputation as a tax haven than as a bargain basement paradise, but here is a little-known option of finding the cheapest flights to Switzerland, and enjoying the scenery along the way. It is well-known that cheap flights to Geneva are available from a huge range of different airports throughout the UK, and that you can also get cheap flights to Basel, whose airport is technically in neighbouring France, from Stansted and Dublin courtesy of Ryanair, and Liverpool courtesy of Easyjet.

So what’s my little secret? Cheap flights to Zürich — that bastion of palatial airport facilities? Surely not? Well, with Aer Lingus and Easyjet now fighting it out amongst each other to offer cheap flights from London Gatwick to Zürich, Easyjet also offering Zürich flights from Luton, so you might well be able to bag a bargain, but if you’re prepared to travel with only hand luggage and if you have got yourself one of those otherwise pointless Visa Electron cards then you should probably know that the very cheapest fares on flights to Europe are still offered by Ryanair. We looked at cheap flights to Switzerland for April 2009, and Ryanair’s prices on flights to Basel were very compatible with what Easyjet and Aer Lingus had to offer on flights to Zürich. The real bargain was on flights to Friedrichshafen in neighbouring Germany, which are available for £20 return “all-in”

All very well you might say, but you asked the cheap flights to Switzerland, not cheap flights to Germany. Well, as it happens, Friedrichshafen is a mere 45 minutes away from Romanshorn in Switzerland, on the other side of Lake Constance by ferry (hourly service). From here, there are regular trains throughout Switzerland via Zürich. Trains connect from Friedrichshafen airport (Flughafen) to downtown (Stadt) Friedrichshafen in just six minutes, and there are at least four services each hour. And the cost of this ferry transfer is a mere €7. So next time you are thinking of cheap flights to Switzerland, why not give this route a try?

At last, a cheap alternative for Munich flights?

Posted on by
1

Ryanair’s latest seemingly middle of nowhere airport is just outside the picturesque town of Memmingen (FMM) in Bavaria, which they are marketing as ‘Munich West’. Cheap flights to Memmingen start on 1 May from London Stansted and Dublin. So is this going to be a viable alternative to taking flights to Munich Franz Josef Strauss airport (MUC), a facility that no-frills airlines have often described as being high cost, and aimed at traditional scheduled airlines like Lufthansa?On the other hand, Munich has recently become a bit of a hotbed for no-frills competition, with Aer Lingus launching cheap flights from Gatwick at the end of April, complementing easyJet’s existing routes from both Gatwick and Stansted. We looked at a weekend trip to Munich flying out on Friday 1 May, the launch date for this route, and returning on Sunday 3rd May:

Ryanair cheap flights to Memmingen

  • Outbound flight — £.79. Depart Stansted 13:40 and arrive Memmingen 16:00.
  • Outbound taxes and fees — £28.97.
  • Return flight — £.79. Depart Memmingen 16:25 and arrive Stansted 16:45
  • Return taxes and fees — £15.05.
  • Credit or debit card handling fees — £9.50 (see article on how to avoid these)
  • Return train fare from Memmingen to Munich — €39.20 (£37 — does not include transfer from Memmingen airport to centre).
  • Total — £92.10.

easyJet cheap flights to Munich

       

  • Outbound flight — £35.99. Depart Gatwick 12:55 and arrive Munich 15:45 — twice daily easyJet flights to Munich are also available from Stansted. Note that if you travelled the day before, the fare goes down to £25.99.
  • Return flight — £23.99. Depart Munich 16:30 and arrive Gatwick 17:25. A cheaper flight is available in to Stansted for £18.99, but this means leaving Munich at 11:30 — a bit early for a weekend break. Alternatively, you could stay until 21:50 and catch a flight back to Stansted for £20.99.
  • Debit card handling fee — £1.95.
  • Total — £61.93.

    • Aer Lingus cheap flights to Munich

  • Outbound flights — £14.99. Depart Gatwick 06:40 and arrive Munich 09:25 — if you are going to take a whole day of work, you might as well make an early start of it! As with easyJet, the flight is cheaper if you can go one day before — in fact, in this case Aer Lingus will ‘give’ it to you for nothing.
  • Outbound taxes and charges — £20.
  • Return fare — zero.
  • Return taxes and charges — £9.99. Depart Munich 10:05 and arrive Gatwick at 11:05.
  • Handling fee — £8 — as with Ryanair, this fee can be avoided by using an electron debit card, but Aer Lingus only tell you about that at the end of the booking process.
  • Total — £52.98.

British Airways not so cheap flights to Munich

  • £110 – depart Heathrow 07:50 and arrive Munich 10:55 / depart Munich 17:30 and return Heathrow 18:30.

Lufthansa decidedly expensive flights to Munich

  • £157 — depart Heathrow 09:35 and arrive Munich 12:25 / depart Munich 19:10 and return Heathrow 20:10.

Verdict — as is so often the case, Ryanair’s seemingly cheap flights of £.79 in each direction become massively more expensive when all the extra charges are taken into account. Even this is before you add on the cost of a train fare from Memmingen airport in to Munich.

Memmingen itself actually looks like quite a pretty town, so it would be well worth a visit if you were in the area, but for the price comparison we have done here, it certainly can’t be seen as a cheap alternative to Munich. On the other hand, Aer Lingus’ new flights to Munich are an absolute steal, especially as the £8 handling fee can be avoided by using an electron debit card. This goes to show that a bit of competition at the main airport can be just as good as having a cheap alternative somewhere else, and gives the prospect of a weekend away in the Bavarian beer capital for less than £50.

We will certainly drink to that!

 

How to avoid airline credit card charge rip offs

Posted on by
11

Have you been annoyed by airlines charging you up to £9.50 per person for a return flight booking, just for the privilege of handing over your own money to them? Do you know that if you fly with Aer Lingus, they add an £8 handling fee towards the end of the booking fee, but that there is a way of not having to pay this?

Avoiding card charge rip offs

The answer is simple – you just have to have the right piece of plastic:

The Visa Electron Card

Ironically, this card was previously associated with basic current accounts for people with a poor credit history. Most current accounts come with Visa Debit of Maestro Cards, and these can still attract the same high fees as paying by credit card. Although Easyjet charges more to pay by credit card, both Ryanair and Aer Lingus charge the same rate, regardless of how you pay – except if you use a Visa Electron card.

Fortunately, you don’t need to go round destroying your credit history in order to get a Visa Electron card. All you need to do is have an account with a bank which will issue you one. Ask you current account provider if they can do this. If not, we would recommend opening up a simple Cashminder account with the Co-operative bank. This can be topped up at any post office, so you don’t need to worry about whether or not you have a Co-op branch close to you. The account is even marketed as coming with no frills (just like the airlines) and no fuss (not like any airline we know!).

Once you have opened up one of these accounts, you just need to top it up each time you want to book a no frills flight – in much the same way that you might do for a pay as you go mobile. So we now have pay as you fly – it might be a bit more hassle than using your regular credit card, but it will cost you much less in the long run.