Travel

[Stud83]

Speaking of which, I'll be in London May 25-31 and going to Manchester on May 30th to see England-Hungary.
Striker, when are you going to be there?

How reasonable is it to expect to get tickets into London Palladium for Morrissey if we show up few hours before start (considering that it's sold out on ticketmaster)?

[StrikerCW]

I'm gonna be there May 29-31 then again something like june21-26.

Achtung, on the rail, you bought the day of, right? I think I remember you telling me that.

For some reason the national rail site wont let me choose the cheap tickets for Manc to london one way.. basically forcing me to pay 56 pounds (100 dollars :eek:) for a ticket. :( I think I may end up taking a 4 hour bus ride on Megabus or National Express for 15-30 pounds instead. :o

[Achtung]

Achtung, on the rail, you bought the day of, right? I think I remember you telling me that.

Yeah, I think either the day of or day before, basically comes out the same. If you buy a while in advance you can save. The nice thing about the tickets is that between the major cities, London, Manchester, Birmingham, etc. there are multiple trains running so you never have to worry about "missing" your train (unless its late at night) because another one will probably be running soon. They're not time-specific or even date-specific in most cases. Extremely flexible.



For some reason the national rail site wont let me choose the cheap tickets for Manc to london one way.. basically forcing me to pay 56 pounds (100 dollars :eek:) for a ticket. :( I think I may end up taking a 4 hour bus ride on Megabus or National Express for 15-30 pounds instead. :o

Yeah its weird, the round trip tickets are like two pounds more than the one-way, so its generally a good idea to get that. £50-55 for a round trip London-Manchester sounds about like what we paid. Really not that bad a deal if you want round trip.

[Leto]

I'll be flying into one of Stansted/Gatwick/Luton at the start of June (it doesn't really matter - depends on prices and the advice I get here) and from there going to Heathrow to get a flight to New Yoik. What's the best way to get from one to the other - I presume there's some sort of direct link? Price? Which of the other airports is closest to Heathrow?

Come on worldly-wise travellers (and home-bound Londoners), don't fail me now.

[Republic of Mancunia]

StrikerCW,

Think I've clogged up your PM box enough for one day so I thought I'd post here. Just been having a play around on the Virgin Trains website and it's a similar story there.

But after looking closer and trying with different times of departure I found that there are £12.50 one way tickets available which must be booked at least 1 day in advance but these are only on certain trains and you have to catch the specific train. No refunds either if you're late for whatever reason.

Pretty sure that the two websites use the same searching function and might be worth clicking on the "find an earlier train" or "find a later train" options as the ones that came up using the default times set by the website didn't have the cheap ticket option, probably a marketing ploy to sell the most expensive seats first. ;)

If you play around with the time of trains I'm pretty sure you could find something.

Examples:

I've found a £23 one-way ticket leaving from Man-Lon on the 31st May on the 8.45 AM, 9.15 AM, 10.45 AM, 3.45 PM, 4.15 PM, 4.45 PM, and 5.15 PM trains.

£12.50 one way tickets on the same date are available on the 12.45 PM, 1.15PM, 1.45 PM, 2.15 PM, 2.45 PM , and 3.15 PM trains.

If you can be flexible about the time you want to travel then they should be available on most days. The key is to avoid the rush hour as believe it or not, people do commute that far to work on a daily basis.

[Republic of Mancunia]

I'll be flying into one of Stansted/Gatwick/Luton at the start of June (it doesn't really matter - depends on prices and the advice I get here) and from there going to Heathrow to get a flight to New Yoik. What's the best way to get from one to the other - I presume there's some sort of direct link? Price? Which of the other airports is closest to Heathrow?

Come on worldly-wise travellers (and home-bound Londoners), don't fail me now.

Not wordly-wise and not a Londoner but does this (http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/interairporttransfers.htm) help? (Be sure to click on the cheapest options as well as the National Express Airport one to see if they're better for you).

[StrikerCW]

I'll be flying into one of Stansted/Gatwick/Luton at the start of June (it doesn't really matter - depends on prices and the advice I get here) and from there going to Heathrow to get a flight to New Yoik. What's the best way to get from one to the other - I presume there's some sort of direct link? Price? Which of the other airports is closest to Heathrow?

Come on worldly-wise travellers (and home-bound Londoners), don't fail me now.
Ignore me, as you probably know this, but after I bought my ticket to London via BA I discovered that Aer lingus to Dublin was actually a bit cheaper. Could be wrong though. I think they fly to NYC (JFK maybe) as well.

[StrikerCW]

StrikerCW,

Think I've clogged up your PM box enough for one day so I thought I'd post here. Just been having a play around on the Virgin Trains website and it's a similar story there.

But after looking closer and trying with different times of departure I found that there are £12.50 one way tickets available which must be booked at least 1 day in advance but these are only on certain trains and you have to catch the specific train. No refunds either if you're late for whatever reason.

Pretty sure that the two websites use the same searching function and might be worth clicking on the "find an earlier train" or "find a later train" options as the ones that came up using the default times set by the website didn't have the cheap ticket option, probably a marketing ploy to sell the most expensive seats first. ;)

If you play around with the time of trains I'm pretty sure you could find something.

Examples:

I've found a £23 one-way ticket leaving from Man-Lon on the 31st May on the 8.45 AM, 9.15 AM, 10.45 AM, 3.45 PM, 4.15 PM, 4.45 PM, and 5.15 PM trains.

£12.50 one way tickets on the same date are available on the 12.45 PM, 1.15PM, 1.45 PM, 2.15 PM, 2.45 PM , and 3.15 PM trains.

If you can be flexible about the time you want to travel then they should be available on most days. The key is to avoid the rush hour as believe it or not, people do commute that far to work on a daily basis.
I messed around with national rail website and asked for the cheapest route and looked at several 'earlier' and later trains but none of them have the bubble that I can choose for 12 pound tickets for some reason. :( I don't know why either, were you able to choose it and then click purchase ticket?

[Republic of Mancunia]

I messed around with national rail website and asked for the cheapest route and looked at several 'earlier' and later trains but none of them have the bubble that I can choose for 12 pound tickets for some reason. :( I don't know why either, were you able to choose it and then click purchase ticket?

On Virgin, yes.

If you want, give me the date and which way (Man-Lon or Lon-Man) and I'll see what it says.

[jayro75]

Ignore me, as you probably know this, but after I bought my ticket to London via BA I discovered that Aer lingus to Dublin was actually a bit cheaper. Could be wrong though. I think they fly to NYC (JFK maybe) as well.


Aer Lingus does fly into JFK from both Dublin and Shannon.. I flew JFK Dublin roundtrip last April...

[Leto]

Not wordly-wise and not a Londoner but does this (http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/interairporttransfers.htm) help? (Be sure to click on the cheapest options as well as the National Express Airport one to see if they're better for you).

Cheers - I've only had a glance at it so far but I'll sit down soon and work out the permutations. Any of the journeys look as if they'll take a few hours, poo! :mad:

Ignore me, as you probably know this, but after I bought my ticket to London via BA I discovered that Aer lingus to Dublin was actually a bit cheaper. Could be wrong though. I think they fly to NYC (JFK maybe) as well.

They probably would be if I was booking myself - I'm going to work in a kid's camp for the summer though so flights and stuff are being arranged by the agency, hence I go where I'm told. I'm leaving from London instead of Dublin because officially I'm in the British (as opposed to Irish) system - I'm in college in Belfast so it was easier to conduct interviews from there instead of having to go to Dublin every time. I think this extra hassle may just balance out the time saved earlier in the year.

[StrikerCW]

Has anyone ever been to this O2 music festival that will be in London in June? Its the same time I'll be over there, you think it twould be worth the exuberant prices to see?

[Vermont Red]

I'm going to be in Vegas at the beginning of June for business. If anyone is going to be there, let me know.

[benni...]

Im going to be in Manchester in August. My family over in England are arranging tickets to a couple of matches for me, as a birthday gift.

[StrikerCW]

I'm going to be in Vegas at the beginning of June for business. If anyone is going to be there, let me know.
"Business" eh? :p

Ok, question for you guys in London/travellers. What is the Oyster card for the tube? How does that work.

Also, if not getting an oyster card, then is it going to be trouble keeping up with a 3-day tube ticket? Are they just paper tickets or what?

[Stud83]

I was able to find relatively inexpensive saver tickets (£46) for 2 people both ways from London to Manchester and back, the only problem is that the only trains that offer this type of fair on the website are 6 am trains. And then the price increases drasticaly, for some I reason I coudn't find anything under £120 for other times. :confused: Is it worth reserving the tickets online or is it better to just get to London and get them there a few days before the train?
Also, found very cheap airline tickets (£110 both ways for 2 people), cheaper than trains? :confused:

[StrikerCW]

I was able to find relatively inexpensive saver tickets (£46) for 2 people both ways from London to Manchester and back, the only problem is that the only trains that offer this type of fair on the website are 6 am trains. And then the price increases drasticaly, for some I reason I coudn't find anything under £120 for other times. :confused: Is it worth reserving the tickets online or is it better to just get to London and get them there a few days before the train?
Also, found very cheap airline tickets (£110 both ways for 2 people), cheaper than trains? :confused:
I found some for midday train in the reverse direction for later in June, but the damn website wouldn't let me buy them for some strange reason the website kept asking what 'postcode' I was at before I could buy the tickets for fastticket to pick up at the station!

I've thought about flying, but we're thinking 1.5-2 hours AT the airport before hand. Plus an extra hour getting there. And maybe opposite on the way back, it might not be time effiecent. Plus remember you have to pay to go to Heathrow (and to the Manchester Airport which is apparently still a tram ride away from centre or OT) if your flying BMI.

[Achtung]

"Business" eh? :p

Ok, question for you guys in London/travellers. What is the Oyster card for the tube? How does that work.

Also, if not getting an oyster card, then is it going to be trouble keeping up with a 3-day tube ticket? Are they just paper tickets or what?

Some info from the Transport for London website on the Oyster Card:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2006/oyster/general.asp

I remember someone saying that if you'll be there for more than a few days, its a good deal, but we just got one-day passes (I think for Zones 1-3).

The London Underground is an absolutely massive system, but its fairly easy to navigate in general.

[Vermont Red]

"Business" eh? :p

Pimpin' ain't easy. ;)

[Achtung]

I've thought about flying, but we're thinking 1.5-2 hours AT the airport before hand. Plus an extra hour getting there. And maybe opposite on the way back, it might not be time effiecent. Plus remember you have to pay to go to Heathrow (and to the Manchester Airport which is apparently still a tram ride away from centre or OT) if your flying BMI.

Something else that might be worth considering if you're flying is that Liverpool's airport (Liverpool-John Lennon) isn't very far and might be worth a look.