London to Zagreb for Christmas 2024

After looking at the various options from Dublin to Zagreb - it's time to also consider London to Zagreb ...

Ryanair have some very competitive flights - especially on the evening of Sunday 22nd December

A cabin wheelie on this flight costs £15.50 and a hold bag costs £27

British Airways fares are considerably more expensive - with a hold bad costing £21 extra

Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) there are no BA reward flights available in the week before Christmas

KLM have plenty of options from either Heathrow of London City airport - at reasonable prices

Flights to Vienna are available for around £144 on Sunday 22nd December with Wizz including a 20kg hold bag (which is only £4 more than a cabin wheelie)

And British Airways has reward seats available in Business Class on Monday 23rd for the equivalent of around £180 - which includes a hold bag

This flights would arrive in time to take the six hour train to Zagreb

Another option is to fly to Venice - get the bus into the train station, and the train to Trieste airport.  There are no direct flights from London to Trieste on 21st or 22nd December 2024.

Dublin to Zagreb for Christmas 2024

Travelling from Dublin to Zagreb isn't the easiest with neither Aer Lingus or Croatian Airlines flying the route.  And it's made more challenging as Ryanair reduce their service to just three days a week in November and December.

Ryanair have evening flights on 20th and 23rd December and a morning flight on 22nd - with a cabin wheely costing an extra 18 euro or a 20kg hold bag an extra 30.49 euro

Of course there are connecting options - with KLM having a decent choice as they code share with Aer Lingus on the DUB-AMS sector and with Croatia Airlines on the AMS-ZAG sector.

Some of the connections only allow 1 hour in Amsterdam Schiphol - so you'd need to consider a possible delay to your luggage arriving (at the very least).

A wheely is included in the KLM pricing, and a 23kg hold bag costs 40 euro or 38/41 euro if you choose the "Standard" bundled pricing!

Zagreb's location means that it's within driving distance of a number of different airports.

Trieste airport is about 2:45 drive from Zagreb - which would cost about 60 euro each way in a SUV

There's a civilised morning flight from Dublin on 21st December, and an uncivilised early departure on 23rd December

Budapest is about 4 hours drive from Zagreb with Ryanair offering morning flights on 20th, 21st & 24th December and afternoon/evening flights on 21st, 22nd & 23rd December.

Aer Lingus also fly DUB-BUD departing at 16:50 five days a week

Aer Lingus allow a 10kg wheelie to be checked in for free or charge 10 euro to carry it on board.  At this time of year a 20kg hold bag costs 40 euro on this route.  Upgrading to "Plus" pricing for 49 euro includes both a carryon and a 20kg hold bag - a whole 1 euro saving (plus free seat selection).

Zagreb's location means that it's within train distance of further airports!

Aer Lingus offer morning flights to Vienna

and Ryanair offer evening flights on 20th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd December and morning flights on 23rd and 24th December

and from Wien Hauptbahnhof (a short 15 minute train connection from the airport) there are various connections to get to Zagreb.  The quickest is the daily 15:58 departure (with a change in Graz) which arrives into Zagreb at 22:20

Prices start at an incredible 29 euro if booked far enough in advance.  And first class (on the Austrian train) costs just 10 euro extra.

Another Fly-Rail option is via Zurich Hauptbahnhof - an easy 10 minute connection from the airport.

Aer Lingus have morning flights on 20th, 21st, 23rd & 24th December and afternoon flights on 20th, 22nd & 23rd December (too late for the train connection).

Swiss have morning or lunchtime flights on 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd & 24th - as well as evening flights each day that are too late for the rail connection.

Swiss include an 8kg wheelie, and charge 30 euro for a checked bag (presumably 20kg).

The overnight sleeper departs Zurich at 20:40 each evening - arriving into Zagreb at 10:39 with sunrise at about 07:44 in this region around Christmas.

However there are expected to be engineering works on this route between Schwarzach-St.Veit and Villach from 18th November 2024 until 13th July 2025 - so maybe not the best time to take the sleeper (or not so sleeper) train!

On the Swiss Railway website a 3 person cabin purchased for single occupancy booked far in advance costs around 250 chf (267 euro) or 125 chf for twin occupancy or 100 chf for triple occupancy.  The SBB website appears a bit flaky with pricing on this route.

On the Austrian Railway website a 3 person cabin purchased for single occupancy costs 250 euro or 210 euro total for twin or triple occupancy.  The Deutsche Bahn website shows the full range of options with more sensible prices

And the NightJet website also shows the full range of Seating / Couchette / Sleeper options for EN40465

There is another daily sleeper train from Stuttgart via Munich Ost to Zagreb - but it also runs over the same track that is subject to engineering works, so isn't a reliable option until Summer 2025.

This EN40237 sleeper service doesn't seem to have couchettes - just seats or cabins

Conclusion

Whilst the sleeper train sounds lovely - Christmas 2024 is not the time to try it out - and you'd get to see more in Summer anyway!

But there are plenty of other options available - with Trieste on Saturday 21st December looking like the best value option.

Dr Bike - London Boroughs

If you cycle in London, Dr Bike is a great way to get little jobs done on your bicycle.  But not all London Boroughs are included on the Dr Bike website, so here is a list of all of them together - since the most convenient session may not be in your own borough.

Different councils have different rules - for example some councils allow Dr Bike to install a new cable for you, but other councils do NOT allow this.

Inner London Boroughs

Camden

NOT currently available  https://www.camden.gov.uk/cycling

Greenwich

https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200302/cycling/1845/free_bike_repair_and_advice_service

Filter by "Dr Bike Session"  https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/greenwich/

Hackney

https://hackney.gov.uk/cycle-training

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/hackney/

Hammersmith and Fulham - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/cycling/cycle-training-and-maintenance

Islington - not listed on Dr Bike

https://islington.coordinate.cloud/courses/dr-bike-sessions/

Kensington and Chelsea - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/streets-and-transport/cycling-and-walking/dr-bike-sessions

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/sport/active-travel/dr-bike/

Lambeth

https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/streets-roads-transport/cycling-walking/get-free-cycle-maintenance-checks-find-dr-bike-event

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/lambeth/

Lewisham - not listed on Dr Bike

https://lewishamcyclists.org.uk/calendar-of-events/

Southwark - not listed on Dr Bike

https://southwarkcyclists.org.uk/drbike/

Tower Hamlets

NOT available  https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/transport_and_streets/cycling/cycling.aspx

Monthly workshop  https://www.towerhamletswheelers.org.uk/bicycle-maintenance-workshop

Wandsworth - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/transport/active-modes-of-travel/cycling/dr-bike/

Westminster

https://www.westminster.gov.uk/tackling-climate-change-westminster/how-you-travel/cycling

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/city-of-westminster/

Outer London Boroughs

Barking and Dagenham - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/adult-social-care/health-and-wellbeing/cycling-borough/cycling-resources-becontree-heath

Barnet - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.barnet.gov.uk/roads-and-pavements/transport-and-around-barnet/cycling/free-dr-bike-sessions-barnet

Bexley

NOT currently available  https://www.bexley.gov.uk/services/parking-transport-and-streets

Brent - not listed on Dr Bike

April to October  https://cycletastic.org.uk/

Bromley - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.bromley.gov.uk/DrBike

Croydon

NOT currently available  https://www.croydon.gov.uk/parking-streets-and-transport/travel/cycling

Ealing - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201176/cycling/3285/free_bike_repair_and_advice_service

Enfield

https://journeysandplaces.enfield.gov.uk/get-going/dr-bike-repair-service/

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/enfield/

Haringey

NOT available  https://new.haringey.gov.uk/streets-roads-travel/travel/cycling/cycling-haringey

Harrow

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/harrow/

Havering

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/havering/

Hillingdon

NO instances currently scheduled  https://discover.hillingdon.gov.uk/drbike

Hounslow - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20053/transport/1985/cycling_in_hounslow/3

Kingston upon Thames - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.kingston.gov.uk/cycling-3/dr-bike-fancy-check/1

Merton - not listed on Dr Bike

https://www.merton.gov.uk/streets-parking-transport/road-safety/dr-bike

Newham

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/newham/

Redbridge

NOT currently scheduled  https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/roads-and-pavements/cycling/bike-servicing-and-recycling/

Richmond upon Thames

NOT available  https://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/roads_and_transport/vehicles/active_travel

Sutton

NOT currently available  https://www.sutton.gov.uk/cycling

Waltham Forest

https://www.cycleconfident.com/sponsors/waltham-forest/

British Airways - Avios per Mile for Business Class reward flights

Last February we created a graph looking at British Airway Avios redemptions.

Recently three mid haul routes have swapped from Long Haul widebody aircraft (or specially configured Mid Haul aeroplanes) to Short Haul single aisle aircraft - with "european" business class.  This means that where you were previously got a lovely lie flat bed or a proper business seat - now you just get a better meal and an empty middle seat!

Sensibly BA have reduced the number of Avios required for these three mid haul destinations so reflect the reduction in service.

Previously at 70,000 Avios for a business class redemption Amman, Cairo & Tel Aviv were by far the worst use of Avios (on a mile flown basis) at over 30 Avios per mile - now at 24,250 Avios one way they are some of the best at around 11 Avios per mile flown.

Obviously it's a fundamentally different product that you're buying now with just a standard seat.

As a point of comparison a reward flight from Heathrow to Dublin at 9,750 Avios costs you nearly 35 Avios per mile flown.

So the new Avios reward level of 24,250 Avios for a mid haul Business Class flight looks like a good deal - now you just need to compare it with cash flights to see if it's good value!

Qatar Airways - best use of Avios

Last year I looked at the best use of Avios in terms of miles flown for Business Class redemptions on British Airways flights.

This week Head for Points created a table of Qatar Airways redemptions, showing the Avios required for flights from London - so I thought it was time to dig out last year's spreadsheet!

The bottom line is that the further you fly, the better value the redemption, purely on a miles per Avios basis - rather than looking at the cost of cash fares.  The lower on the graph, the better the value.

Auckland and Qatar's four Australian destinations are your best options - all requiring 90,000 avios for a single redemption flight in Business Class.

Bali, Davao and Jakarta are the best options if you've got 80,000 avios available.  But all the redemptions at this level are good value.

Singapore and Kuala Lumpar are great value for 75,000 avios - but this is where things get complicated.  The six worst redemptions at this level on the graph are all in West Africa - where the backtracking element makes them bad value.  There's also three destinations in Morocco, as well as Algiers, which are so poor value that they broke the graph and aren't displayed!

At the 65,000 avios level - Colombo is the best value, and I'd be happy with any of the redemptions.  The one exception is Tunis - which again is such awful value that it's off the top of the graph.

Goa is the best value redemption at the 55,000 avios level.  The four poor value destinations on the graph are Alexandria, Beirut, Cairo and Amman.

Salalah is your top value 45,000 avios redemption - but all of destinations at this level are reasonable.

It seems slightly strange that a Doha redemption at 43,000 avios ends up worse than lots of other cities - but it's still reasonable.

Compared to the British Airways graph, the Qatar Airways graph shows much more overlap between different redemption levels.  There are good value redemption destinations at every level of the Qatar Airways reward chart.

Just make sure you avoid the five destinations which are truly awful value for redemptions!

Aer Lingus redemption flights - Avios.com closing down

Avios.com used to be your go-to site for making Aer Lingus redemption bookings.

EI redemption flights are now usually available on BA.com but the "taxes & fees" are often higher on the BA website - and sometimes BA have less redemption seats available.

Avios.com will soon be closing down - and Aer Lingus redemptions will then be bookable on the Aer Lingus website.

Before the Avios.com closure happens I want to look at redemption prices so that we can compare and contrast once AerLingus.com functionality opens up.

For this analysis I'm using the London Heathrow to Ireland West Airport at Knock route - Aer Lingus is the only airline that flies LHR-NOC

If you book a single LHR - NOC it's 4,000 avios + £27.74 on Avios.com

And it's 4,000 avios + £50.74 on BA.com

If you book a single NOC - LHR it's 4,000 avios + £14.50 on Avios.com

And it's 4,000 avios + £35.90 on BA.com

(all passengers pay 10 euro "development fee" on departure)

The price of return redemptions on Avios.com is the same as booking two singles.

The price of return redemptions on BA is almost the same as booking two singles.

Avios.com redemptions come with one free hold bag, so I've never found a reason to pay the higher fees on BA.com

The Avios.com website is pretty awful, and sometimes Amex cards aren't accepted, but if the saving is significant I usually manage to use it

Hopefully redemptions on AerLingus.com will price the same as Avios.com rather than BA.com

  

Dublin to Shanghai - part deux

I wrote previously about looking for flights to Shanghai that were cancellable for a reasonable fee, as the Chinese visa had not been obtained.

Now that the Chinese visa has been obtained, life is simpler ... and we're just looking for the usual price / timing / routing matrix!

Starting off with the basic Skyscanner query - departing at the start of February, and returning at the end of March ...

Luckily the prices have barely increase in the six weeks since we last looked

British Airways has the eight cheapest combinations - and the departure and connection timings of the BA flights look pretty good.

One aspect which complicates the comparison is that some airlines include a hold bag in their basic fee (mostly Middle East airlines) whilst most of the European airlines do not.  And then you need to work out whether it's better to add a bag separately, or accept the airline's "standard" fare.  Thankfully BA make it pretty simple - 35 euro for a bag on the way out and 34 euro for a bag on the way back, and no bundling / unbundling calculations to work out.

This gives a grand total of 577 euro for the return flights including one hold bag.

577 euro is actually cheaper than any other airline on the original Skyscanner list - so we don't have to go and see what their baggage fees are!

Looking at departures within a few days of the original dates - all the best options are still British Airways, which makes the analysis straightforward.

On the outbound journey the last few days in January are priced the same as the 1st February

On the inbound journey there are options either side of 31st March with the same price

On the BA website they offer both Aer Lingus and British Airways flights for the Dublin to Heathrow legs - but since Aer Lingus use a different terminal, it's definitely worth selecting the BA flights so that the connection between the two flights is within the same terminal.

And in the unlikely event of missing the outbound connection - China Eastern have both a mid afternoon and an evening departure from Heathrow, so I would expect BA to use one of them.  Or a night in a Heathrow hotel isn't the worst thing that could happen!

Conclusion:  all the way with BA ... now just book your flights!

Dublin to Shanghai

I'm looking for a return flight from Dublin to Shanghai departing around Thursday 1st February and returning around Sunday 31st March.  Usually I'm not interested in the T&Cs - but on this occasion I may want some amount of flexibility.

First over to Skyscanner ... and British Airways has the cheapest fares for the exact dates - starting from 497 euro (travel agent) ... and 504 euro directly from BA without hold luggage ... or 573 euro with one hold bag

Excluding BA the next cheapest prices are KLM and Air France

And excluding BA, KLM and Air France - the next options are with Virgin Atlantic

Looking one day either side of the original dates on Skyscanner doesn't result in any cheaper flights

Now moving to Kayak - their date matrix shows that by chance, the original dates are actually the cheapest

Looking at these flights on the British Airways website and the fare conditions ... it appears there is no penalty to change the ticket (but of course the fare difference can be significant) especially close to departure.  No refunds are permitted on this fare - which is not ideal.

Taking the "Economy Flexible" option on the BA website - the price becomes a jaw dropping 4,436 euro

Looking at these flights in BA Premium Economy - they are still non refundable

Even in BA business class - the tickets are non refundable

So what about the KLM flights - the cheapest including hold luggage is 756 euro - considerably more expensive than British Airways.  This ticket can be changed (subject to fare difference) but is not refundable

There is a refundable option on these flights (cancel before first flight) - which costs a total of 906 euro including baggage fees.

With the refundable option being so much more expensive - it's then worth checking other airlines / online travel agents

Looking at Expedia - the original British Airways flights are available for a "no cancel fee" price of 745 euro (including baggage).  But if you go through to the booking T&Cs - it says there's a 204 euro cancellation fee - which doesn't give me great confidence in Expedia.

Usually we could try BA Holidays or Virgin Holidays to see what sort of flexible package was available - but sadly neither of them offer "holidays" to Shanghai

Looking at other airlines as well:

British Airways - cheapest including luggage 573 euro; refundable 4,436 euro

Virgin Atlantic - cheapest including luggage 592 euro; refundable fare 1,720 euro

KLM/AF - cheapest including luggage 756 euro; refundable 906 euro

SAS - cheapest including luggage 787 euro; refundable fare 987 euro

Etihad - cheapest including luggage 846 euro; mostly refundable fare 1,243 euro

Qatar - cheapest including luggage 863 euro; refundable 1,843 euro

Lufthansa - cheapest including luggage 894 euro; mostly refundable fare 1,143 euro

Turkish - cheapest including luggage 999 euro; mostly refundable fare 1,129 euro

Emirates - cheapest including luggage 1,129 euro - but this is actually mostly refundable

So the current best price for a refundable ticket is KLM/AirFrance for 906 euro

The next step is to phone up travel agents such as Trailfinders to see what sort of flexible fare types they have available.  And whether they are able to hold flights until after a visa application result is received.

Another option is to book a reward flight and cancel it for a 42 euro fee once the result of the visa application has been received - and book a cheap cash fare.

London to Nantes

I'm thinking about a trip to Nantes for an event in the evening of Saturday 16th September

SNCF will sell me consolidated rail tickets (with a change of station in Paris) for an eye watering 439 euro

Departing Nantes mid morning would reduce the price by about 100 euro, but that's not appealing considering it's already a short trip

If I booked the tickets separately ... the Eurostar ticket would be £278 or approx 325 euro and the TGV would be 120 euro ... 6 euro more expensive than the consolidated ticket

Taking the train via Brussels would cost £223 for the Eurostar (approx 260 euro) and 324 euro for the Brussels to Nantes ticket ... so considerably more expensive!

So what about flights ...

Ryanair have an early afternoon flight from Stansted to Nantes for a very reasonable £50 ... with more tickets available for £58

On the way back to London the Ryanair afternoon flight is £184 or the evening Easyjet flight is £286 ... so a total of either £234 or £336 ... both options being cheaper than the train

Looking at alternative options flying back ...

Waiting until Monday evening - Ryanair have a bargain £18 late flight back to Stansted

or taking the TGV direct to Charles de Gaulles (95 euro) there are flights to London for £70 giving a total price of around £150 ... which is only a moderate saving compared to the £184 Ryanair flight

There's also the option of taking a train to La Rochelle (26 euro) and an evening flight from La Rochelle to London (£49) ... which is a saving of over £100 compared to the direct flight from Nantes

I think I'd choose to fly back from La Rochelle - a more interesting journey !