Heathrow - West Drayton or Hayes & Harlington hack

A few years ago Transport for London hit Heathrow travellers with price rises - which spawned the Hatton Cross hack.

As well as the tube charging a premium for airport travel, the Elizabeth Line also whacks on a hefty surcharge for venturing into the airport grounds.

A trip from Bond Street to Heathrow T5 will set you back an eye watering £13.90 with no discount for travelling off peak.  At this price even the ludicrously expensive Heathrow Express starts to look reasonable!

But if you alight at West Drayton instead - which has up to 7 trains per hour in peak - you benefit from a massive discount!  A whopping £10.10 off peak.

From West Drayton or Hayes & Harlington stations it's around 20 minutes on the bus into the Central Bus station for Terminals 2 or 3 - which uses up £1.75 of your saving.

If you just miss the bus at West Drayton, and if you don't have heavy bags, you may be able to canter down the road and jump on your bus at the end stop if there's a decent amount of traffic!

From West Drayton it's also easy to get to hotels or venues around the Bath Road - but to get to T5 it gets a bit more complicated with an extra bus or (free) tube / train required.

With the Heathrow premium applying to all Liz Line trips, this hack also works from other stations.  So for example Ealing Broadway to Heathrow will set you back £8.40 or £7.50 off peak.  But going to West Drayton costs just £3.20 or £2.30 off peak.

West Drayton is on the main Slough / Reading route rather than Heathrow spur - so if you're taking advantage of this saving, make sure you board the correct train!

There's also the 278 and SL9 buses from Hayes & Harlington to the Central Bus station - so you can take a Heathrow train and take a bus from H&H if that works better.

Heathrow Express - How Much Does it Really Cost?

Heathrow Express is the train service from Heathrow T5 via T123 non stop to London Paddington.  If you're coming from T4 you need to change at T123.  With a journey time of around 15 minutes from T123 to Paddington it has historically been the most expensive train in Britain.

But with competition from Crossrail / Elizabeth Line, HEX is trying to broaden its appeal with £10 fares for 30 day advance bookings.

However if you've not got your travel plans nailed down 30 days in advance - how much will it really cost?

If you're travelling today or in the next three days you will be charged a whopping £25

But that drops to a marginally less eye watering £22 from day 4 to day 20

From day 21 to day 29 you will be paying a still unreasonable £18.50 for the 15 minute journey

And then the 46% price drop kicks in from 29 days to 30 days before departure.

Is this the biggest cliff edge in British train pricing?

In comparison Stansted Express takes 90 days to get down to their lowest price - using six different price points, with their biggest drop happening at the start of the slide.

Unlike the Stansted Express, HEX does recognise most Railcards (apart from the popular Network Railcard).

Other Transport Options

The Elizabeth Line costs £12.80 to Paddington station or £13.90 to other Zone1 stations.

Liz Line trains continue through Paddington into central London - avoiding a long walk in the station if you're changing from HEX to a tube or train and continuing your journey.

Whilst the whole of the Elizabeth Line accepts contactless payments - if you have a Railcard and are only using the Liz Line you are better off buying a paper or digital ticket.  Remembering that with the Network Railcard a minimum fare applies on weekdays.

And of course the Piccadilly Line is even cheaper with a standard fare of £5.80 from Heathrow to Zone 1 - with a saving of up to £2.20 if you're prepared to do the Hatton Cross hack!

Conclusion

If your travel is nailed down over 30 days in advance, and Paddington is convenient for you, then maybe the £10 Heathrow Express fare will be attractive.

But for everybody else, HEX is unlikely to be a competitive option - despite what their ticket touts dominating Heathrow arrivals would have you believe!

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.

Tube to Heathrow - Hatton Cross hack

Transport for London recently slipped out the news that all journeys to and from Heathrow stations through central London will be charged at peak rates from today.

There doesn't seem to be any official announcement of the bad news from either TfL or the Mayor's office - they seem to have chosen to brief journalists without a detailed press release.

So from today a single fare from Oxford Circus to Debden (Zone 6) will continue to cost you £3.50 off peak, the same journey to Heathrow (Zone 6) will cost you £5.50 at all times.

This only applies to/from or through Zone 1, so if you're west of Zone 1 you're in luck, or if your normal Heathrow journey skirts Zone 1 (using Overground for example) you're also in luck.

Just like how Gatwick journeys are usually cheaper if you change trains at East Croydon and circle the gate line, it's also now cheaper to change trains for Heathrow journeys.

But there are so many different stations where you could split your journey - which should you choose?  It turns out that the answer is simple - Hatton Cross.  Because there's free travel between Hatton Cross and the Heathrow stations, the answer is always Hatton Cross!

The only journey where the answer is anything other than Hatton Cross, is if you are starting in Zone 1 during Peak, and you can change train during Off Peak at a Zone 1/2 boundary station (e.g. Earls Court)

Peak:  From Zone 1 to Zone 1/2 boundary (e.g. Earls Court)  £2.50

Off Peak:  From Zone 1/2 boundary (e.g. Earls Court) to Heathrow  £1.90

Save £1.10

Conclusion

If you want to avoid the £2 fare increase for Off Peak travel between Heathrow and Central London, then for almost everybody changing at Hatton Cross and circling the gate line is the answer.  

And don't forget the East Croydon trick to reduce the cost of your Gatwick travel.

Avios.com vs British Airways Executive Club

I've written before about the ever changing taxes/surcharges charged on Aer Lingus reward flights - and the difference between booking through British Airways Executive club telephone line, and using the Avios.com website.

I was just looking at a simple Heathrow to Dublin one way flight and phoned up BA to compare prices.  What's really weird is the structure of the Avios/price combination - BA's work in the opposite direction that Avios.com use.

For simplicity let's value each Avios at 1p

On Avios.com the Avios/price combinations are:

4,000 avios + £27.82

3,676 avios + £32.82

3,136 avios + £37.82

2,055 avios + £47.82

1,600 avios + £62.82

1,276 avios + £72.82

Using 1p per Avios value, the 4,000 avios option is the best, with the 2,054 avios option close behind.  The 1,276 avios option is by far the worst.

Assuming the British Airways telephone operator gave me the correct prices - their Avios/price combinations are:

4,000 avios + £40.33

3,676 avios + £43.08

3,136 avios + £47.08

2,055 avios + £55.33

1,600 avios + £60.33

1,276 avios + £65.33

Again using 1p per Avios value, the 2,054 avios option is the best, with the 1,600 avios option close behind.  The 4,000 avios option is the worst.

The best option on Avios.com is significantly cheaper than the best option that the British Airways call agent offered.

But if you only have 1,600 avios to use, then the best option is to book using a British Airways phone operator.

Whilst the Aer Lingus reward flights are still more expensive than the flat Reward Flight Saver option on BA reward flights - at least the Aer Lingus taxes/fees are cheaper than the £39 they were charging a few years ago!

EI avios redemptions available online

You can now search for availability and book Aer Lingus flights using Avios on the Avios.com website ... although you probably won't want to actually book them there !

I've written previously about the high "carrier surcharges" that BA impose on european EI flights - and booking through Avios.com - they are even slightly higher !

Here's a few examples:

LHR - DUB  76 gbp

DUB - LHR  41 gbp

return 117 gbp

For context - if you chose a BA flight and had flown or earned miles in the last year (so were eligible for their lower fees reward flight) a single ex LHR would be 17.5 gbp and a single ex DUB would be 10.3 gbp (book through BA no Avios.com who charge everything at 17.5 gbp)

LGW - NOC  57 gbp

NOC - LGW  36 gbp (plus airport 10 eur "development" fee)

ex NOC return 94 gbp

ex LGW return 92 gbp

when I phoned up BA in June 2015 the NOC - LGW fee was 27 gbp

when I phoned up BA in August 2015 the LGW - NOC fee was 54 gbp

The longhaul prices are a bit more reasonable - but you still shouldn't book them through Avios.com

In the 13,000 avios category (for an off-peak economy single)

DUB - Hartford  100gbp

DUB - Boston  100 gbp

DUB - Chicago  109 gbp

DUB - JFK  100 gbp

In the 16,250 avios category (for an off-peak economy single)

DUB - Orlando  109 gbp

DUB - LAX  117 gbp

For a return flight the taxes and fees come to around 180 gbp - but a commenter over on HeadForPoints rang up BA and for the same flights the taxes and fees are 90 gbp

So ring up BA before booking EI flights on Avios.com

London to St Anton

I'm looking to get to St Anton on Saturday 20th February ... there are loads of different options from London ... so I ended up putting together a spreadsheet to work out the different total costs - including the various different baggage fees from different airlines, and the different rail costs from different airports.  Below are the cheapest flights I could find, ignoring the 7am departures !

I ended up booking this flight to Innsbruck - it has the shortest transfer time - so hopefully I will be able to go and pick up my skis and boots from the hire shop in St Anton on Saturday evening.  The trip from Innsbruck airport into town by bus is quite straightforward ... and with a direct train from the main station at 17:15, i could get a taxi into town if the connection was getting tight.

Dep LGW	13:25
Arr INN	16:25
Flight	76	gbp
Bag	18	gbp
Airport - HBf	2.7	eur
Inn HBf - StAaA	21	eur
Train time	1.5 hrs
Total	112	gbp

Whilst the option of going to Salzburg was a bit cheaper - the airport is a bit of a mosh pit at weekends during the winter, and i wouldn't get into St Anton until after the ski shops had closed.  And the amount Monarch charge for a bag in the hold is just crazy.

Dep LGW	14:15
Arr SZG	17:20
Flight	33	gbp
Bag	23.75	gbp
SZG - StAaA	53.6	eur
Train time	3 hrs
Total	99	gbp

The Friedrichshafen option was quite attractive - but it would mean an earlier start in the morning, and some of the train connections were a bit tight (although there were plenty more trains, it would just take a bit longer).

dep LGW	11:00
arr FDH	13:45
Flight	52	gbp
Bag	18	gbp
FDH - StAaA	31	eur
Train time	2.5 hrs	3 changes
Total	94	gbp

I've never flown to or from Memmingen airport ... but it just sounded like too much effort on this occasion (including a not overly frequent bus service from the airport to the train station) ... even though the fare is very good.

dep STN	11:45
arr FMM	14:30
Flight	33	gbp
Bag - guess	15	gbp
FMM - HBf	3	eur
Memm - StAaA	48	eur
Train time	4 hrs
Total	88	gbp

I really like Zurich airport, and the fact that mainline trains depart from underneath the airport - but the fare just wasn't competitive.

dep LHR	15:40
arr ZRH	20:05
Flight	86	gbp
Bag	20	gbp
ZRH - StAaA	54	eur
Train time	2.75 hrs
Total	148	gbp

I also looked at prices to Munich - but sadly the cheap Lufthansa flights arrived to late to make the last train to St Anton.

Flights to Geneva weren't particularly cheap, and the train costs around 120 euro each way - so the totals weren't competitive.

Dublin to Ischgl for a few days skiing

Ischgl isn't the easiest of places to get to from Dublin ... there aren't (m)any direct flights from Dublin to Innsbruck (the nearest) airport to Ischgl ... so the journey is a bit longer ...

The other complication is that Swiss (the airline) seem to have gone back to the dark ages with their pricing ... single flights are exorbitant ... so if there isn't a flight in one of the directions on one of the days that you want - you're screwed !

Aiming to fly out of Dublin on Tuesday 2nd February ...

Dep Dublin 16:15
Arr Zurich 19:25
price 79 eur plug baggage (EI)

Dep Zurich Flughafen 20:18
Arr Landeck Zams bahnhof 23:42
price approx 60 eur

Taxi to Ischgl
price ?

Another option is to fly to Innsbruck on a connecting flight ... with plenty of time to check in again in LGW

Dep Dublin 07:35
Arr LGW 09:10
price 23.40 eur plus baggage (FR)

Dep LGW 11:30
Arr INN 14:30
price 68 eur plug baggage (EZY)

Bus F from the Flughafen terminal to the Hauptbahnhof takes less than 20 mins and departs every 15 mins
price 2.7 eur

Dep Innsbruck Hbf	15:57	17:01
Arr Landeck-Zams	16:58	17:57
Dep Landeck-Zams	17:05	18:05
Arr Ischgl	17:58	18:58

Price 16.1 eur for the train (postbus not bookable online - fare approx 10 eur)

A further option is to fly to Salzburg - one advantage of this routing is sold as a connecting flight by BA (although DUB-LGW is operated by EI) - so if you miss the connection in LGW, it's up to BA to find you a new one !

Dep Dublin 07:00
Arr LGW 08:25
Dep LGW 10:05
Arr Salzburg 13:05
price 157 eur including baggage

Dep Salzburg Flughafen	14:25	15:25
Arr Salzburg Hbf	14:47	15:47
Dep Salzburg Hbf	15:00	15:56
Arr Landeck-Zams	17:39	18:30
Dep Landeck-Zams	18:05	19:05
Arr Ischgl	18:58	19:58

Price 53.6 eur


Accommodation

Ischgl has a reasonable amount of accommodation bookable through the town's website - with B&Bs in the town (rather than in Mathon which is 5km away) from about 55 eur per person per night sharing.  Ganahl is showing availability on the website - others may be available offline by email the tourist office.


Return flight

Need to get back into Dublin around lunchtime on Sunday 7th February ... so looking at options that give a full day skiing on Saturday 6th ...

None of the airports have late flights on Saturday to Dublin - so starting off looking at late flights to London (so could fly to Dublin on Sunday morning) ...

Innsbruck
The last (sensibly priced) flight out on Saturday evening departs at 17:15 - so that's not much good

Salzburg
There's a 19:45 flight on Saturday evening from to London for just 37 eur - but you'd have to leave Ischgl by 2pm in order to make it

Zurich
The 20:50 departure to LHR is 148 eur - that would mean leaving around 3pm

Munich
The last flight from to London on Saturday night is soon after 7pm - so that's not much use


Looking at travelling to direct to Dublin on Sunday morning - so spending Saturday night near the airport ...

Munich
dep Ischgl 17:58 (or 15:58) and arr Munich 22:21 (or 21:15) for 39 eur (no price showing for earlier timings)
dep Munich Sunday at 11:05 and arr Dublin 12:45 for 106 eur plus baggage (EI)
or Sunday evening departure at 20:10 (arr Dub 21:50) for 100 eur plus baggage (EI)

Zurich
EI direct flight departing at 8pm (arr Dub at 21:25) for 102 eur
or connecting BA flight departing at 7am (arr Dub at 12:20) for 150 eur

Innsbruck
No direct flights
connecting FR/EZY flights departing at 10:45 (arr Dub 15:35) for 150 eur with 2:35 in Luton to transfer / check in

Salzburg
No direct flights
connecting FR flights departing at 10:30 (arr Dub 15:05) for 99 eur with 2:05 in Stansted to transfer / check in


Looking at travelling to London on Sunday evening

Munich
8pm departure for 86 eur plus bag (EZY) or 9.15pm departure for 100 eur - but doesn't work with connections
to make the 8pm departure - would need to leave Ischgl around 2pm

Zurich
9.25pm departure for 171 eur plus bag (EZY)
departing Ischgl soon after 3pm would get you to the airport by 7.45pm

Innsbruck
sadly the last flight to london is at 5.40pm (for a crazy 473 eur) and the 3.10pm flight (for a still hefty 219 eur) isn't very helpful

Salzburg
the last flight to london is at 5.05pm for 157 eur with BA
departing Ischgl soon after 10am would get you to the airport for 2.30pm - trains only every 2 hours

uganda in October / November ...

looking to go to Uganda mid October, returning Sunday 3rd November ... after visiting the town of Pakwach for an event at 2pm

the best outbound flight option seems to be the Kenya Airways LHR - NBO departing 20:00 arriving 06:30 with a connection on to EBB departing at 07:55 arriving into Kampala at 09:15
for the return journey the KLM flight departs EBB at 23:30 arriving into Schipol at 05:55 with a connection to LHR departing at 07:15 and scheduled to arrive in London at 07:40
the outbound KLM flight leaves at 11:00 which uses up an extra day's holiday, although it does have the advantage of stopping in Kigali enroute to EBB
total for the Kenya Airways o/bound and KLM i/bound comes to 655 gbp with expedia, and plenty of other websites

for those not as restricted by timings, kayak has the most flexible options, with travelocity offering a 3 day +/- option which results in more or less the same flights ... bizarrely google flights has what looks like really good flexibility functionality, but it doesn't bring up the same (cheap) flights that it produces on standard search !
anyway, all the flight searches point to Turkish airlines being the cheapest - around 480 gbp

whilst in Uganda, to get some ideas for what to do (via the Tour Radar website) come from Gorilla Tours, Dragoman, Peregrine, Absolute Africa, Garuka Safaris, Audley Travel, Pinnacle Safaris, African Bikers, Absolute Africa, World Expeditions, Journey International and Bench International
and a few i found myself Exodus, Explore!, Rainbow Tours, Wildlife Worldwide, PearlAfric, Destination Jungle, Travel Quest, Chameleon and Astro Trails

FlyUganda operates internal flights around Uganda ... for a price !



Updated 26/5/13 - added Chameleon to list of tour operators.