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 !

British Airways Avios Peak analysis - 2024 dates

Today Head for Points obtained the unreleased calendar of 2024 dates when British Airways are charging top dollar (Avios) for redemptions.

This has a big impact - for example an off peak redemption from London to Innsbruck is 4,750 avios (plus fees), whilst the same redemption on a peak day costs 5,250 avios (plus fees).

The first key take away is that the number of peak days in 2024 is identical to 2023 - so in that respect we're not getting screwed over by BA !

2020  138
2021  138
2022  140
2023  139
2024  139

For 2022 redemptions BA made a shift into reducing the number of peak days in Summer months, and this carrier through to 2023 redemptions.  This has mostly held for 2024 redemptions apart from a noticeable increase in August - back up to 27 peak days.

The other big change for 2024 is October - now just 5 days are classified as peak - the first time it's been in single digits.  April is also now a better time to redeem your avios, with just 11 peak dates.

For 2022 redemptions British Airways reduced the number of peak Wednesdays throughout the whole year, with Tuesdays gradually reducing across 2022 and 2023.  For 2024 there seems to have been a change of heart about Wednesdays - with a big jump in peak dates from 5 to 15.  Tuesdays are now the better time to use your avios - with just 5 peak Tuesdays throughout 2024.

You also have four more off peak Fridays in 2024 compared with 2023 redemptions.

Conclusion

The clear winner for 2024 are people who can redeem their Avios on a Tuesday and those redeeming during October.

The big loser for 2024 are people who want to redeem their Avios in August.

Caveat

Whilst this calendar applies to British Airways redemption flights, Aer Lingus and Iberia have their own calendars.  This causes problems for British Airways' shoddy IT on routes where both BA and EI fly - for example London to Dublin.

For example Friday 9th February is a BA peak date (school half term), but in the redemption screen under the date BA claim it's an off peak day - but the off peak badge is missing from the individual BA flights, and if you click through, you need 5,250 peak avios (instead of 4,750 off peak).

On routes which are only flown by Aer Lingus the off peak sticker is missing from the dates, but is correctly displayed on the individual flights.

On the London to Madrid route the 9th February does have an off peak sticker - but both BA and IB are charging peak avios.

So for these routes, you need to ignore the claim under the date, and just look at the individual flights.  Your mileage may (literally) vary!

Last bus to Ischgl

Whilst I love skiing in Ischgl, one of the challenges of getting there under your own steam is that it's not on a train line - you have to get a bus up the mountain from Landeck-Zams railway station.

And whilst the bus is fairly frequent, it doesn't run very late - so this post looks at how late you can leave London / northern Europe and get to Ischgl without using a taxi.

In Winter 2022/23 the last 260 bus from Landeck-Zams station to Ischgl departed at 19:10 each evening (page 2 of the pdf).

INN to Landeck-Zams

Travelling by train from Innsbruck station the latest connection departs at 17:52 arriving into LZ at 18:56 but there's also a faster 17:47 departure arriving into LZ at 18:31 which looks like a safer option.

The F bus departs the airport every 20 minutes (at 17, 37 & 57 minutes past the hour) and takes just 17 minutes to get to the train station.  So the 17:17 bus from the airport, arrives at the train station at 17:34 in time for the 17:47 train.  The traffic in Innsbruck has always been ok when I've travelled through it, and Innsbruck station is well laid out to get to your platform quickly.

Earlier this year when I made this journey I bought a through ticket including the F bus, the train, and the 260 bus for just 19 euro - which was considerably cheaper than paying for each segment separately.

In order to be outside Innsbruck airport by 17:17 it means that you would need to leave London by around 13:30 ... which is unfortunate since there's a British Airways departure from Gatwick at 14:25 which is scheduled to arrive into INN at 17:30 ... but with the need to clear immigration (they don't separate EU and non EU arrivals) and collect your suitcase ... it's just too tight to catch the last train that connects with the last bus!

SZG to Landeck-Zams

Travelling by train from Salzburg station the latest connection departs at 15:56 arriving into LZ at 18:31 (stopping at Innsbruck on the way).

Bus Number 2 departs the airport every 15 minutes and take 22 minutes to get to the train station - although you can save a few minutes if you swap to the tram.  You could theoretically get the 15:30 bus from the airport and get to the train station at 15:52 to catch the train - but that's probably too tight!

In order to be outside Salzburg airport by 15:15 it means leaving London around 11:30 ... which is fairly civilised.

ZRH to Landeck-Zams

Train connection from Zurich airport aren't that frequent, so the latest departure from ZRH is at 14:23 (two changes required) arriving into LZ at 18:02 ... which would the connect with the 18:10 and 18:40 buses up the mountain.  There's also a 14:15 departure from ZRH which requires just one change of train (in Zurich Hauptbahnhof) arriving into LZ at 17:25 and connecting with the 17:40 bus to Ischgl.

With Zurich airport having it's own train station it eliminates the need for a bus connection.  In order to be down at the station underneath ZRH for the 14:15 train you would need to leave London around 11am ... which is also fairly civilised.

MUC to Landeck-Zams

Whilst Munich airport has good transport options (roughly every 20 minutes on the S8), it does take a good half hour to get into the city.  Departing the airport at 15:04 delivers you into the Munich East station at 15:35 connecting with the 15:44 departure to Innsbruck.  This arrives into Innsbruck at 17:18 giving plenty of time to get to LZ.  If you were to miss the 15:44 Innsbruck train, there's a slightly later departure at 15:58 which requires two changes (Rosenheim and Kufstein) which gets you into LZ at the same time.  If you missed the 15:58 train, the next ones are at 17:50 and 17:58 - so don't miss it!

In order to catch the 15:04 train from Munich airport - you would need to leave London around 11am ... which is still fairly civilised.

FDH to Landeck-Zams

There's two flights every Saturday from London to Friedrichshafen ... a 9:40 Easyjet flight from Gatwick and a 13:50 Lufthansa departure from Heathrow.

In order to make the last bus to Ischgl you would need to catch the 14:35 train from the airport station - which takes you the two stops into the main station, and connects with the 15:32 train to LZ.  Even if you chose to catch a taxi the short distance into the town station, the 15:32 is the last train which gets to LZ in time for the last bus.

This means that only the Easyjet flight will get you into FDH in time to make it to Ischgl.

Conclusion

In order to catch the last bus to Ischgl, you need to leave London around 11am for Salzburg, Zurich or Munich or 1pm for Innsbruck - which means that lots of flights are just too late.

The moral of the story is that it would be really helpful to have some later buses up the mountain to Ischgl from Landeck-Zams station - especially at the weekend when most people arrive.

New Zealand for Christmas

A friend is looking for flights to New Zealand for Christmas - travelling out around 16th December, and getting back by 6th January.

He wants to stop in Sydney for a few days on the way out, and stop in Melbourne for a few days on the way back.

For these type of multi city itineraries, I tend to start with Kayak or Skyscanner

And the results are pretty eye watering, as you might expect ... despite being 3 stops on the first leg ... and that's without checking if these are consolidated tickets

The cheapest routing with less than three stops is also 10 hours shorter journey time on the first leg

Another option is to split up the trip into a London - Australia trip, and an Australia - NZ trip

So looking at the SYD - CHC - MEL ... it's close to £500

Or booked separately as two singles the cheapest flights would cost even more [£231 + £277] 

Then looking at the London - Australia routings ... a LON - SYD and MEL - LON open jaw routing is coming in under £1,200

Departing London on Sunday 17th December would save £100 off this price

Departing Melbourne on Thursday 4th January would be the same price

And finally, another option is a simple London - Sydney return (with an extra single from Melbourne to Sydney) - more expensive than the open jaw

or a simple London - Melbourne return (with an extra single from Sydney to Melbourne) - again more expensive than the open jaw

Another benefit from booking one open jaw ticket is that on entering New Zealand, you can show a return flight out of the country - although that may not be of concern depending on passport requirements!

So my advice is to book the China Southern flights directly on the airline website now [after booking travel insurance!] ... and then keep an eye on the Australia - CHC flights  ... and book them if a deal pops up, or if they don't seem to be changing

Although before doing anything, it's probably worth calling up a couple of bricks and mortar travel agents to see if they have any deals

Flight Centre 

Trailfinders

British Airways Airbus A380 maintenance downtime

British Airways received the first of their magnificent Airbus A380s in July 2013

With just 12 aircraft purchased, British Airways always planned to contract out the A380 heavy maintenance - initially they were sent to Singapore, and later the contract was moved to Manila

The first of the maintenance flights started in June 2015 - these first checks were usually completed within a month

The second round of maintenance downtime started in March 2017 - and these trips were usually over two months, although the three newest aircraft were completed within a month

The third round of maintenance started in October 2018 - and these sessions usually took closer to three months, although the three newest aircraft were completed within two months

The fourth round of maintenance started in September 2021 - and aircraft were generally out in Manila over two months

The full list of movements can be found in this FlyerTalk forum thread

The question arose recently as to how many of the SuperJumbos were usually available to British Airways for revenue flights - so I decided to do some number crunching

This analysis looks at how many aircraft were available for the full month - often BA would send out one aircraft to Manila and a few days later bring back another - in this analysis that counts as two aircraft being unavailable during the month

When an aircraft left on the last day of a month or returned on the first day of a month, I've ignored it to keep the analysis relatively straightforward

This table shows that over the course of seven and a half years that British Airways have had on average 10.9 aircraft available for the whole month

Since the second round of maintenance checks started in March 2017 - in the following three and a half years (43 months) there were just five months where all 12 aircraft were available

With all the comings and goings it's sometimes easy to lose sight of the bigger picture - hopefully this gives an insight into the availability of A380s in the British Airways schedule

Sending Luggage Separately - part 2

Back in 2018 I wrote a post about sending a piece of luggage from Ireland to the UK

Now I'm looking at sending a cabin bag sized item from Ireland to Portugal

There seem to be plenty of companies offering these services - lots more than 5 years ago, so maybe the concept is getting more popular in Europe

Below is a list of companies sorted by PRICE - I'm not checking review sites to see how good these companies actually are at delivering on time!

SendMyBag.com  charge £66 for a 20kg bag under their "Standard" service (taking 4-5 days)

And they charge £256 for their "Express" service (taking 1-2 days)

These are return prices

EuroSender.com  charge €40.98 for a 15kg bag one way using their "Regular" service (taking 4 business days)

This seems like a One Way price - with the return journey being the same price

MyBaggage.com charge £42 for "Economy" service (taking 4-5 days) up to 20kg

They charge £96 for their "Express" service (taking 1-2 days) for the same weight

These prices appear to be one way

LuggageDeliveryCompany.com appear to charge £63.08 for a 15 kg bag - but after "surcharges" it's actually £74.41 - and this is definitely a one way price

FirstLuggage.com  charge a whopping £156.55 for a 15kg bag

Unclear if this is single or return

And finally  Sherpr.com  appear high on the google search returns - but it doesn't offer this routing

The cheapest option of £66 for a return delivery seems like a reasonable price to pay to avoid lugging your bag around if you aren't in a fit state to lug !

Avios Required per Mile Flown - Graph

Head for Points has an interesting post today about the number of Avios required for all British Airways long haul destinations compared to the number of miles flown.

HfP are using one way Club Class flights for this analysis.

I thought it would be interesting to graph the results to see what jumps out.

While Sydney is obviously in a league of its own - many of us don't have 145,000 Avios sitting around, or plan our travel 355 days in advance to grab a redemption flight to Australia.

Whilst Cape Town and Santiago are clearly the next best alternatives it's after that where it gets more interesting.

Yes the 110,000 and 100,000 redemptions offer good value, but actually the 90,000 redemptions are almost as good, and obviously more achievable for those of us with smaller Avios balances.

At the other end of the scale, the best redemption of 70,000 Avios (Abuja) is worse value than the worst redemption of 90,000 Avios (Charleston).  And Cincinnati is the only 80,000 redemption that stands out as being half decent value.

For me, the moral of the story is not to waste my Avios on 70k or 80k redemptions - longer is better when it comes to redeeming on long haul.

 

Avios Subscriptions - offer ends 30th April 2023

Yesterday British Airways announced a new Avios "Subscription" service

There are four different levels - and two different ways to pay - either an Annual payment or Monthly payments

Whilst it's clearly better value to make a one off Annual payment - I wanted to see just how big a difference it made ... so I ran the numbers ...

Wow - the difference really is huge - roughly 20% extra to pay by monthly instalments at each level

But the real shocker is that paying monthly for 200,000 Avios is 16% more expensive than making a one off payment for 20,000 Avios

So the moral of the story - if you do need some extra Avios, make a one off payment ... even though the Avios will still arrive month by month into your account

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.

Updated: Countries and Cities to visit ...

Africa
Cape Verde islands - stay a bit longer this time
Botswana
Ethiopia - including the mountains
Libya - Roman ruins, and desert
Madagascar - lemurs permitting
Namibia - including Okavango Delta, Kolmanskop ghost town
Zimbabwe - including Victoria Falls

Americas
Brazil - Rio including Fasano hotel infinity pool, Niteroi art gallery, grilled steak at Rubaiyat restaurant; Amazon
Canada - including polar bears
Colombia
Costa Rica - done!
Cuba - including Havana and Vinales - done!
Equador - Galapagos
Mexico - Mayan stuff around Cancun
Panama - including canal
Peru - Inca Trail / Machu Pichu
USA - including Washington DC (done!), Grand Canyon (done!), Boston - including Opera House, Chicago - including Frank Lloyd Wright buildings (such as Fallingwater), Denali NP, Total Solar Eclipse Aug-17

Venezuela - maybe a tepui

Antarctica
The Peninsula - done!
South Georgia - done!


Asia
Armenia
Bhutan
Georgia - including the soviet architecture in Tbilisi

Indonesia - including Borneo
Iran - including Isfahan and Persepolis, Tehran - including Contemporary Art Gallery

Japan - Hashima Island near Nagasaki, Yokohama
Laos

Lebanon - including skiing

Malaysia

Philippines
Kuwait - to fill in the gaps
South Korea
Sri Lanka - including blue whales
Syria - if there's anything left
Thailand
Turkey - Istanbul
Vietnam


Australasia
Australia - Tasmania, Western, Central and Northern, GBR
New Zealand - all


Europe
Aland Islands - done !
Austria - Vienna - including Opera

Azores - maybe this walking trip or this self guided one
Belgium - Antwerp - including 5 Continents house
Croatia - including Zagreb
Cyprus - including border area and countryside
Denmark - Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen
Finland - the lakes, the north
France - Corsica; the bridge in the sky; Matisse chapel at Vence; Lille; Chateau de Chambord - for the double helix staircase; Versailles - including the Royal Opera (done!); Nice - including Opera; Paris - L'Acajou restaurant, Jazz Club; Roubaix - including La Piscine museum; Ronchamp - Le Corbusier's chapel of Notre Dame du Haut; Chamonix - nice looking hotel; Noirmoutier including Plages des Dames - and nearby islands; Oradour-sur-Glane (near Limoges)
Germany - Prora and Dessau, Dresden (including the Royal Castle), and Hamburg (for the funny tunnel, and miniature airport)
Gibraltar - airport and back walk up rock (done!)
Greece - Athens, Mount Athos, island hopping
Ireland - Cork - including butter museum, harbour tour, Titanic Experience, Crawford gallery, Hook Head lighthouse

Italy - Sicilian volcanos, Greek Theatre on Sicily, Poggioreale ghost town on Sicily, Sardinia, Tuscany including Montepulciano, Naples, Verona, La Scala in Milano, Como - La baia di Moltrasio bar and restaurant (try fish with Riso in Cagnone) - terrace in summer, Florence - Vasari Corridor will soon be open, Room of Paradise at the recently reopened Museo dell'Opera del Duomo; Calcata town; Castel Gandolfo (train from within Vatican) - must be booked in advance; French Church in Rome; Palio di Siena ; Craco - far south

Netherlands - Amsterdam Modern Art Gallery and other galleries, a concert at Concertgebouw, Panorama Mesdag in The Hague, Delft, Leiden, Het Loo palace
Poland - medieval cities (Krakow done!)
Portugal - including Oporto
Romania - rural parts (sort of done). Crazy road.
Serbia - Belgrade
Spain - including the Moorish bits, Grand Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona
Slovenia - try skiing
Svalbard - done!
Sweden - Stockholm always worth another visit
Ukraine - Kiev, Chernobyl
UK - Falkirk Wheel, Cramond island, Ironbridge, Ludlow in Shropshire, Norwich for Europe's largest medieval street plan, Chatsworth House, Orford Ness reserve ...