Author Topic: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?  (Read 14534 times)

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #50 on: December 18, 2017, 05:10:03 AM »
I've taken plastic sporks (with the serrated edge) through security a few times - I wouldn't be certain that they'd never be confiscated. I've also (not intentionally) gone through security with a metal butter knife, fork and spoon from a previous camping trip. They took them out to look at them to check they weren't weapons, I offered to leave them there and they said it was fine to take them on board. Would not recommend.

Think about how food will react to pressure as well. A tub of yoghurt (purchased after security) should always be opened away from you unless you want to decorate clothes. Packaged food with a lot of air in (crisps etc) can pop as the aircraft climbs.

Kwill

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #51 on: January 02, 2018, 01:44:35 PM »
Expedia.co.uk will give you Nectar points. It's not much but maybe translates to a few pounds off groceries after a long flight.

The UK is nearer to a wide variety of travel destinations than the US is. You can make your American Facebook friends totally jealous of your adventurous life with very little investment. In the States, if you drive or ride on a train for 1000 miles, you can maybe get to Canada or Mexico or maybe just to another state. If you do that from England, you can get to Vienna or Barcelona.

Ryanair has amazing prices if you book ahead and travel light.

SailRail is a lot of bother but a pretty good deal between the UK and Ireland. I waited too long to get a good price on a flight from Dublin to my city in England, so I ended up booking SailRail with Irish Ferries instead and made the trip yesterday. It took a lot of extra time, but the scenery was interesting. This was to connect me with cheaper flights to and from the US out of Dublin.

Christof

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #52 on: January 02, 2018, 04:32:30 PM »
While I understand the sentiments, I'm not sure if "making American Facebook friend jealous" should be a priority in anybody's life at all.

Kwill

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #53 on: January 02, 2018, 05:00:38 PM »
While I understand the sentiments, I'm not sure if "making American Facebook friend jealous" should be a priority in anybody's life at all.

Well, sure. I was thinking of the original post, which sounded a bit wistful / jealous of all the great travel-hacking opportunities in the US. I'm an American living in a historic town in England, so my daily surroundings are an exotic travel destination to most of my friends and family from the States. Add in some work travel and a few personal trips, and I have the most adventurous life ever.

The thing with travel is that a lot of it is perspective. If you were living in eastern Pennsylvania, a trip to London to see the British Museum and take in the sights might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity whereas a trip to New York to see the Met or a trip to DC to see the Smithsonian wouldn't be that exciting.

Christof

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #54 on: January 02, 2018, 05:23:46 PM »
I agree. When trying to explain flight prices to my less point and miles interested US friends, I always point out that the same flight from the US is up to three times more expensive than to the US, because of the number of US tourists, who see visiting Europe as a once in their lifetime thing they are willing to pay for.

However, I've been working for a company in a touristy area of Germany and one of their sayings was: We work were others pay to go for vacation. Then they opened an office in Mauritius and they changed to: We work where others dream of going for vacation... I've been in both places, and working or living there is not as exciting as it sounds...

cerat0n1a

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #55 on: January 03, 2018, 01:26:57 AM »
The thing with travel is that a lot of it is perspective. If you were living in eastern Pennsylvania, a trip to London to see the British Museum and take in the sights might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity whereas a trip to New York to see the Met or a trip to DC to see the Smithsonian wouldn't be that exciting.

Hope I never, ever get to a place where I find a trip to the British Museum, the Met, or the Smithsonian not "that exciting" :-)

You can fly to  and from any of about 40 countries in Europe for less than £100 in the next couple of months (ski resorts excepted, obvs.) I'm not sure how it could be any cheaper.

Kwill, I think you might have had a different perspective on crossing the Irish sea if you'd gone a day later - lot of sailings cancelled due to very stormy conditions - not good if you had a flight to catch.

Kwill

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #56 on: January 03, 2018, 12:02:34 PM »
Kwill, I think you might have had a different perspective on crossing the Irish sea if you'd gone a day later - lot of sailings cancelled due to very stormy conditions - not good if you had a flight to catch.

It's true that there's some uncertainty to the sailings. My original ferry was cancelled along with all but two of the others. But I was lucky in that I'd been hoping to change to the earlier ferry that was one of the remaining options. I'd booked a later one in case my flight was late, but this got me home much earlier in the evening.

londonstache

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #57 on: January 11, 2018, 04:16:13 AM »
@shelivesthedream have you looked at the Metro? Assuming you fly to an airport like Fiumicino, you can get a train to Termini very easily for just a couple of euros and then straight onto the Metro. They go every few minutes so I wouldn't be too concerned about missing it!
I've been to Rome a few times and would recommend a Metro card for the week.

Far cheaper than a taxi. I'd also suggest on £400 for the week you will hopefully live like kings! Food in Italy is fairly cheap and pretty much excellent everywhere.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Cheap travel from the UK - does 'travel hacking' exist here?
« Reply #58 on: January 21, 2018, 02:35:31 AM »
@shelivesthedream have you looked at the Metro? Assuming you fly to an airport like Fiumicino, you can get a train to Termini very easily for just a couple of euros and then straight onto the Metro. They go every few minutes so I wouldn't be too concerned about missing it!
I've been to Rome a few times and would recommend a Metro card for the week.

Far cheaper than a taxi. I'd also suggest on £400 for the week you will hopefully live like kings! Food in Italy is fairly cheap and pretty much excellent everywhere.

Whoops, I'm back now but thanks for this! The main attraction of the taxi was that it was really simple and did not involve more luggage-hefting than strictly necessary. It's a fixed price from Ciampino to the city centre and I was very happy to pay thirty euros each way for an easy life in a day of travelling with my "I hate travelling why do we have to go on holiday oh wait now we're here this is super fun" husband. :) I'm also slightly freaked out by foreign public transport (how do I know what to do and when to do it?? What if everyone hates me??) and we were planning to walk everywhere, so didn't want to give myself the stress of working out how to use the metro just for the one journey (and the most stressful one at that!) MMM has actually made me less tight-fisted about paying for things that will genuinely improve my life, so this was a well-considered expense I was very happy to budget for!