Category Archives: Booking Tips

Should you use Avios to discount your British Airways flight?

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You can now use Avios to reduce the cost of a flight booking but is this a good value?

Discount £10 Costs 1,500 Avios
Discount £20 Costs 3,000 Avios
Discount £30 Costs 4,500 Avios

BA has recently increased the offer so that On longer European routes, if you are booking two or more travellers, you can save up to £100 total:

Discount £60 Costs 9,000
Discount £100 Costs 15,000

Longer routes include London to Athens and London to Istanbul

The redemption value is 0.666 p per Avios (That’s £0.006)

If you’ve converted Tesco Clubcard points to boost your AVIOS you will have actually paid 0.4 p per Avios

So you are in profit – but not by a great margin.

And consider that for 9,000 Avios you may be able to buy a return flight ticket that may cost as much as £200

In which scenario you’d achieve a value of 2p per Avios – which is much better. But finding availability can be difficult, and the discount offer applies to any flight that has an economy fare available.

If you are booking business travel, the Avios discount will be more attractive than attempting to find a completely free ticket.

To obtain your discount, book flights as you would normally on ba.com and after selecting your preferred schedules, you will be offered the opportunity to choose the discount.

You will also earn additional Avios on the booking which will increase the overall value of the deal.

How to find the Avis Car Hire Sale prices

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Avis is offering 20% off their normal rates for cars rented up to Friday 12th December 2014
Bookings can be made up to and including Monday 29th September

The Avis website looks slick but can be difficult to use.

If you click-through from a cashback site or if you just search from their main page (Avis.co.uk) you will NOT be offered the sale prices! You must visit their sale page and click through from there.

Here is the Avis Sale link which will pre-populate the savings code box with this code: L627900

I picked up an Audi A1 recently, 3 days for £117, and was very impressed.

You can earn BA Avios too if you supply your executive membership number

Hold that last British Airways seat for just £5

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One major drawback of booking flights online rather than via a travel agent has been the necessity to book and pay at the same time, all in one transaction. If only one seat is left, you’d have no alternative but to book it immediately. And many low fares are not refundable so you’d lose out should your travelers’ plans change.

Alternatively, travel agents have been able to hold a reservation without any commitment on your part. Some fares only allow seats to be held for one day but most allow this for 3 days or longer, before tickets have to be issued.

British Airways now allow you to hold short-haul bookings for £5 per person and long-haul for £10 per person when booking online. The deposit is deducted from the balance payment. If you do not make the balance payment, you only lose the deposit.

Travel agents can still offer additional benefits though:

Some agents, especially “business travel” agents, will hold seats for you without requiring a deposit, so you have nothing to lose if plans do not materialise

If cheaper seats become available between reservation and ticket date, the agent can re-book at the lower fare and reduce the price you pay. (Naturally, if you’re sure you have already found the lowest possible fare on those flights then that will not happen).

You will however incur a “booking fee” on top of the air fare as travel agents do not earn commission from British Airways

You have to decide whether the travel agent service is worth the additional booking fee and this may change according to the circumstances of each trip.

We think the deposit scheme will be of benefit in some situations.

For more information and terms and conditions visit the British Airways page here.

Where to find Air China discount fares

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We are increasingly asked about flights to China and specifically, Air China flights so we have researched the entire UK travel market for Air China Discount air fares and we’re surprised that nobody offers a discount below the Air China website direct price.

We were looking at London – Beijing – London, Sunday out and Friday back. British Airways quote over £2,000 because the airline requires a Saturday night stay before they’ll offer reasonable prices.

Air China does not have this restriction and offline travel agent fares were in the region of £770 return, including agent fees or markups, and credit card charges.

Expedia priced at £741 with no credit card surcharges. Several other agents offered the £730-£740 range e.g. Opodo at £737 (plus their hidden credit card fees etc)

Air China direct offered a discount fare of £711 which was, by far, the cheapest in the UK
market. Go direct to Air China here.

Note – you’ll need passport details in order to make the reservation.

PS The Air China 2 letter code is CA and the 3 letter airport code is PEK (Peking – now Beijing)

Please note. Booking Business Travel makes no commission from this advice. We simply

want you to find the best deal. If you need a hotel, why not try our comparison engine and

save even more money?!

How does BA American Express Companion Voucher Work?

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What is a British Airways Companion Voucher?

Companion vouchers are earned by the traveller by meeting minimum spend targets on Amex credit cards

The companion voucher is accessible online as an e-voucher via the travellers BA executive club account.

So you’ll need the exec number and password. When you log-in you’ll see the companion voucher and its expiry date.

How to use a companion voucher

The Companion Voucher allows the main British Airways American Express account holder, when making a flight booking using Avios, to book another seat on the journey for a Companion without having to pay the Avios flight price for that Companion.

If the member has 2 vouchers they can take 2 people at the same price!

The account holder will have to pay the tax and fuel surcharges etc which can, for a long haul business class ticket cost typically £500+

Both travellers have to travel in the same cabin (class) and travel together.

The BA site does not allow you to book Avios tickets out  to one city and back from another. You’ll need to call BA. (example: If you want London to Shanghai and Beijing to London) In travel speak this is called an open jaw ticket.

Is it worth spending On Business Points on Marriott hotel bookings?

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The British Airways On Business reward scheme is a generous programme of rewards for bookings made by small to medium sized companies.

Points are earned for British Airways flights and can be spent on flights, upgrades and … Marriott hotels

Marriott hotel rewards have been available for on business points in the form of prepaid vouchers.

For companies who may have points expiring, and with no flights needing to book, Marriott vouchers have been a good way of mopping up any remaining points balance that may have been due to expire at the year end.

All change … the relationship between Marriott and British Airways is due to expire.

You can still “purchase” Marriott vouchers up to 31st December and they can be used for up to 15 months from the date of delivery.

But, are Marriott vouchers worth it?

If your points are going to waste then of course, yes! But, otherwise ?

There are five Worldwide Marriott categories on the British Airways On Business Award Voucher offer with the following points required for one night:

I include the link to save you searching the British Airways Page

Category              Points   Points Value

Classic                   2,000     £100-£300
Signature             3,000     £150-£450

Premier                5,000     £250-£750
Elite                       6,000     £300-£900
Ultimate              7,000     £350-£1,050

Now, trying to find out which Marriott Hotel property is in which category is difficult!

The worst thing about the way that Marriott provide the information, apart from being in a PDF format, is that they duplicate the Classic hotels in the Signature and Premier pages. So, if you spotted the Prague Airport hotel in the Premier pages be warned that you could find it cheaper in the Signature group!

So I have picked mainly European cities and categorized below to make a search simpler.

I also attribute a nominal “points value” that is to say, what the points would have been valued at if you had spent them on flights.

NB The rewards include “last room availability” and breakfast for two

Classic:                 2,000 points, £100+  

The cheapest, mainly Courtyard Brand and in low-cost destinations only.
Example, No European destinations except Pilsen in Czech Republic!

Signature:           3,000, £150+

BERLIN                                  Courtyard Berlin City Center
BUCHAREST                        JW Marriott Bucharest Grand
ROME                                   Courtyard Rome Airport
KUALA LUMPUR               Renaissance Kuala Lumpur

LISBON                                 Lisbon Marriott Hotel
PRAGUE                               Courtyard Prague Airport
PRAGUE                               Courtyard Prague Flora
VIENNA                                                Courtyard Vienna Schoenbrunn
WARSAW                            Courtyard Warsaw Airport

Premiere, 5,000, £250+

AMSTERDAM                     Courtyard Amsterdam Airport
ATHENS                                Athens Ledra Marriott Hotel
BRUSSELS                            Brussels Marriott Hotel
BRUSSELS                            Courtyard Brussels
BRUSSELS                            Renaissance Brussels Hotel
BUDAPEST                          Budapest Marriott Hotel
BUDAPEST                          Courtyard Budapest
HAMBURG                          Courtyard Hamburg Airport
HAMBURG                          Hamburg Marriott Hotel
HAMBURG                          Renaissance Hamburg Hotel
LEIPZIG                               Leipzig Marriott Hotel
MADRID                               A C Hotels
MUNICH                              Courtyard Munich City Center
MUNICH                              Courtyard Munich City East
MUNICH                              Munich Marriott Hotel
MUNICH                              Residence Inn Munich City East
MILAN                                  AC Hotel Milano
ROME                                   Courtyard Rome Airport
ROME                                   Courtyard Rome Central Park
ROME                                   Rome Marriott Park Hotel
STOCKHOLM                      Courtyard Stockholm
WARSAW                            Warsaw Marriott Hotel
VIENNA                              Courtyard Vienna Messe
VIENNA                              Courtyard Vienna Schoenbrunn
VIENNA                              Imperial Riding School
VIENNA                              Renaissance Vienna Hotel
VIENNA                              Renaissance Wien Hotel

ELITE, 6,000, £300+

COPENHAGEN                   Copenhagen Marriott Hotel (Normal commercial rate £200)
FRANKFURT MAIN          Frankfurt Marriott Hotel
PARIS                                    Paris Marriott Rive Gauche
PARIS                                    Hotel & Conference Center
PARIS                                    Renaissance Paris La Defense

NEW YORK

Courtyard New York
Manhattan/Fifth Avenue
Courtyard New York
Manhattan/Midtown East
Courtyard New York
Manhattan/Times Square South
Courtyard New York Manhattan/Upper East Side
Fairfield Inn & Suites Manhattan/Fifth Avenue
Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan/Chelsea
Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan/Downtown
Fairfield Inn & Suites Watertown Thousand Islands
Fairfield Inn New York Manhattan/Times Square
Renaissance New York
Hotel 57
Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Times Square

How much is an On Business Reward point worth?

In general, when redeeming points you should aim to achieve a value of between 10p to 20p per point but you may only achieve 5p per point

My valuations (above), are based on the lower valuation so you can decide for yourself whether to proceed.

Take for example the following two hotels in Sharm El Sheikh

Renaissance Sharm El Sheikh and Golden View Beach Resort which can be found via HotelsCombined  for £50 per night but would cost approx £100 worth of British Airways On-Business points.

The Renaissance Copenhagen, in the Elite category, costs 6,000 points or a £300 minimum value but can be found online using our comparison site from £140 – £200 (and that is mid-week)

So not necessarily good value, at all, which is probably why the arrangement between BA and Marriott will end 31st December 2013

Procedure to redeem On Business points for Marriott hotel stays

You’ll need to order e-vouchers online and allow up to 72 hours to receive them.

These can only be used to book single nights online at a property in the range of the certificate you choose.

Bookings for more than one night have to be arranged via the Marriott call centre.

Hotel stays must be within 15 months of the e-voucher delivery

Telephone: UK Toll-free 0800 1927 1927

London – Toll 0353 21 421 6400

Booking tips – how best to research and book hotels

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Finding flights can be relatively quick and easy compared to the task of narrowing down a choice of hotel.

Hotel search includes so many variables:

Category
Star Rating
Amenities
Location
Price
and of course, Availability!

I suggest using the following tools, also featured on the Booking Business Travel hotels page:

For Category, Star rating, Amenity, Availability and Price

Use HotelsCombined to compare properties, to find availability and compare prices

Also check with Booking.com as they are the only company not working with HotelsCombined

For location

Do use normal Google Maps if you are searching for a particular hotel

But if you’re unsure of the destination or need to find hotels within a specific area, Google has a maps tool, of which you may not be aware.

It is tailored to hotels only and is called Google Hotel Finder

This link, (also on the hotels page for convenience), will provide much needed help with your hotel search.

You do need to first select the city and dates and search, as if you were using any other search engine.

Please note, that you cannot search for a same day reservation (e.g. for tonight!) So just make up fictitious dates.

When Google responds with the results page, click on the link below the map “Expand map for hotels in…”

You may be impressed by the number of hotels!

This Google service does have limitations. I have occasionally noticed a hotel to be missing completely so don’t rely on this tool 100%

It does however show hotels – even if they appear to be fully booked (through Google’s travel providers) Which is good, because you’ll probably find availability via HotelsCombined.

Summary

So, whilst Google Maps is a fantastic idea and a helpful tool for research, don’t rely on it completely.

And use our other search engines for availability and bookings

Booking Business welcomes new hotel partner Hyatt Hotels

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To assist you with your hotel reservations, we have added Hyatt to our recommendation of “go direct” hotels.

This is because the company is consistently undercutting the online and offline agents.

We just found the Andaz in Liverpool Street at £318 direct whilst Booking.com charged £354 and a travel agent (TMC) charged £390

Our suggested short-cuts for hotels are on our Useful Sites page and include the comparison engine: Hotels Combined, Booking.com, Marriott and now Hyatt

You can visit Hyatt direct here

New British Airways fare reduction by using Avios

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Up until today, you could only redeem Avios by buying an Avios Ticket.
You had to search for a flight with Avios availability. And if you were lucky enough to find the date and time that you wanted, you could then choose to pay more – and use less Avios.

If you could not find reward seats, the only solution would be to sign up to Avios.com as per my suggestion in this post, in order to find availability.

It’s a frequent complaint – that you have thousands of Avios and are unable to spend them. This is because Avios seats are usually offered in a very limited availability.

Now however, when booking via ba.com or the BA call centre, you buy a ticket priced in any class and you can part pay with Avios.

The maximum discount is £30 per ticket but if you buy two singles you could achieve a £60 discount per roundtrip

This is excellent news because you can travel when you want – on a commercial fare. It’s just a pity that the discount is restricted to £60.

It is good for people with small Avios balances wanting to spend just 1,500 , 3,000 or 4, 500 Avios

The maximum discount of £30 costs 4,500 Avios which is a valuation of 0.67p per Avios, which isn’t terrible – but not very exciting either. If you collect Avios via Tesco Clubcard you in effect buying those Avios for 0.41p each

There are occasions where I have managed to achieve approx 2p per Avios by using the points when the air fare was expensive.

A benefit is that you will earn Avios and Tier points on these tickets too. So, whilst you may spend 4,500 Avios reducing a fare to say Copenhagen, you will earn 1,188 Avios back on the trip! Avios that you would not earn on a pure Avios reward flight

To book, visit ba.com via the link above. You’ll be offered the Avios discount after selecting flights.

An illuminating article explaining why FOG has cancelled your flight

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This brilliant and concise article by the British Airports Authority explains the impact of fog on Heathrow’s operations.

It answers the commonly asked questions such as:

Why does fog cause delays (with all our technology)?

Why can other airports cope when Heathrow cannot?

Why cancel flights in advance?

Who cancels flights?

After reading this, I doubt that anyone will complain again!

Here’s the link to the Heathrow Airport Media Centre article

Booking on Ryanair website will soon be easier

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Anyone having tried to book flights on Ryanair will know how painful the process is!

And the boss of Ryanair Michael O’leary has admitted that, “We have got to stop making it so difficult”

Initially, the airline makes you type or guess what the code is before you can even get a quote. This is to stop unauthorized online travel agents from screen scraping the Ryanair site and reselling to consumers with a hefty markup.

And during the booking process, the site, which is “clunky” attempts to sell you every imaginable extra. Furthermore we’ve received reports of difficulties using Chrome compared to Internet Explorer

The good news is that Ryanair is to continue working with our choice of flight search engine – so you can compare schedules and fares immediately, in addition to other airlines.

Our flight search even compares two one-way fares and gives a step-by-step process

But the airline will not offer availability via expensive travel agent “GDS” systems so agents will still have to go online to make the booking in exactly the same way that you can do.

According to travel industry observers, he said “We are not going back on GDSs and pay ludicrous amounts to Amadeus, Worldspan or Sabre who add nothing to the process.”  “It used to cost us 20% of revenues for a service 80% of passengers are happy to do themselves online.”

Booking Business Travel agrees.

Whilst the travel agent systems are more efficient for the agency, the cost of the technology would be incurred by the airline. And as Simon Calder, the travel writer once said, “‘Low-cost airline’ means an airline whose costs are low, not necessarily an airline whose fares are low”

How to find airline seat availability using your Avios Points

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You’ve accrued tens of thousands of Avios but can’t spend them?

You never see seats on flight dates that you want to travel on?

We’ve found a solution.

British Airways only offer reward tickets in a very restricted booking class (U class for business and X class for economy).

Very few seats are allocated to these fare classes.

Avios.com however, books economy seats in G class and invariably there are more seats available in this class.

On two trips this year, Berlin and Prague, I found seats on Avios.com but none on BA.com

You need to create an Avios account and you can transfer your Avios from British Airways using a “combine my Avios” function on the BA executive club website.

After logging in to your Executive Account, go to Manage My Booking and in the centre of the page under My Options, is a Combine my Avios option

Here is the direct link to the British Airways page

It makes sense to keep a decent balance in each as there are occasions when BA will have availability. Indeed, I recently had to book Avios outbound and BA.com inbound!

I suggest you transfer now rather than wait until you’re next trying to make a booking as the transfer process may take several days – although mine went through in 24 hours.

Please note that if you have a “household” or “family” Avios account you cannot make transfers in from British Airways.

Once you have an Avios.com account you’ll see additional ways to boost your account. Shell Petrol loyalty scheme and Tescos are my favourites.

How to find availability in a hotel even if they claim to be full!

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You need a hotel for your traveller. He knows the one he wants. He doesn’t accept no for an answer, but  the hotel is full.

Their website says no availability.

You phone the hotel reservations directly and are told no – sorry – we’re very fully booked.

One search on our Hotel Search Engine and you can see rooms available, with immediate confirmation!

Can you trust what you see?

Invariably I’d say yes! This is because some agents hold an allocation of rooms as part of their agreement.

So, next time you need a hotel, be sure to check online at Booking Business Travel hotel page

Failure to travel on all your flights as booked will cost you dearly

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I’ve recently heard of two instances where travellers have ended up paying nearly double the original price, en-route, because of a misunderstanding of how airline tickets work.

As business travellers change plans so often it’s really important that you read this so that these scenarios will never happen to you – or your travellers!

Scenario 1

A traveller booked on Expedia to fly with South African Airways to Cape Town at a fare of £863.

As no direct services were available the flight was routed as follows:

London–Johannesburg-Cape Town and returning: Cape Town–Johannesburg-London

After the first leg, on arriving in Johannesburg, he decided against taking the onward flight to Cape Town and instead made other arrangements.

After 3 weeks, he tried to check in for his return flight at Cape Town only to be told that his ticket was invalidated by his failure to use it as originally booked. He subsequently missed the flight and had to pay £600 for an alternative British Airways flight back to London.

Scenario 2

A traveller booked a cheap ticket with BA to fly London-Zurich-London.

He then changed his plans and bought a new ticket London to Madrid and Madrid to Zurich.

He said to me, “it’s OK I already have a flight for the Zurich back to London leg”

He too was unaware that a failure to travel out on the London-Zurich flight resulted in the entire round trip journey being cancelled.

There are two reasons why the airlines do this:

The main reason is to do with “revenue protection”
Let’s say for example that the airlines charge very high prices for Zurich-London flights. (They don’t but this is just the reasoning)
You could be devious and instead of paying the high one-way fare, book a cheap London-Zurich-London and just use the 2nd leg
The other reason is that if you failed to turn up for a flight, the airline could assume that you had no intention of travelling the other flights either. In the old days, re-confirmation was the norm and would have avoided some of these pitfalls. Nowadays however, it’s down to you….

The moral of these stories is this;

Always travel as booked. If plans change, don’t assume that you can simply turn up for other parts of your journey. You need to tell the airline or agent exactly what you intend doing. They will then offer you the best course of action… either re-routing your ticket, or refunding the original ticket and rebooking. Do this and you’ll avoid paying dearly for your mistakes.

How best to keep track of your points

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If you are a frequent traveller, you’ll probably belong to several loyalty schemes, both airline and hotel.

And you may also collect shopping points such as Nectar, or Tesco Clubcard and perhaps Shell petrol etc

Awardwallet.com provides an online facility to file all your various memberships and check them automatically in one place. An excellent way to keep track of your points

It is also available as an app but we suggest using the online version to set-up your account.

If you are concerned about placing your login and password(s) on their servers, you can choose to store the information locally on your desktop computer. Be careful that your browser doesn’t delete the cookies when closing though, otherwise you’ll need to re-enter your passwords all over again!

Award Wallet accepts a wide range of loyalty schemes – it even checks my Boots Advantage account details.

And it’s free of charge, although you can benefit from additional features such as a Business Account

Try Award Wallet via this link now!

Flying to Australia with Etihad in Business Class worth signing to Guest Programme?

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So you’re going on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia, out to Melbourne and back from Sydney and you chose Etihad via Abu Dhabi.

Now you’re wondering if it’s worth signing up to the Etihad Frequent Traveller scheme?

Will I earn enough points from just one Etihad trip to be able spend on anything?

According to the Etihad calculator you would earn 28,039 miles if you registered for the Etihad Guest reward scheme.

Flights (to Abu Dhabi) cost over 60,000 miles but you’d have more than enough points for a free pair of Oakley sunglasses or a BOSS watch at Etihad online shop!

So, I’d recommend that you register here

Is the Eurostar frequent traveller scheme worth joining?

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If you are considering a one-off Eurostar trip then my answer is most definitely no. In fact, the registration to the Eurostar scheme can only be arranged after you have made a “qualifying journey” with a minimum ticket price of £250

If you’re likely to travel in premium class several times a year, then read on ….

Business Premier Bookings

If you purchase the most expensive Business Premier (hot food) service at the ludicrous £490 fare, then just 3 tickets will be enough for one free standard class ticket. (I say ludicrous but compare this with City Jet / Air France business class flights from City to Paris Orly which cost £705 return)

But what about “Leisure Premier” class bookings?

Leisure Premier comprises of the same first class seating but with cold food.  Although the name suggests that this is for holiday travelers, it is the category most used by business travelers.

Points are awarded per single fare;

Single fares typically average between £100 and £200 and you’ll be rewarded 100 points up to £154.99 single and 150 points (up to £205 single).

Points are valid and they accrue for up to 3 years before expiry so you have plenty of time to collect a reasonable balance.

How many Eurostar trips do I need for a free ticket?

A standard return ticket costs 900 points and Standard Premier return costs 1,800 (single journeys are 50% and child fares are 2/3).

Or, more simply between 3 and 5 Leisure Premier return = 1 free standard class return ticket OR

Between 6 and 9 trips =  1 free first class return (“Leisure Premier”) ticket.

See the full redemption chart here

How many Eurostar trips do I need to reach Eurostar Carte Blanche Status

Carte Blanche status includes access to the Eurostar Business Lounge and priority 10 minute check-in.

If you’ve ever had to wait at Brussels Midi Station you’ll appreciate the business lounge access.

You require 1,500 points to reach Carte Blanche level.

Explained another simpler way, between 5 and 8 return trips in one year

More general information is available here

Are there any other benefits?

Eurostar will have your mobile number and will text you if your train is cancelled
You’ll be able to retrieve your boarding cards by using your membership card but only if your booking was made directly with Eurostar and not via Rail Europe

Business Class Fares on Skyscanner

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For some time I’ve been emailing Skyscanner to say that they are missing out on a valuable service by not including business class prices.

Quietly and without fanfare, Skyscanner now includes Premium Economy, Business Class and First Class flight comparisons.

After doing the initial search on our Flight Search page, you have the option to search again using a drop-down box.

Why do we host Skyscanner? It’s because we believe that it’s absolutely essential to be provided with ALL flight options irrespective of whether they pay commission.

Skyscanner impartially provides fares from both airlines direct and online travel agents.

And rather than use unauthorized and intermittent “screen-scraping” as many other search engines do, Skyscanner has invested in direct links to airline databases.

Indeed, and for example, Skyscanner is one of the few that work with Ryanair as well as easyJet, Wizz and of course British Airways.

Does Premium Economy Class London to Melbourne exist?

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Airlines that offer a Premium Economy Class are:

British Airways
Virgin
Cathay Pacific

British Airways no longer fly direct from Singapore to Melbourne. Instead, they code-share using Qantas Aircraft and Qantas do not have a Premium Economy cabin.

Virgin do not operate the aircraft to Melbourne, instead they code-share with Singapore Airlines who do not have the Premium Economy cabin either.

The only option is Cathay Pacific with who call these seats Premium Economy Class!

Try our flight comparison tool to find the lowest fares. After selecting your flights you can choose between Economy, Premium Economy or Business class.

Don’t use Google Chrome to book Ryanair flights

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I’ve been told of difficulties when trying to complete a Ryanair booking and the reason appears to be the browser – namely Google Chrome.

It is annoying that you can select the flights, refuse all those extras and hard-sell options only to have the final payment stage rejected!

So you may want to search via our recommended search engine, Skyscanner, in Internet Explorer, if you think you may require Ryanair.

I recommend that you keep Booking Business Travel as a home page in both Internet Explorer and Google Chrome

Google flights launches – hidden extras and incomplete flight results

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Back in 2011 I blogged about Google’s purchase of ITA, a company that develops flight and price search technology. Since that time, Google made the search engine available in the US and it has only featured domestic US flights.

Google has been very slow to (at least publicly) do anything with the purchase, despite a price tag of $700M dollar in cash!

ITA has continued to provide a more comprehensive search engine on its ITA Matrix Website, listed in my ‘useful sites page’ which provides published fares. It is very detailed and can be useful, especially when searching for fares that originate from outside the UK.

However, it has its limitations. It doesn’t provide any “booking functions” but simply suggests you contact a travel agent or airline to book. And it doesn’t offer discounted fares. Neither does it feature many of the “no-frills” or web-only airlines, making most European flight search meaningless.

Very quietly, and without fanfare, Google Flights has now been released in the UK.

The Booking Business Travel ethos is to help you book travel independently at the lowest cost, and impartially, by recommending the best tools to do this.

To date I have recommended Skyscanner as the best “neutral” search engine because, although they earn referral commissions from travel agents, unlike travel agents themselves (Expedia etc) they have systematically included direct links to airlines to compare prices. E.g. Ryanair and easyJet.

So what do I think of Google Flights?

As with any search engine, I apply the “low-cost-airline test”.

Business travel is by its very nature very schedule driven, and it is essential that all timing options be made available, impartially to the business traveller. In this respect, Google go some way to assist – but with noteworthy failings.

I compared two routes on Google Flights and was very disappointed by the results:

London to Dublin Outbound 10th April back 11th April

Aer Lingus was featured but when selected, Google Flights directed me to Bravofly, an Irish travel agent, to fulfill the booking.

I am shocked by this! For two reasons:

Higher fares than directly from Aer Lingus

Bravofly quoted £145.84 compared to Aer Lingus direct at £142.98
Then came the hidden extras.  After adding the passenger name, the payment charges of £12.18 for AMEX or £7.10 for MasterCard or Visa Electron appeared!
And the charge is per passenger. Thus for two passengers the overall extra cost for having searched and accepted  Google Flights offer would be approximately £30

British Airways

As you’d expect, BA was offered directly and the fares provided came directly from ba.com
This is how it should be.
After selection, a ‘deep link’ takes you to the onward booking pages.

Ryanair

Schedules are offered but with no air fares.
After selecting flights, Google links you to the Ryanair home page and you have to repeat the search all over again!

London to Copenhagen: Outbound 10th April back 11th April

Scandinavian Airlines

Google flights offered correct fares directly from SAS, with a deep link to the airline booking page.
Again, this is how it should be.

easyJet

No prices, just schedules, and as with Ryanair, a link to the home page to repeat the search.
This really isn’t good enough.

Norwegian Airlines

Prices provided but as with Aer Lingus, only from Bravofly with similar price differences and extra credit card charges

Skyscanner offered lower fares on Aer Lingus of £142.98 return and no credit card charges, saving, for two passengers paying by AMEX £30.08!

And we had the comparison fares from Ryanair and BA all on one page

Google Map View

If you’re searching for an overview of fares, the Google Map View should be very helpful, but Google includes a disclaimer to say that some airlines are not available:

Ryanair, Lufthansa, easyJet, Thomas Cook, Aer Lingus.

I also noticed that Wizz airlines are excluded

Summary

Yes, Google Flights “look-and-feel” is slick. Very slick. But what is most important? It should be content and pricing, surely? And much of the “instant search” must rely on cached memory, which may not be accurate.

The other gaping hole in Google Flights is the inability to search for premium economy, business or first class flights.

And Google will not send you to whichever website has the cheapest fare, relying instead on a couple of agents with hidden fees.

When researching flight options, you should use a search engine that checks both the airlines direct – and travel agencies like Expedia. Expedia make no extra fees or credit card charges. So the price you see is the price you pay.

Skyscanner does this efficiently. It includes authorised availability data from Ryanair and easyJet in addition to  ba.com. It also offers Premium Economy, Business and First Class. Visit my Skyscanner page for your next search and don’t waste time on Google Flights.

Not yet, anyway….

British Airways to charge for check-in baggage?

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Within a week of KLM announcing that customers are to be given “more choice”, by charging separately for check-in bags, British Airways launches “hand baggage only” fares.

This is a different way of introducing a charge for baggage. It’s promoted as a saving, because hand baggage only fare is lower than their normal price by approximately £10 to £12

So we now have two-tier pricing, ‘with bags’ and ‘without bags’ which, after the introductory period amounts to paying more for taking baggage on your trip.

Which we think is a shame. Up to now, you could trust the BA fare to include everything whilst you knew that the easyJet and other no-frills airlines would charge extra fees.

The BA hand baggage fares apply only to Gatwick departures, for departures from 26th February.

To begin with, baggage only fares are available to the following destinations: Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Jersey, Tunis and Turin.

The carry on allowance on BA is relatively generous: 56cm x 45cm x 25cm plus a handbag or laptop bag

Remember that the lowest BA fares are only available directly from ba.com

Please visit the British Airways tab above.

How to avoid KLM new baggage fees

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How to avoid KLM new baggage fees

The airline has just announced, as an enhancement, “providing more choice to passengers”, “the option to travel with just carry-on baggage or to check in baggage at a fee”

This applies to KLM European flights from 22nd April 2013

Of course, passengers have always had the choice! It’s just that they’ll now be charged for check-in bags, following the low cost or no frills airline model.

The charge is €15 each way – that’s around £26 extra per person per return journey for the first checked in baggage.

However, the following passengers will be exempt

NGO’s
All Flying Blue & BlueBiz members
Sky Team Elite Plus members
Corporate Contract holders

Simply become a Flying Blue member and avoid the baggage fees altogether. A one-page form asks for minimal information, takes just a minute to complete, and you’ll be instantly given a Flying Blue membership number. Apply via the KLM registration page here

And remember to use our flight search page to ensure that find the lowest KLM fares

Why do we recommend Skyscanner?

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Our recommended search engine has today been featured by the BBC due to the phenomenal growth of the company.

Skyscanner, a company based in Edinburgh, receives 30 million visitors per month and the search engine facilitates £2.3 billion annual air travel.

But, our reason for hosting Skyscanner is that for booking and researching business travel, the company provides the most accurate fares and schedules of all comparison sites.

This is due to the use of information provided directly from, for example, Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways. Many other comparison sites provide information from third party travel agents with hidden mark-ups and inaccurate information. They do this by “screen-scraping” the airline websites. But Skyscanner receives live flight and price information via XML and is one of very few companies authorised to do so.

Visit our Flight Search Page to use Skyscanner, or try our “Who flies Where” widget to the right of this article.

Where to find the best Travelodge prices

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We’ve researched this question for a UK company that books several hundred room nights for their staff.

To date, they’ve used a travel agent but inefficiencies of booking procedures coupled with high agency fees have required that we review their purchasing habits.

Travelodge do not currently feature in our recommended hotel comparison and search engine.

They are bookable through travel agents reservation systems (GDSs) – and at the same price as priced online. But Travelodge do not pay travel agency commission, so you will probably pay a booking fee to the travel agent for the reservation and payment service.

Booking direct with Travelodge on their website will provide several advantages:

  • ·         Quick and easy to use
  • ·         No travel agent booking fee
  • ·         Option to pre-book breakfast with an online discount
  • ·         Option to request an early check-in of 1200 noon rather than 3pm if required, or
    a late check-out of 2pm instead of 1200 at a cost of £10 extra
  • ·         WiFi voucher purchase

Booking for someone else:

After choosing a property (“book”) immediately under the Room Price you’ll need to tick the “I am booking on behalf of someone else and will not be staying”

If you book Travelodge frequently, you should open a business account and save 5% on all your bookings with centralised business account management and up to 6 weeks credit