All Eurostar services Brussels cancelled Wednesday 3 October

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Due to a national strike in Belgium due to take place on Wednesday 3rd October, no Eurostar service will operate to Brussels between 10pm on Tuesday night to 10pm Wednesday night

6 shuttles will operate as far as Lille.

Lille is 112km from Brussels and a 1½ hour drive.

There is a bus service from Lille Europe station to Brussels Airport taking 1 hour 40 minutes operated by Luxembourg company Sales-Lentz

Bookable online at www.flibco.com

And major car hire companies: Avis, Hertz and Europcar are represented at the station

Stansted Express Discount September 2012

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The normal online return fare is now £29.50 and the single is £21.50

Book a Stansted Express discount fare through Ryanair and you’ll pay just £25.50 return and £18 single.

The prices are actually in Euros (20.49 single and 29.03 return) so depending on the exchange rate that your bank applies, you could achieve a price of approximately £16.80 and £23.79 respectively using a rate of 1.22 to the pound

Book on the Ryanair website here

You do not need to be a Ryanair passenger and surprisingly, there are no extras!

We earn no commission from this information.

We’re just happy to find you the best deal.

That’s our policy – impartial advice – which is why you’ll benefit if you use our flight search and hotel search pages.

Remember, we’re good for leisure and business travel

 

 

How to redeem British Airways On Business Points

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It makes sense to get the best value that you possibly can from your British Airways On Business points.

You must compare the fare you would otherwise have to pay before redeeming points

EXAMPLE

London-Glasgow-London costs 1,560 points return plus tax.

The equivalent flight at the full economy fare is £432 therefore the value per point is 27p and that is about the highest value that you can achieve.

The lowest restricted fare is just £68 therefore the redemption value would drop to just 4p per point.

To make bookings and for other booking tips please visit our British Airways Page

 

Best airline reward scheme

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If you are a UK based company then it is likely that of your business air-travel, British Airways comprise approximately 50%

Business travel agents also report approximately 40% to 50% simply because British Airways is the dominant carrier.

So it makes sense to sign up to a very rewarding loyalty scheme for all that travel, regardless of whether BA is a “preferred” airline or not.

We recommend that all companies sign up to the British Airways On Business Reward Scheme.

Before you begin, decide who will be the company authoriser and the administrator for the account. Have your company registration number to hand and an estimate of your annual travel spend.

Also, if you work with a travel agency, you’ll need their details and IATA number

Points are rewarded for most fare types starting at 60 points upwards and we calculate each point to be worth between 10p and 30p depending on how you redeem them.

 

 

Redeeming BA On Business Points Marriott Copenhagen

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Copenhagen does not appear to be listed in any of the three Marriott categories, on the British Airways On Business Award Voucher offer

European Classic Award
European Signature Award
European Premier Award

Malmo in Sweden is offered, and as a Premier category despite being cheaper than the Copenhagen (room rates approximately £167 compared to £224)

The points required are 2,000 3,000 and 4,500 respectively therefore the value per point is 3.7p which is very low compared to a value of up to 27p for flights.

 

SAS Cash back Scheme

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This scheme is only worth registering for if your company will fly to Scandinavia in business class several times between now and the end of 2012

The scheme is for travel from the UK to Scandinavia and Finland with SAS, Widerøe or Blue1

Tickets have to be issued by a travel agent and you’ll need to spend at least £1,000 air fares (not tax/fuel surcharges etc) before you receive a payment.

Each business class flight earns £20, Economy Extra £15 and standard Economy just £2 in cash back

A CMP code needs to be entered into the booking by your travel agent.

Register by 30th September for travel 1st October to 31 December

 

Heathrow Express Discount September 2012

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The normal fares for Heathrow Express are £18 single and £34 return if you book online on the Heathrow Express website. The one-way fare increases to £19 if you buy at the station but the return fare remains the same.

We’ve researched the reduced fares to save you the time and effort. We earn no commission by doing so. We simply enjoy helping you get the best deal, and hope that you’ll show appreciation by using our choice of industry leading flight and hotel comparison sites.

You can buy reduced fares on Heathrow Express of £16.20 single and £30.60 directly on their site but you need to go there via the link supplied by ANA All Nippon Airways on their website here.

That’s a discount of 10% and the lowest fare currently available

You’ve probably booked your flights already,  but why not see just how much you could save on hotels by testing our hotel comparison page?

 

 

Sorry these redemption options are not available

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You wish to redeem points for flight tickets on your BA OnBusiness account but there is no search option, just a message stating:

“Sorry, these redemption options are not available”

The client had over 5,000 on the account.

We’ve discovered that the reason for this message is that only one traveller has accrued points to date whilst the scheme requires a minimum of two travellers.

So you need to wait for a second passenger to contribute points before you can start to redeem them.

If you appreciate this information, please use our flight and hotel search, Thank you!

 

How far in advance can I book Eurostar?

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I’ve just been asked this question and for flights, I know that the answer is up to one year but I’ve checked and rail bookings have a surprisingly short selling period:

For Eurostar journeys to mainline Paris, Lille and Brussels stations, you can book up to 4 months in advance, minus 2 days

This applies to both French Rail, the UK arm of French SNCF railways and Eurostar. For the genuine links to both companies and for booking tips please visit my Eurostar Page

Reduce your UK train fare by splitting tickets

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If you require travel today or tomorrow, the rail companies will quote you exorbitant fares.

Their assumption is that you will either be a business traveller attending meetings or making a multi-million pound sales pitch, or as a member of the general public, that you have to travel, perhaps in an emergency.

And they assume that in these scenarios, you’ll pay whatever they charge.

They take no account for leisure travel taken on impulse.

For some time now, it has been possible to undercut fares by booking separate tickets to intermediate destinations but that used to require an intimate knowledge of the routes taken.

A new tool from MoneySavingExpert.com provides the intermediate fares for same day or next day journeys, also known as walk-up fares.

Try the tool for yourself here

http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/

To book these tickets, you can request them individually at the station ticket office. If you prefer to book online, be warned that some companies e.g. TheTrainline.com may charge a booking fee per ticket thus cancelling any saving achieved!

Our recommended company charges no booking fees or credit card fees – see our UK Rail link above, or book direct with the train operators

 

 

British Airways Go After The Games Sale

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We highlight the main conditions:

The sale is for flight only and BA holidays
Bookings must be made by midnight Tuesday 25th September
All Long Haul travel requires a Saturday night stay (targeting “leisure” travellers”)
Euro Traveller bookings from LHR must be booked at least 14 days in advance
World Traveller bookings (except to Mauritius) must be booked at least 7 days in advance
World Traveller Plus (except the Americas and Mauritius, 21 days) also at least 7 days in advance
Club World and First Class from LGW must be booked minimum of  14 days in advance

Please select your flight dates from our British Airways Page, and see our booking tips.

If you require a hotel, do compare the BA Flight+Hotel with flight only and hotel separately using our hotel comparison site.

 

Etihad Chauffeur with Opodo or Expedia

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FREE CHAUFFEUR CARS WITH ETIHAD

If you book business class Etihad flights online, with, for example Opodo or Expedia, you may not be aware that you are eligible for free chauffeur transfers.

The online booking systems do not automatically offer you the service and you could miss out from several hundred pounds worth of free Etihad transfers.

You need to phone or email the online agent to request the transfers and you’ll probably have to deal with an agent in India so you’d better give clear and concise instructions, address and postcode and your mobile phone contact (for the chauffeur company).

My recent article provided details of the new chauffeur limits

http://www.bookingbusinesstravel.com/etihad-chauffeur-new-limits/

HOTELS

Our hotel search engine compares more prices than any other comparison site.

And with over 300,000 properties featured, you’re sure to find the ideal hotel at the lowest price.

See how much you could have saved on your last booking – or plan for your next!

Do try our Hotel Search from the menu above

 

 

Etihad Frequent Flier Flyer Agreements

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You can accrue points on Etihad reward scheme with the following airlines:

Airline (Flight Prefix)

American Airlines AA
Air Berlin AB
Royal Air Maroc AT
Alitalia AZ
BMI BD
Virgin Australia DJ
Air Seychelles HM
Malaysia Airlines MH
All Nippon NH
Air New Zealand NZ
Czech Airlines OK
Asiana Airlines OZ
Bangkok Airlines PG
Ukraine International PS
Brussels Airlines SN
Air Lanka UL
Virgin Australia VA
Oman Air WY
Jet Airways 9W

We recommend that you use our comprehensive flight search tool to obtain the best deals. Click on FLIGHT SEARCH above.

And

Our hotel search engine compares more prices than any other comparison site.

And with over 300,000 properties featured, you’re sure to find the ideal hotel at the lowest price.

See how much you could have saved on your last booking – or plan for your next!

Do try our Hotel Search from the menu above

 

How far in advance can I book flights?

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Travel Agents, both online and offline tend to use one of the four major computer reservation systems: Galileo, Amadeus, Sabre and Worldspan.

The Amadeus reservation system can book up to 360 days in advance, almost a whole calendar year, whilst the other major system, Galileo will only offer bookings up to 332 days – a difference of 4 weeks.

Amadeus powers the online agency OPODO so you can book 12 months in advance using their website here.

But other well known companies such as Expedia cannot book this far in advance.

As different travel agencies use different systems, one agent may say that you have to wait before accepting bookings, any travel agent using Amadeus, for example Capable Travel, Telephone 020 7489 8787, will be able to help you.

 

 

Is Etihad Frequent Flyer scheme worth joining?

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If you are travelling business class with Etihad to Australia, is it worth signing up to their loyalyty scheme?

We took the following example

Etihad business class to Melbourne Australia

One round trip in Business Class at the lowest fare type (W class) earns 27,700 miles which is enough to buy a pair of Oakley ANTIX sunglasses (21,214 miles)

If you want to redeem miles for flights, an economy class ticket to Dubai requires 62,043 miles

Useful links:

Where you can fly to with your Etihad miles calculator:

https://www.etihadairways.com/sites/etihad/global/en/guestrecognition/visitor/yourmiles/whereicanfly/pages/whereicanfly.aspx

How many miles will you earn from an Etihad Flight

http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/global/en/guestrecognition/visitor/Pages/mileagecalculator.aspx

See my related article:

Emirates Skywards or Etihad Guest loyalty schemes – Which is more generous?

 

 

Google Hotel Finder

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As you would expect from Google, their HotelFinder site is slick!

They provide a date-driven availability and price display on the left hand side and a very good Google Maps on the right hand side.

So, full marks for presentation.

But the site is still in experimental stage and we have two issues with the site

  1. The availability is received only from the hotel itself. This means that hotel brokers who may have availability in the form of allocations, will not be featured. So the hotel will have a ‘likely sold out’ sign against it. When booking business travel, availability can often be an issue as a specific hotel will be requested. Therefore, it is better to use our hotel comparison site which searches hundreds of suppliers with one click.
  2. Prices are those provided by the hotel to Google and are usually exorbitant. We priced several hotels and soon realised that our recommended search engine consistently undercut the Google Hotel Finder rates.

Try our Hotel Search option above and compare the results with Google’s (below) to see for yourself!

http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/

 

Discount fares from Australia to the UK

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How to find discount fares for travel from Australia to the UK, if you are buying the ticket here in the UK.

Here’s a trick that just saved £471 on the price of a business class ticket:

Scenario: You’re in the UK and you want to buy a ticket originating in Sydney, Australia to travel Sydney-London-Sydney, in Business Class

Emirates airline fare, priced on the Expedia UK site, was £6,636 return.

But if you search on the Expedia Australia site, the fare was AUD9338 which equals £6,165 saving £471

This is because availability and prices are often cheaper locally as airlines can be somewhat protective about their local fares.

To find the Australia Expedia site, click on the link on our Expedia Page (above) and at the very bottom of the site, look for the Australia Flag.

Click on the Flag and then search for fares. Ensure that you have an up-to-date exchange rate to hand.

Booking Tip: Google the following: “AUD to GBP” and you’ll be given the exchange rate which is currently only 1.51 dollars to the pound.

I remember the time when it was 2.20…

 

How to apply for a free Australia Visa

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Never use the companies that advertise on Google for a Australia Visa as you’ll end up paying a fee to them – unnecessarily.

Only use the official government site, which is free of charge. You can identify an official site because the address will end with a .gov.au (as per below)

Full details are here:

http://www.immi.gov.au/

But if you are from a European country and require a tourist visa or a visa for business purposes, you can apply free of charge directly here:

https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/visas/app/uu?form=TV

IMPORTANT NOTE: After clicking on the link above, you must SAVE the first page after which you’ll be asked to make up a password and the system will generate a Application ID, before proceeding with the “Next” button!
I wasted time trying to figure that out!

I hope that you appreciate this advice and that you compare hotel and flight prices using the search engines that we provide on this website

Thanks!

 

Booking Tips

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A travel industry expert suggests the following 5 booking tips:

  1. Always use a comparison site. The best in the UK is Skyscanner
  2. Always choose to book short haul flights directly on the airlines sites, examples:  easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz.
  3. Book British Airways direct here directly with BA as they don’t discount short-haul fares
  4. Long haul travel should be booked through Expedia or Opodo as these two companies consistently offer lower fares. Expedia do not charge for credit card payments.
  5. Always search for one seat as you may be offered the last seat at a lower tiered price level which, if you ask for two, you will not be offered.

 

easyJet discount 2012

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The truth about where to find easyJet discounts.

Search for easyJet discounts and you’ll see offers that apply to easyJet holidays, usually in the form of voucher codes, but never for “flight only”.

Discount vouchers for easyJet flights do not exist!

easyJet holidays

We’re often told that it’s cheaper to book flights and hotels together, so we thought we’d put easyJet holidays to the test.

We have compared a variety flight + hotel bookings by using

easyJet.com
Our Flight Search tool
Our Hotel search tool.

We ensured that we were comparing like-with-like
i.e.

Availability and Price checked at the same time of day
Same airports, same flights, same hotel room type and including breakfast

On every comparison, we saved between £48 and £107 by booking separately, by choosing flights that departed with the same airline but from Gatwick Airport.

Using the identical Stansted flights, we saved between £10 and £33

On no occasion was the price more the same or more than that offered by easyJet holidays

So, our advice is:

Use our flight search tool to find the best flight options.
If you select easyJet, ALWAYS book through easyJet.com website, never through a third party or travel agent.

Use our hotel search to find the best priced hotel.

 

Wizz Air to Charge for Onboard Baggage

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The normal practise of charging for check-in baggage is understandable because the airline incurs a charge too.

But Wizz Air is to charge a fee of EUR10 to carry on anything larger than a laptop size bag of 42x32x25cm

And the weight restriction will be just 10kg

The trial is on Luton – Katowice services for bookings made on or after from the 9th July 2012 for travel from 1st August onwards

The large cabin bag dimension for which you now have to pay the fee is 55x40x20cm

We think this is a step too far.

The airline thinks we’ll carry less as a result but really, 10kg is next to nothing!

When using our popular flight search, remember that you need to add approximately £16

 

Stansted Express Discount July August 2012

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The normal single fare is £21.50 and return £29.50 from www.stanstedexpress.com

We’ve thoroughly researched the Stansted Express Discounted fares for July and August 2012

The best fares are:

EasyJet Single £19.80 Return £28.00
Ryanair Single £16.40 Return £23.25

Ryanair has the best discount on Stansted Express during July and August 2012 but the charge is in Euros, at EUR 20.49 single and EUR 29.03 return. At the current rate of exchange of 2.25 this is just £16.40 single and £23.25 return, subject to exchange rate fluctuations.

Book through Ryanair here

Do please compare hotel prices using our Hotel Search Page which features amazing discounts on hotels from 2* to 5*, guest houses and resorts.

 

 

Heathrow Express Discount August 2012

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We’ve spent a couple of hours searching for the cheapest Heathrow Express discount  fares for travel in August 2012 online, to save you the effort!

We earn nothing from this but we hope that you appreciate the advice and come back when you need flights, hotels or Eurostar tickets, as we’ll always direct you to the lowest prices.

We don’t want to sell you a ticket – we simply point you in the best direction and give impartial advice to ensure that you get the best deal.

So, Heathrow Express normal fare is a staggering £18.00 one way and £34 return

The lowest price we’ve found is £15.48 one way and £29.24 return. Book with Heathrow Express here

And if you want to compare the price of your hotel bookings, do try our Hotel Search page.