Advice on flights from UK

[lilbasuk]

Thank u everyone for the input. I have lots to consider and lots of useful info to look into. Ideally, I would like a cheaper flight but on the other hand I wouldn't like to compromise on the flight time too much. I feel about 20 hours is long enough to be sitting on planes and in airports lol! Obviously my ideal departure airport would be Birmingham, but I would consider other airports if it still proved cost effective. I'm going to be travelling around the 14th of July and coming back around 8th of August. Thanks again everyone for your input

[Pete/London]

We went last year with Cathay from London and booked direct, if you go on their site you can play around with departure dates and times to give a better price. It was just a few quid more then travel agents but felt more confident with booking direct.

By the way I think Cathay must have one of the fastest routes to P.I. , although last year I had a few problems with both the outward and homeward journeys, very unusual for Cathay who are our 1st preference followed by Singapore.

[stevewool]

Last time, we too used Cathay from London to Hong Kong, then onwards to Manila, but what was good for us is we had a week stop over in Hong Kong for the same price, £555 each and we flew out Dec and came back Jan, a brilliant price and holiday too

[andy222]

I looked at flights from London and Manchester, but being as my 1st choice is Birmingham, the cost of travelling to these airports was just not worth it in the end.

[bigtilly]

I came across this site a couple of weeks ago. Don't know if it is any good or not but must be worth a look. It has a "calendar of lowest fairs" option which I like very much. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

Good hunting.

Bill

[SimonH]

Try searching on Kayak as well as Skyscanner, just be careful though, the more you look the higher the price becomes. So do all your searching on one computer, then book from another and you should get nearer your original best price. I'm off on Wednesday with Emirates and when I first looked my flight was about 3K but when I came to book it went up 50% booked from my office computer and it was back to the original price

[Pete/London]

Try searching on Kayak as well as Skyscanner, just be careful though, the more you look the higher the price becomes. So do all your searching on one computer, then book from another and you should get nearer your original best price. I'm off on Wednesday with Emirates and when I first looked my flight was about 3K but when I came to book it went up 50% booked from my office computer and it was back to the original price

That`s a good tip, the same thing happens when looking for car insurance. Another way around is to get rid of the cookies on your computer.

[stevewool]

All great advice, if you are happy with the price book it, yes it may be cheaper a few days later but it could be a lot more too,never pay more then £650 and thats for the best dates and times to suit yourself, no hours spent on transfers but a very quick way to your place and dont forget its coming back to england that is a pain so make sure thats a quick flight too

[tiger31]

For trips to Cebu, you cannot beat Cathay for the shortest layover hour and a half. That,s the way I,m going from now on. Even if the price is slightly higher, there is nothing worse than hanging around an airport waiting for your next flight.

[aprilmaejon]

For trips to Cebu, you cannot beat Cathay for the shortest layover hour and a half. That,s the way I,m going from now on. Even if the price is slightly higher, there is nothing worse than hanging around an airport waiting for your next flight.

I agree with you tiger! We used Cathay Pacific on our recent holiday to Philippines last April, 2 hours of stop over but never had the time to wait for our next flight in the airport as we were transferred directly to the connecting flight when we arrived to Hongkong. Boarding just after arriving! 12 hours from Heathrow-Hongkong, then 2 and half hours form Hongkong-Cebu. £645 each of us considering it was an Easter season. We booked the flight 6 months before though.

I remembered flying with Qatar airlines going to England, it was ever so long journey...almost 24 hours I think plus not to mention the 8-hour stopover at the airport.

[Iani]

I know I'm stating the absolute bleeping obvious, but in the rush ( ) to book a ticket, someone MIGHT overlook this.............

When you look on such as skyscanner, you can filter for cheapest, but the very cheapest often have ridiculous layovers. Always look for the total travel time, aim for about 19/20 hours as a guide, this means just a few hours wait for the transfer.

Unless of course you like having a 40 hour wait at Abu Dhabi to save £25 Mind you for that I'd book a hotel in the city and have a mini break (Have never done, camels don't appeal to me, but you know)

[ishtam]

Hi there ... I'm traveling out in December - unfortunately the most expensive time! If anyone knows of somewhere I can get a cheap ticket, I would be very grateful ...

[Steve.r]

Southall Travel always good prices for me

[sars_notd_virus]

We recently used Budget Air

[SimonH]

http://www.kayak.co.uk/


http://www.skyscanner.net/


http://www.bravofly.com/vg1/flights.do



Then check you seat plan on http://www.seatguru.com/

[SimonH]

Oh, one more thing...............


ALWAYS, ALWAYS pay at least the deposit on a credit card...........NEVER by bank transfer


Also do a search on the agent you book through, a £10 saving could be your biggest ever nightmare if anything were to go wrong.