How spiralling costs are cutting off expats from their families
As jet fuel prices soar, Britons abroad face tough choices
Ryanair (no picking and choosing, just two near random dates about 2 weeks ahead) wants to charge me all of £75 for a round trip Faro to Bristol.
If life has led to £75 being a spiralling cost then perhaps expattery isn’t, quite, something for you?
If the lady in the picture spent less on cake, she might be able to afford the air fare.
It looks like somebody might be being economical with the actuallité when it comes to her age as well.
Indeed. Allegedly 28, she looks to me like the archetypal middle-aged frump. Clearly learned nothing in her life. I wonder if she’s ever heard of the Ten-Pound Poms?
When I was about 8, rellies moved to Oz.About 5 years later my dad gave Grandad a Christmas present of a phone call to them on Christmas Day. Using an old dial phone on our party line it took nearly three hours for relays of us dialling continuously to get through. Cost an absolute bloody fortune. Grandad never saw them again after they got on the boat train at Waterloo.
And this silly cow has access to WhatsApp.
“Allegedly 28” – stone, perhaps?
I’m calling tranny on that.
Talking of the blog rather than the blogger, is everyone else getting a really irritating modal popup every time they refresh a page?
On my tablet, I don’t even have to refeesh or change page. It often happens when scrolling.
As much as I agree with No to Digital ID, it is pretty irritating.
Yep.
I booked my summer flight to the UK from HK a few weeks ago and it was almost exactly the same price I’d paid for my Christmas trip, booked last September.
The FILTH always complain.
She’s moved to Aus as a well “well paid” consultant and her return air fare has gone up by £400 or £1200 for the 3 trips she thinks she might take a year.
File under 1st world problems.
Anyway, why go all that way and spend your holiday time flying back to dreary Britain when there’s a whole continent to explore? It’s also an excellent opportunity for family and friends to visit her and have a base.
I could buy her a one way ticket back to Blighty if she likes. We have enough home grown adult babies, we don’t need any more.
Bah, she’ll spend more on Wegovy.
Based on something BIS said about shares yesterday, I reckon airlines are a bargain right now. Now do I go with Wizz, Easyjet or IAG?
EasyJet are in play.
I’m already holding a little Easyjet, so… nice. Might not even happen, but I reckon the price will shoot up. Maybe I’ll get some IAG.
Nobody takes a Wizz.
In the Yookay, many of us have a wazz.
Lets look on the bright side. Some poor sap has avoided being squashed in on an economy airline seat next to her for 24 hours. Possibly 2 poor saps in fact.
£75? How much does a proper airline charge? I see people arriving over here. They’ve got up at some unearthly hour in the morning to travel to a dump like Luton to walk a mile to the luggage check-in & a mile back to departure to worry about whether their cabin bag is 0.01 mm oversized. And then they blow what they’ve saved on the tickets in the bar on the first evening.
Hmm. Well BiG’s recent economy (flex but drastically reduced frills) return flight with a major German carrier from BiG City to The Smoke this week, booked 2 weeks ahead, cost €650.
For that, the Major German Carrier’s recent fare restructuring has not been kind on frequent fliers or those just wanting a non-Ruinair experience. Even for those sitting in front of the curtain, checked bag allowances are halved, a second bag now Ruinairously expensive.
It remains to be seen how their “small hand luggage only tarrif” (the one most neds will book blissfully expecting Major German Carrier to still approximate full-service) gets policed in practice. Size and weight restrictions now mean carrying camera gear in economy is out of the question. Way to go, Major German Carrier!
I’ve flown BA, Easyjet and Swiss, and I can’t care about the differences. BA can work out well simply because it’s most convenient for Swindon.
There isn’t much of a difference now between cheapo airlines and “proper” ones on European routes. BA is a little nicer but not a lot better than Easyjet. I have never flown Ryanair.
What costs a lot with flights is that convenience.
Is Norwegian a proper airline? When I was doing a bit of UK/ES commuting I had one EasyJet experience. A long hike along Gatwick’s concourse from the shuttle stop to baggage check & back after an expensive 6:30AM taxi ride. Despite coming from 4 stops along the rail line from Gatwick.To be packed in an aluminium tube with the dregs of humanity. Then I found Norwegian with it’s baggage check next to departure & a fair approximation of courtesy & service at a believable time of the day. Cost me £20 more.
I’ve flown a bunch of times with Easyjet, and while Swiss is a little nicer, it’s a lot more money for basically the same thing. They’ve always been good as far as I’m concerned. Never flown Norwegian.
Looking at booking flights to Tokyo early November, coming back before Christmas. Can’t really afford non-stop any more so looking for reasonable low cost. AI reckons Hainan Airlines to be the best of the Chinky bunch, stopping at Beijing where we’ll get a hotel for 12+ hours to recover before the 2nd sector.
Anyone have any experience or thoughts?
Have a look at EVA.
Interesting. Thanks, BiG.
Best not. Chinese airlines are a bit shit, the websites are more than a bit shit and my recent personal experience is that actually booking at the headline price is almost impossible.
That said I did a quick Expedia check and the Chinese airlines were £600-odd for that journey and the rest £900-plus. You seem to be able to do Cathay via HKG for just under a grand and fly into Haneda, which is always a bonus.
My ex recently went Manchester-HK on Heinan via a 6-hour stopover at Beijing for around £600. They do a similar itinerary to Tokyo, but the stop-over rises to about 12 hours. They are cheaper as the chinese airlines are the only ones with transit access to Russian flight space, so chop about three hours off flight time.
Yes. The shorter first sector is appealing.
In 1986 I went to Oz with Hot Chocolate on Cathy Pacific, which was then a great airline, and had 12 hours in the Meridian airport hotel at Kai Tak. It was fantastic to get real kip in a proper bed and it did the trick: we arrived in Oz fighting fit, went straight into rehearsal and played the first gig the day after. We’d have been struggling without that stopover.
This is why I’m pondering cheap flights with a hotel layover. I haven’t done it since. I also reckon that at my age, doing it this way will be less fatiguing that a 15-hour non-stop.
If you can afford or have miles to burn fly in business class. Major euros and Asians all have lie flat now, so
you can do your sleeping on the plane and save a day (and cost of hotel room) each way. And it can be surprisingly cheap with enough advance and being flexible with dates.
I will sometimes do economy out business home to not spoil the holiday feeling.
Love to. I’ve done premium out, cattle back before. I’d do BA, ANA or JAL direct in business class at the drop of a hat. But we can’t afford it.
I think I’d rather sit bolt upright and wide awake for 9-10 hours, have a proper 12 hour kip, and then sit bolt upright for another 4 hours afterwards. I have the time, and the hotel is usually a load cheaper than the business class upgrade.
I’m looking at a return itinerary on Hainan that does LHR-NRT via PEK, including 12 hours in PEK Hilton both ways, for around £750. BA direct in cattle is minimum £850, JAL £100 more; ANA up to nearly £2K.
I snore like a bastard, too, so intend to stay awake anyway.
Isn’t the big disadvantage of a stopover that you’ve got twice as many trips through an airport?
Not that I’ve tried it, but with all the crap at airports these days, the stopover would have to be bloody good to make up for that.
“In 1986 I went to Oz with Hot Chocolate on Cathy Pacific” – that’s quite a line.
Fun girl, Cathy; she’ll do anything for a mug of cocoa.
What did she think of the comfort and service compared to other airlines? Seat comfort and legroom? I’m becoming a soft old tosser.
Last time I flew Chinese it was in to Kai Tak, as we were on the final approach, that bit where they did the wing waggle and you felt you could reach out and grab washing off the roof tops, the Chinese jumped up and started getting bags out of the overhead lockers. The cabin crew just ignored them.
Never again.
Going home “multiple times a year”? That’s not an expat, that’s a field worker. When I was a migrant worker, I was went home once in almost three years.
Strewth, as out Antipodean cousins are supposed to say, that’s either an unfortunate shadow or “Georgie” hasn’t shaved his goatee.
“Strewth, as out Antipodean cousins are supposed to say” -they definitely used to say ‘Fair Dinkum’, I was there, I heard them and ‘No Worries’ and ‘She’ll be right’ but that was years ago, maybe they don’t say those things now.
Strewth, I haven’t heard that one for ages. Fair dinkum mate!!
But no worries, she’ll be right!!!
You don’t hear strewth and fair dinkum as much these days. No worries and she’ll be right are very much current usage, guvner.
How about “As dry as a dead dingo’s donger”? If nothing else, you have to admire the alliteration.