MilesBuzz! - OMNI: cheapest airfare on earth

Hello.
This year Ryanair (no frills/ no miles airline) has a absolutely incredible fare between London Stanstead and Dublin
-- one-way ticket is $8.05. Total airfare for round-trip travel (including taxes) is $48.16. This is cheapest
published international airfare I am aware of.
My question is: has someone found a cheaper deal? Doesnt matter where, doesnt matter when.

cheers,
kr (very curious).

P.S: I have never flown Ryanair and I dont know anything about their in-flight service (if they have any). Anybody flown with them?

WOW!!! I paid $311 r/t on BA from Miami to LHR a couple of years back and thought that was a deal!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by geo1004 (edited 04-22-99).]

Best and cheapest fare: a one day internet sale: JFK-DFW on United... 99 dollars I believe. Round trip. Now that was a deal.

I'm wondering if the fare quotes for this airline are in dollars or Irish Sterling (don't know the currency) or British pounds.

Now the cheapest fares ever: People's Express. 29 dollars EWR-Rochester. And they were the cheapest fares on earth... I collapsed on the earth when I got off the plane!

Best and cheapest fare: a one day internet sale: JFK-DFW on United... 99 dollars I believe. Round trip. Now that was a deal.

I'm wondering if the fare quotes for this RYAN AIR airline are in dollars or Irish Sterling (don't know the currency) or British pounds.

Now the cheapest fares ever: People's Express. 29 dollars EWR-Rochester. And they were the cheapest fares on earth... I collapsed on the earth when I got off the plane!

650: By an amazing coincidence I was looking at Ryan Air this afternoon for fares from London to Dublin.

I can therefore beat the $8.05 fare, by a whole 5 cents! Try London Luton (LTN) to Dublin, which checks in at $8.00 + tax.

There is of course a catch. If you look at the fare code, it is a "T" fare. What on God's green earth is a "T" fare I hear you ask?

It is a Ryan Air promotional fare, usually in conjunction with a UK National Newspaper, ie. Collect 6 vouchers and you can book this fare. In other words it is not generally available.

I guess you came across this fare on EasySabre, which is the only system I am aware of which lists these fares. But try and book it and I am affraid you will be dissapointed, EasySabre will not let you (and a note of caution EasySabre does not list the Voucher requirement on it's Fare Rules).

The cheapest fare Ryan Air do which is generally available is Luton-Dublin for £45 ($72) return each, for a two person companion.

Still amazingly good value, but then Ryan Air is a budget airline. Don't expect any in-flight service.

Much better to pay an extra £4.50 ($7) each and fly Aer Lingus (free drinkies and grub) from Birmingham, who are offering a companion fare of £99 ($158) for two. If you can't find this bargain it is Fare Basis: VLCN (Booking Class: V), or in Sabre speak, Fare Display: FABHXDUB20JUNPM-EI .

God bless EasySabre. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Nick

will eAAsy sabre let you book any no-frills airline? Southwest, etc? I haven't found a way other than their website to book.

Seriously, Ryanair is even a step below Southwest. Although I have never been on them, supposedly soft drinks are available at a price, and they don't serve coffee (apparently serving coffee requires 11 different SKUs (stock keeping units) that would be used for nothing else. (coffee in filter bags, hot cups, stirrers, sugar, fake cream, etc etc etc) Read this in Airways magazine.

Southwest Airlines has no ticketing agreements with any airline. It does display seat availability on SABRE computers though you can only book directly with them, and not even through any travel agents! Okay maybe one or two....

I think Southwest is only bookable through their system. Although, I heard somewhere that they were switching to Sabre, etc. But I am not sure this is true.

My experiance with Ryan and their competitor EasyJet is that they are very good at advertising and marketing very cheap fares, but beware they often only have 1 or possible 2 seats available at that fare and then only available on flights out of peak times.
If you want to fly at conveniant times you never pay the cheapest fare.

Southworst (who I fly in another 5 hours) uses Sabre as their computer rez system.

Travel agents in the US can book and ticket WN on Sabre -- they just can't see available seats in each class.

So raeban my wife the travel agent tells me...

This Ryanair deal looks very good as I am seriously contemplating a trip to Eireland and London in November this year.

Does anyone know of any other databases that it appears on as I'd like to try and book this deal. I realise that you need the coupons but strange things have been known to happen with databases.

cheers Peter

Hello everybody. Thanks for the info. :-)
Merry and pberrett: Actually I found $8.05 deal on United
Connection. Same deal was bookable on http://www.farebase.com.
It is 14-day advance-purchase one-way fare which only aplly on FR
(Ryanair) flights 203 on Tue through Thu or FR flights 209/225 on Tue
through Wed or on FR flight 223 on Mon. But it is really annoying if
they really want vouchers too. I dont have any. :-(
Merry and jamiel: Yes, I believe that Aer Lingus offers much better
service. Their green planes a very nice and one can earn Skymiles or
Finnair Plus points when flying with them. But when trip is short and
price matters then I dont necessarily want a coffe or drink. Furthermore, seems that Ryanair has a quite young fleet -- they have
purchased 25 of Boeing 737-800 aircraft for delivery over the next 5 years. At least this is what their web site says.
One more thing: I found out that Virgin Express (another low-low cost
carrier) is codesharing with Sabena on several routes. How
come? Will Sabena ticketed passengers get better in-flights service
than Virgin Express ticketed passengers??
Catman: I am sorry about Peoples Express. Too bad they dont
fly anymore.


[This message has been edited by 650 (edited 04-23-99).]

[This message has been edited by 650 (edited 04-23-99).]

[This message has been edited by 650 (edited 04-23-99).]

pberret: I think you are going to dissapointed. In common with most low-cost carriers RyanAir flights are not bookable through agents. The fares will just be there as part of the CRS systems, but will not be bookable. Sorry.

650: RyanAir is not that bad. They serve drinks on board, you just have to pay for them.

I think you will be better off with Sabena than Virgin Express. So I am not biast I will quote from The Virgin Group of Companies annual report:

"Virgin Express is a new concept in Air Travel, offering revelutionary low fares for scheduled flights.

Meals are not served during flights, but passengers can enjoy a beverage service including free soft drinks.

In order to keep costs to a minimum and fares low, Virgin Express flights are not available through CRS systems. Flights should be booked direct with Virgin Express on 0800 89 11 99".

onefreeman...Last time I was on Southwest(WN), which was last week, they still boarded by the boarding pass # method which includes "first-come, first-served" on seat selection and the only class available is "LC", Texan abbrev. for "Last Class". So, there is a reason that Sabre cannot book class and seat on WN.

To see all of the fares available on WN goto www.iflyswa.com and go to the reservations screen. You will see the multiple fares available on the flights. It is actually very easy. Also, pay attention to the "enroll now" button on the confirmation when you purchase tickets. This allows you to get a free Rapid Rewards card without filling up that brochure with stamps.
With those numbered Boarding cards you will be sitting in the middle if your # is over 60.

Has anyone gotton any of these datanases to work for the $8.05 fare?

I foudn it on United connection but it won't let me book it at that price.

Ideally I'd like to book it (at $8 each way) as follows

18 Nov 99 London to Dublin
23 Nov 99 Dublin to London

(and if I could somehow get 1000 United miles even better!)

Anybody worked out a way to book it at that price yet using an on-line CRS?

cheers Peter

pberret: As I said you can't. RyanAir do not accept CRS bookings, you have to book direct.

But, if you try and book direct this fare will not be available it is a promotional fare - as I said - it is only available to readers of The Sun newspaper, who collected vouchers a few weeks ago.

The best deal you can get London to Dublin is a £90 companion deal (one pays £90, the second fare is free) with RyanAir from Luton. And with that the hassel of getting to Luton probably makes a more expensive Gatwick/Heathrow/London City flight more viable.

Honestly, trust me, you are wasting your time!

Nick

The cheapest airfare was Alaska Airlines from
Palm Springs to Seattle a while ago for $0.
All you had to pay was the taxes. Of course
they noticed it after a couple of hours and
took it away but not before a few dozen
people bought it.

Was this $0 airfare in an on-line airfare database?

It it was in a wholesale database obviously the general public would have had difficulty finding our about it.

If it was in an on-line database - whcih one did you see it on? I sometimes wonder which on-line database is best for picking up these sorts of bargain airfares.

cheers Peter

I am surprised that they honoured 0-fare-bookings. To my understanding, you don't have liability to honour obvious faults/mistypings - as long as you correct them immediatly after getting to know.

This was a hotel, not an airline, but I recall booking a Days Inn in Winnipeg for C$96 on Travelocity, and a few days later got a call that they would not honor that rate and would charge C$160 for the last three nights... (I canceled and booked the downtown Ramada for C$125--almost exactly the same for the entire stay...)

Rudi: It depends what country you are in.

Ask Bab's about my reservation at the Gatwick Hilton costing £ zero. They agreed to honour it.

Nick

Hmm, my cheapest - LAX to YVR (Vancouver, BC)for $89 including tax on Alaska Airlines. Even upgraded to First Class for $40.