Originally Posted by
Gagravarr
The train ride on the east coast is very picturesque at the northern end, so it does have that going for it. If you book your train tickets ~3 months out when they go on sale, you can probably get an advanced purchase 1st class ticket for about the same as a virgin little red flight. East Coast first class is very nice, assuming virgin don't break it when they take it over in a few months...
Taking a virgin little red flight + tram/bus into the city is probably quicker and less hassle, but less interesting. Getting from Heathrow to Kings Cross to take the train to Edinburgh isn't too bad outside of rush hour - direct tube in just over an hour. Use your Oyster card for yourself, just top up some PAYG credit on arrival. If the others have suitable contactless credit/debit carsd, they can use those for the same price
Thank you! I was noticing the first class fares being comparable to the Virgin Little Red flight. I took the East Coast train in 2010 and it was very pleasant. Are children under 1 year required to purchase a seat on the train as well? I wonder how the cost really would compare to the Virgin flight with 4 adults and 1 infant.
I don't think everyone in our party will have contactless debit/credit cards. My wife and I do, but my brother and sister-in-law are "one credit card" people (Chase United MPE). That's something I'll have to check into.
Originally Posted by
rcspeirs
If you want to get to Edinburgh from LHR, then it would be a lot less hassle to fly. I can see loads of availability on BA for 5 September (and I’m not logged in – no status), but prices are higher than I would expect. (Is there some big sports event at Murrayfield that day???)
I was only looking at award availability, since I have a pile of Avios. The cheapest flight is the Virgin Little Red flight for purchase, so at this point, we'll probably opt for that or the train (probably in 1st).
Originally Posted by
rcspeirs
If you do stick with the train. Getting to Kings Cross is straightforward – direct on Piccadilly Line. A single ticket on the tube (cash fare) is £6.00. If you use “pay as you go” on either Oyster or a contactless bank card, it’s only £3.10. So – if you’re going to need an Oyster for the London stay, you might as well use that from LHR and save.
For the stay in London. A one week zones 1/2 travelcard is £32.10. If you use PAYG (on Oyster or contactless bank card) you pay a maximum of £6.40 per day. If you know you’re doing a lot of travel every day, then the weekly season ticket saves money, but if you’re likely to have some low travel days, then PAYG may be cheaper.
The key message is don’t buy cash fares. A single for the tube is £6. A one day travelcard issued in paper form is £12. And to reinforce the point about avoiding cash fares – it isn’t actually possible to pay cash on the buses.
Using Oyster is generally the simplest thing. You can load a weekly season and/or “pay as you go value”. The only exception is if you want to use the “two four one” discounts. That is only possible with a national rail ticket – so to get that benefit you’d buy a weekly season on paper from a national rail station. It requires a passport size photo but costs the same - £32.10
For UK citizens, using a contactless bank card is even better than Oyster. No need to obtain a separate Oyster card yet same prices as Oyster for PAYG usage. If a weekly travelcard would be cheaper – the system will “cap” the charges to the equivalent of a weekly travelcard. However, overseas bank cards are not guaranteed to work (some do – some don’t) and you may be hit with foreign currency transaction fees by your bank.
Thank you! That is all very helpful information. I can just use my previous Oyster card (I'm assuming even though it's 4 years old, I can just top it up again?). My brother and sister-in-law have a credit union and the Chase UA MPE card, so I'm fairly certain they would need to get Oyster cards. My Citigold debit card is contactless and has no FTFs, so that might work for my wife. Maybe we could use those, I could give my Oyster card to my brother, and then we'd only need one?
Originally Posted by
rcspeirs
Rail fare from London to Edinburgh.
A “walk up” fare (flexible – any offpeak train, which includes the entire weekend) is £125.70 single or £134.20 return.
The cheaper tickets are called “Advance” (it’s a specific ticket type) and can be as low as £20 single. There is no guarantee that the very cheapest fare will be available on any particular date – and indeed as September is still quite busy I wouldn’t expect any of the very cheapest fares to be offered. Other fares will be offered, as the cheapest “fare buckets” sell out, more expensive ones will be available. These tickets are non-flexible – zero zero zero flexibility – you can travel on the service booked. Travel on any other train and you’ll be charged a walk up fare.
The railway industry generally doesn’t release “advance” fares until 10/12 weeks before travel date.
Good to be reminded of the utter non-flexibility. I'm seeing ~£60 for first class on Saturday in March, so if that holds true through September when availability opens in Julyish, that would be fine. I'm accustomed to travel booked 6+ months out, so I do admit that's a little outside my typical paradigm.
Originally Posted by
Swiss Tony
Just a thought but why not do your 8 nights in London first then go to Edinburgh and then head to Paris?
You don't say who you are flying TATL with but if it's AA, I believe they will protect you if you miss the BA flight to Scotland even if it's on a separate ticket.
That tube ride from Heathrow to Kings Cross will take an eternity if you're tired.
That was our original plan, and we could still actually do it that way if we elect to. My reasoning was two-fold:
1) We arrive at LHR just before 6AM. The earliest I could potentially get "early check-in" at our hotel would probably be noon. We'll be tired and have all our luggage. While I'm sure the hotel would hold our luggage until check-in, we'd still be exhausted and probably just wanting to kick back. IF we were planning to take the train to Scotland at some point, why not just get it out of the way right then, where we could sit and relax, nap a bit (way easier than on a plane), enjoy the countryside, and get into Edinburgh at a convenient time to check in to a hotel?
2) We could fly from EDI to LCY, open-jaw 9 days, and then LHR to CDG on BA for 4500 Avios + ~$10. That saves a pile over train + Eurostar, although it adds some complication over the simplicity and ease of the Eurostar.
That said, the only thing set in stone right now is our originating flight into LHR on the morning of the 5th and departing CDG the afternoon of the 19th. Everything else is negotiable, so far.
Originally Posted by
lhrsfo
On SIMs the market is much more competitive than four years ago. The OP should check out 3 also and the virtual operators.
I'll have to look into that. Our party has three iPhones (5) and two Nexuses (Nexi) -- brother has personal and work. I think his work phone is international, as they send him to Finland twice a year.