Leavinglondon

Plus on Saturdays the last Iberia flight to London leaves at 17 05 so a bit early for a day trip even if you did get on the first flight out in the morning- BA has the final 3 flights of the day

vonlance

Ticket booked for tomorrow to GVA, anyone else?

Leavinglondon

On Wednesday I booked a flight to got Madrid for lunch tomorrow:

£45 each way – going out on the 3rd flight (leave 09 10 arrive 12 40) and back on the final one, leave Madrid at 21 00.

But yesterday, and still today, the 2nd flight 0730/10 50, now shows seats for £45, previously it was closer to the first flight’s £460, so it would have been worth while holding off and booking later.

Change fee is £60 so while the extra couple of hours would be very useful, I’d rather use this to pay 2/3 of another day trip.

Looking tonight for tomorrow:

Milan £45 each way, 2nd flight out and last back, arrive 10 45 leave 19 50, 9 hours, though as flight out is to Malpensa and there is nothing out to Linate it is not ideal
Rome £44 each way, arrive 12 00 leave 20 15, 8 hours
Vienna £49 each way, arrive 10 50 leave 19 15 8 ½ hours
Barcelona £48/£45 out/back, arrive 10 55 leave 21 25 9 ½ hours
Paris Orly £49 each way, arrive 0905 leave 20 45 CDG or 19 40 Orly, almost 12 (or 11) hours
Nice...... shows that this does not work everywhere. It has only one seat available to London all day and the cheapest day return of £670 costs more than tickets to Madrid, Milan, Rome, Vienna, Barcelona and Paris combined!

Has anyone else checked day fares a couple of days before travel (I’d rather book on Thursday to have a chance of reserving a decent seat before check in opens) and got similar prices for other dates/destinations?

Any preferred day trip locations?

These fares are so cheap that they could make an ideal day out for a treat, starting with champagne in the lounge and then lunching in a surprise European city.

travelwithross

You have a 24hr cooling off policy so if the flight is cheaper and you booked less than 24hr ago use it at your discretion

lorcancoyle

Seem to recall someone mentioning that this doesn't apply to bookings with departure less than 7 days away

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, this is quite normal, prices will yo-yo. You can try and beat the system, sometimes it works, sometimes not. I'm most conscious of it on the LHR-NCL sector and I can generally, but not always, predict how it goes. Booking 1 or 2 weeks out tends to be expensive, sometimes bargains are to be had in the last few days when it is clear the aircraft will not fill up any other way. You need to monitor Easyjet (and Ryanair) on some routes to see how the inter-plays work.

Now you're on to a winner, since you're not forced on one route, so NCE is out, though it's often a bargain route. One airline - years ago, may have been BMI, can't remember - had an away day deal where you'd pay a cheap rate a few days in advance, and they'd only tell you at the airport where you were going.

As for your list, they are all great places to go, Rome looks a practical bargain in that list, in terms of timings and relatively quick access to the city centre, with Vienna close behind. Don't forget to check out some of the lower visibility places such as Hanover and Stuttgart, out of LHR.

If you're making a habit of this, it's worth saving a script of places that you can deploy in ITA Matrix. That won't show HBO fares, but if you sort by price, you can safely assume the lowest prices will be £10 or £15 cheaper if booked as HBO.

Incidentally if you were looking for POUGs, there is a case for booking 4 or so days in advance since you won't get a POUG offered until 48 hours after booking.

BApilotinsider

I had a brief chat with one of the senior SH managers. I mentioned the success of these fares and asked if they would consider doing trips TO london in similar fashion (as requested by some on here). He said is was under consideration, so fingers crossed...^

Tafflyer

How long ago was that chat?
http://www.britishairways.com/en-de/...aytripstoLondo

BApilotinsider

Ha ha, as if by magic... Yes I think we were a bit behind the curve on that one. Aviation moves so fast...

Camflyer

I've done more European day trips for work than I care to remember but I must say that I've never considered doing it for fun. However, with fares like this then they are worth considering.

I think the worst was Stockholm in a day. Left home at something like 4am, first flight, all day meeting with a customer, out for dinner and the last flight back and didn't get home until past 2am.

Leavinglondon

I'd only consider doing it again if there was something very specific I wanted to do (eg an exhibition) or, more likely, I could take some one for whom the whole thing (including lounge access, which I am lucky enough to have) was a novelty. Timings were

8 1/2 hours on the ground, which were used:
1/2 hr to get through the airport and to the metro
1 hr almost to get to the centre, then
1 to get back
1/2 to get to the gate
1/2 minimum time to be there plus
1/2 extra
so
4 hours was spent to/from the airport and only
4 1/2 (out of 17 from leaving to arriving back at him) in the city

There was a earlier flight which would have given almost hrs more but it only opened up after booking this one and the change fee was £60 so not worth it. Don't think it would have been worth gong for less time - and on a tight schedule any delay could really eat into the day, so while it's good to see these fares, it probably remains better to plan well in advance and get a good price for an overnight stay

callum9999

I booked on Friday evening for a Saturday Geneva trip a couple of weeks ago. Pretty much every flight was available.

That depends on the city and timings though of course. I went to Geneva on the first and last flights, saw everything I wanted and still had time to kill.

greg5

Weekend day trips being advertised from CH. No availability that I could find though from ZRH or BSL. I didn't try looking via GVA.

remymartin

Doing a daytrip to LHR. Arrival 9:05am, departure 6:40pm. All in all from home to home 18 hours.

Camflyer

I suppose these would be interesting you you could match up a flight with an interesting football game somewhere such as Germany. Possibly cheaper than watching a Premier League game in England.