pbiflyer

I will be travelling from London to Edinburgh with my wife and one year old child in February. Checking rail ticket prices on http://www.nationalrail.co.uk it seems that the best I can find is 96 pound round trip per person. Is that really how much it is going to cost?
Any better deals or better way to get there (keeping in mind driving with a 1 yo is not an option)?
Thanks for advice.

Aviatrix

You may be able to fly for less than the train fare - try www.easyjet.com

onlysuites

I agree with Avitrix, it will a lot cheaper if you fly, but here are your other two options

www.gobycoach.com - Not recommened as it will take you around 8 hrs.

www.gner.co.uk - Might get some cheap fares if you book early with them directly. They operate the Train service from London to edinburgh. Not sure about Edinburgh but the return fare from London to Newcastle is around £35 if booked 14 days in advance.

That £96 fare that you have been quoted is the standard fare, there are a variety of other discounted fares available. You can also try calling GNER directly on +44 8457 225 225. They often have special promotions on which the national websites dont have access to.

eric_packer

Agreed. There are several carriers out of the London airports with less expensive flights--BA, British Midland, EasyJet, et al. I would start my search at http://www.cheapflights.co.uk. Unless you are a student, I am not aware of very many effective ways to knock down the price of rail tickets in the UK, short of buying *very* far in advance.

Good luck.

uk1

BMI is a great airline and at random I found flights starting at £7 each way with loads of availability and around 8 flights each day each way. Means a trek to Heathrow, but that's part of the fun.

www.flybmi.co.uk

pbiflyer

Thanks for all the great information. I did not realize that it would be significantly cheaper to fly than train to Edinburgh. But I found deals for about half.
Interesting comparison of flights though.
EasyJet's web site had a price of 40 pounds per person round trip with taxes of 10 pounds for a total of 100 pounds for the both of us.
As pointed out, BMI had 7 pound each way fares. So, it was 14 pounds per person. However, theire taxes, fees etc. were 43 pounds per person for a total of 116 pounds for both of us.
Why the difference? The only thing that I could see would be the airports. The 10 pound taxes was from Gatwick and the 43 pound taxes was from Heathrow.

Thanks again for all the good advice!

Aviatrix

Easyjet seems to do things the old-fashioned way - their basic fare includes everything except the UK government tax which I believe they have to list separately by law.

Most other airlines now list passenger service charges as a separate item. (They're not supposed to call them "taxes", but the correct term "taxes and charges" often gets abbreciated to "taxes"). BMI's 43 pounds will be 10 pounds taxes and a total of 33 pounds in passenger service charges, split between the two airports.

Wingnut

I have to say that if I were making that trip, city centre to city centre, as part of a holiday with a child, I would take the train.

1. Door-to-door, the plane is only marginally quicker, about 30 minutes or so.

2. You need to factor in the costs of getting to and from the airports. Yes, you can do this cheaply by tube in London and bus in Edinburgh, but on holiday with luggage and a small child I'd be in a cab...

3. The train is more spacious, more relaxing and more enjoyable. The coastal views north of Newcastle are great. The train has a restaurant car (weekdays) serving really rather reasonable food (available to standard class ticket holders S/A).

GNER seem to offer fares from £25.00 here. (Change station to Edinburgh and click the "Buy in advance" tab.)

GodOSpoons

I think the important distinction on the flying is where you'll start out in London. bmi flies from Heathrow, which is accessable by Tube or, if you want to pay more, by the Heathrow Express. EasyJet flies from other airports with more expensive interconnections (either train or coach--Gatwick Express alone is £23.50 return per person, not including transport to Victoria Station, versus £7.60 return from the Underground Zone 1 to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line), which is kind of a hidden cost for those commutes. Figure about an hour from a Central London hotel to counter no matter what airport you're using, bar London City Airport, which is probably half that.

I'm personally not a fan of the discount carriers, as I don't think that their prices are all that much better once you work in the remote airports, the transit time and fact there is no recurring benefit to loyalty, which may or may not matter to you. If you choose that route, check out easyjet and ryanair.

Also, do you have status on any particular airline alliance (or would you like to work on building it up?). BD (aka bmi) is part of Star Alliance, BA (aka British Airways) is in One World.

The previous author is right--if you take the train, you tend to go from city center to city center. But, considering the length of time on the train required to make the journey, you might be better off flying (that's what I'd do). Save the train journeys for shorter hauls.

Timothy

onlysuites

I agree with Wingnut, the train will be a lot more enjoyable then flying. It takes you from city center to city center and you can also see the english country side this way.

Raffles

There is currently a substantial amount of engineering work being done on the UK rail network. As a consequence, the train companies often do not know until 2-3 weeks in advance whether or not they will be able to run their full timetable on a particular day, especially at weekends.

Discounted tickets are therefore often not available until 2-3 weeks before the date of travel. Why? Discounted tickets almost always require non-changeable seat reservations, and until the train company is certain what trains it can run that day it will not be able to offer reserved seats.

I recommend you check back on the GNER website 2-3 weeks before travel and see what discounts are available. I STRONGLY recommend First Class (which may be cheaper than some economy tickets) since the leg room in economy is not fantastic and it is a long journey. In any event, the extra cost of First Class should not be huge on a £ per hour basis.

stut

I'll also jump on the GNER bandwagon here. It's one of the few really good train services in the UK. And yes, the First Class is excellent, whether in the InterCity 225 trains or the leased Eurostars. Many trains also have wireless internet access on board, which is a great way to pass the time for the slightly less interesting part of the journey (the first part).

To the en-route sights, I'd also add the view of the Tyne bridges as you sweep across the river just before entering Newcastle.

Also note that GNER have a 'Weekend First' scheme - if you're travelling at the weekend, there are very good value upgrades available - a certain number can be pre-booked, or you can pay (in designated carriages - not all 1st class carriages) on the train. Not all fares are eligible for the upgrades, but it's far from just being full fare that is.

onlysuites

[QUOTE=stut]
To the en-route sights, I'd also add the view of the Tyne bridges as you sweep across the river just before entering Newcastle.
[QUOTE]

That truely is an amazing sight

Makes the hairs on my arms stand up everytime. Anyone who has lived there will know what i mean.

rfrost

I took the night train up, and really liked it. Yes, I lost the view, but it enabled me to see a performance in London that night and saved me the cost of a hotel room, which made it quite economical. Plus, I like trains.

BahrainLad

Yep, lived in Newcastle for 4 years and loved the view of the Tyne bridges, at any time of day or night, sunny or rainy, you get the picture.....

Also, when you get north of Berwick, the track goes extremely close to the sea, and the views are breathtaking.

Also, if you can bag a dining car seat on departure from London, and the train's not busy, with the help of a few bottles of red it's possible to spread lunch out for a good 3 hours. Meaning you get lots of time in a First Class seat for a Standard fare. The staff don't seem to mind as long as you keep spending money periodically....even on booze.