Working/travelling to the UK

its baltic

Just wondering does anyone have experience of working in the UK and travelling home nearly every weekend.
Is it possible to do on a long term basis
What kind of a salary would you want to be earning in order to justify your reason for working over there?

Cheers in advance

The Niece

Hi there,

I travelled from Dublin to London weekly for almost 18 months - always on the Aer Lingus 6:40am flight on a Monday and then the cheapest flight home on a Friday

I found that it required lots of long-term planning on flights and accommodation, and attention - couple of times, I managed to book flights the wrong way round and found I was supposed to be flying to Dublin on a Monday morning :rolleyes:

I can't say what salary would be required to justify the travel but I tried to budget so that my monthly travel (inc accommodation) worked out at the same amount that I would spend on rent in London - £650 or so.

Personally - it got to a point where I dreaded waking up on Monday morning to get to the airport!

its baltic

Thanks for that,

ya I was going to allow £100 for each weekend travelling for flights and 450 for accomodation including bills. Would this be realistic?

It probably would be for the foreseeable future so I kinda want to be sure its feasible before I make the move.

The Niece

Sounds reasonable to me - you might find a couple of places where they'll reduce the rent because you're not there on the weekends but £450 is still decent to find a full-time place, with bills - although you'll need to check if council tax is included in the bills

With flights - I had the same idea, keep to to £100 - £120. Sometimes I found it cheaper to book flights separately - like Aer Lingus on a Monday and Ryanair on a Friday but keep an eye out for special offers! Aer Lingus often worked out cheaper than Ryanair, and I took an Air France flight over once too - opodo.co.uk is very handy.

One thing to consider is the cost of travelling from the airport to where you are in the UK - in London, it was £20 on the Heathrow Express, to London in 15 minutes vs. £6 on the tube which took an hour

3DataModem

The Niece wrote: »

Hi there,

I travelled from Dublin to London weekly for almost 18 months - always on the Aer Lingus 6:40am flight on a Monday and then the cheapest flight home on a Friday

I found that it required lots of long-term planning on flights and accommodation, and attention - couple of times, I managed to book flights the wrong way round and found I was supposed to be flying to Dublin on a Monday morning :rolleyes:

I can't say what salary would be required to justify the travel but I tried to budget so that my monthly travel (inc accommodation) worked out at the same amount that I would spend on rent in London - £650 or so.

Personally - it got to a point where I dreaded waking up on Monday morning to get to the airport!

Did you have a family in Dublin? Were you far from airport? I am considering something similar, and will literally be 20 mins from airport either side. Do you think this makes it easier?

The Niece

Hi 3DataModem,

I live with my family in Dublin - and we're about 20 minutes away from the airport too. It's a big help on Monday mornings especially - I would leave my house about 5:30am, queue for security and walk on the plane - online check-in and no baggage is a big help too!

On the other side in London, I would go straight to work getting off the plane - and in that case, my workplace was about an hour and a half away from Heathrow Airport - my work was flexible in that if the plane was delayed, I could still come in at 11 and work a full day. On Fridays, I'd come in early so that I could leave early and make my plane, even with any possible delays on the tube etc.

Monkey61

I did the opposite for 6 months in 2008, living in London but working in Dublin. I booked flights months in advance with Ryanair and generally averaged £20 per week on return flights. I flew to Gatwick and booked the bus transfers months in advance as well, so could go for £2 each way. That wouldn't be ideal if you were trying to get to work for 9am, but with a train connection out of the airport instead you'd be grand.

I don't see why you couldn't do it on a long term basis. It's not ideal really and it's a bit exhausting, but once you get into the routine of it, you can time exactly what time you need to arrive at the airport and practically just walk straight onto the plane.

3DataModem

Yeah... unfortunately no Ryanair where I am.

Booking in advance gets me best price of about 90/100 GBP so I'm probably looking at 500 per month flights.

Oracle

There's working in the UK, and then there's working in London, in reality 2 very different things. The cost of living in London is high, elsewhere in UK it's more reasonable.

If you're going to be mainly based in London then factor in the higher costs. It's not just rent, it's also things you don't think of like the Tube/rail, food, clothes, entertainment, The commuting times from one part of London to another are considerable, then there's the cost of alternative transport when the Tube or rail goes on strike or has a breakdown/station closure/maintenance etc ..... which happens regularly.

Working in London can be summed in in one word; hassle.