7 Adults stuck in Faro - Help me get them home!!!

BenEadir

Hi all,

Just got a call from a very good friend of mine who brought his family (7 adults in total) on holiday to Faro. They were due to fly home this morning with Ryanair but mis-read 07:35 for 7:35pm and are now well and truly stuffed as the next Ryanair flight isn't until this day week (which would cost €2,140 for all 7 one way) and the next Aer Lingus flight isn't until Saturday and that will cost €2,782 for all 7 one way.

I'm a big boardsie fan and I've both helped people with my own knowledge and experience in different things and been helped many times on here when I needed others knowledge and experience so I'm really hoping the travel experts who frequent this forum will come to my (or more correctly my friends) rescue as he's freaking out at the moment!!!

Ideas as to how they can get home to Dublin today/tomorrow for as little extra outlay as possible???

Ben

dilallio

They could get a train to Seville and get a flight to Dublin via Madrid with Iberia Airlines or another airline.
I would say though that it would be expensive.

BenEadir

Thanks Dilallio. Ryanair won't give them any allowance for the missed flight or allow them to 'change' the flight in any way (not a surprise) so it looks like they're going to be well and truly rogered in order to get home. Best option at the moment seems to be Ryanair to Leeds Bradford dep Faro @ 15:05 arr Leeds Bradford @ 18:05 and then Leeds Bradford to Dublin dep 20:00 arr Dublin 20:45.

Total cost - €3,700 :eek: :eek: :eek:

My mate isn't a happy camper.

Only himself to blame etc I know but man that's depressing

Ben

listermint

i would be examining all the train routes first before stumping up 3700 cash. let that be a last option.

zagmund

He missed his flight, so Ryanair wouldn't be expected to do anything.

Last minute flights to anywhere are going to cost a bomb, no matter where you're starting from or going to.

So, what can he do to reduce costs ? Cut out one of the flights for one - my suggestion is to fly to *anywhere* in the UK and then buy a Sail &Rail ticket back to Ireland from any mainline train station. Details here - http://www.stenaline.ie/ferry/rail-and-sail/ and there's a similar page on Irish Ferries. £32 all the way from the furthest station to Dublin.

Check out all the upcoming flights from Faro here - http://www.faroairportsguide.com/departures.php and see which of them offers the best value for getting to the UK.

Alternatively, get the train from Faro to somewhere else in Portugal/Spain and take it from there, but you're still going to face huge last minute fares - both on the train and the plane.

z

[edit] Sail & Rail can only be booked online for departures 7 days in advance, but can be booked as a walk up fare in mainline stations in the UK. There's a departure from Leeds @ ~2000 tonight which would have them back in Dublin @~0530 tomorrow.

Savman

Try Seville, it's really not that far east of Faro. You also have Malaga further again but anything beats €3.7k :eek:

Also check Lisbon or any airports in the region of Spain & Portugal. Not sure how they managed to get the flight time wrong by 12 hours but this will be a painfully expensive error to rectify.

zagmund

According to their website they can fly Ryanair to Leeds Bradford for €172 each this afternoon. But they better hurry up or else the ticket price will go up and up and up . . .

z

Macers

Faro to Dublin today - Aerlingus €228 each?

http://www.skyscanner.ie/flights/fao/dub/111122/airfares-from-faro-to-dublin-in-november-2011.html

BenEadir

Thanks All,

The Leeds Bradford flight is booked (total €1,500 or €214 per head with baggage etc) but the Leeds Dublin flight has been politely declined (another €2,200) in favour of a €35 per head SailRail from Leeds Bradford airport at 18:55 to Holyhead arr midnight with 3 changes of train in between in time for the 02:40 sailing to Dublin. The hardship of the train and ferry + the €2,000 extra he'll be out of pocket by the time they actually get home should teach him/them a little lesson in paying more attention to their itinerary me thinks !!!

Thanks again all, boardsies always come up trumps for each other.

Ben

Ponster

Too late I know but...€1,800 for 7 people via Manchester (Monarch Airlines + Ryanair) but leaving tomorrow.

zagmund

So, did they make it home bleary eyed this morning ?

z

BenEadir

zagmund wrote: »

So, did they make it home bleary eyed this morning ?

z

Picked them up at 6:05am from Dublin Port this morning and dropped them to the long term car park in the Airport.

Pretty bleary eyed all right and €2,000 lighter than planned.

Lesson learned :eek:

Thanks for everyones help as always.

Ben

Andrew33

Happened to friends a couple of weeks ago too, fortunately they misread the departure time from Dub and it was only a weekend away but it certainly does happen!

Oh that's awful, has happened to TWO friends of mine! but worse was my sister in law a few weeks ago, three of them arrived at the airport after a weekend in Birmingham to discover they were two days late for the flight. She booked the return on the same day! they did the same and got the boat home.

Horrible way to end your holiday but I'm glad they got home safe OP

BenEadir

Andrew33 wrote: »

Happened to friends a couple of weeks ago too, fortunately they misread the departure time from Dub and it was only a weekend away but it certainly does happen!

Confession time!! Happened to me a few years ago. I was on a business trip to Asia and had asked for my return flight to be a late Friday night flight. Got my itinerary but check the details. Turned up at the airport at 10:30pm to check in for the last flight that night (which was 00:30am) to be told I was a little too late - 22 hours too late in fact. The person booking my flight for the Friday night thought the 00:30am "Friday Night" flight was the same date as the Friday whereas in fact it as actually 00:30am Satruday!!!

The airline staff were well used to the error being made and simply transferred me onto the correct flight FOC. Could have been a nightmare though!!!

Now all my details get put into my Outlook/Google calendar with checkin times etc so providing I have my phone with me I should be ok. I'm sure I'll find some way to mess that up though.

Ben

Dodge

Less than €300 per adult to get them home. Thats not bad at a days notice in all fairness