Business Travel to the UK

simon334

Hope this is an appropriate thread.

About to start regular business travel to the UK, two to three days every fortnight.

Looking for the top tips for regular air travel to UK on Business.

You know, best airline, parking, routes to avoid, best places for air/rail/car hire fares etc etc.

Always appreciate not re-inventing the wheel if someone has been there and got the tee shirt already.

Many thanks

wexie

simon334 wrote: »

Hope this is an appropriate thread.

About to start regular business travel to the UK, two to three days every fortnight.

Looking for the top tips for regular air travel to UK on Business.

You know, best airline, parking, routes to avoid, best places for air/rail/car hire fares etc etc.

Always appreciate not re-inventing the wheel if someone has been there and got the tee shirt already.

Many thanks

This oughta be easy as there is only one airport in the UK so everybody will be able to figure out what it is you need.....

:rolleyes:

simon334

Thanks wexie, appreciate your help:D

Multiple locations UK, but most common will be LGW, Birmingham, and Manchester.

Where do people park flying out of Dublin? Is there a car hire company that is commonly reliable and well priced anywhere in UK etc etc.

Thanks again

Graham

Best is fairly subjective. Would your interpretation of 'best' be

fastest
easiest to book
cheapest
most flexible
includes luggage allowance
includes lounge access
includes fast-track security
frequent flyer benefits
biggest planes
luxury rental cars

simon334

I don't no folks, you tell me.........

Whats your opinion?

Looking for opinions from people that travel regularly to UK and Back on business. Is it worth the extra money to fly with one carrier over another, if you do it regularly, I don't know I don't do it?

Is flexibility important? I don't know I don't travel regularly!


You get my drift;-)

Graham

ok here's my drift

BEST - private jet from Weston Airport just outside Dublin to Biggin Hill. No congestion, limited security delays and lots of flexibility. You can specify you're own on-board catering and the operator will arrange for a car to meet you if required.



Seriously, give us something to work with here. Are you a plasterer who will be funding his own travel to jobs in the UK who will need to carry a bag of kit or are you an international mergers and acquisitions specialist who's client will be picking up the tab?

simon334

Commercial Director Role, based in Ireland, channel managing UK customers with small UK team.

Company paying obviously, but value for money imperative as with everyone these days I am sure. (Private jet out for moment!)

Travelling out of Dublin, predominantly. Into LGW, Birmingham and Manchester at a guess.

Travelling up from Carlow.

Where do people park?
Who do they fly with and why?
Is it worth having Lounge access air miles etc etc...
Who do people hire cars from?
I would use trainline in UK for rail, any other suggestions.
Hotel chains worth looking at?
Anything else anybody thinks might be useful.

Kind regards

Graham

For your destinations you're looking at Are Lingus or Ryanair, I'd always price both. Sometimes there's nothing in the price in which case Aer Lingus wins, sometimes the price difference can be a few hundred Euro so it's down to your budget.

Aer Lingus offer 3 fare bands. Low, Plus and Flex.
Plus includes a checked bag and advanced seat selection
Flex also adds in lounge access an extra checked bag and late check-in. It's also fully refundable should your plans change. If I remember correctly you can also switch to an earlier flight if you need to, there's nothing worse than unexpectedly finishing early on a Friday and then realising you have 6 hours to kill in an airport.

Lounge access at Dublin probably isn't too big a deal for short-haul unless you plan on arriving very early for each flight although if you're planning to fly out the evening before there are worse places to have a drink and relax before the flight.

Ryanair can be slightly more stressful, especially if you're not familiar with how they work. Everything always feels a bit frantic and you will get little flexibility in terms of check-in, luggage limits, printed boarding pass etc etc. This is occasionally compensated for by a substantial price difference. I'd either recommend paying for advanced seat selection and being one of the first on the flight or hanging back and being one of the last. If the flight times are peak tourist (Fri evening to Dublin for example) I'd book a seat, the last on the plane strategy could mean your bag goes into an overhead at the other end of the plane.

Parking is easy enough at Dublin, the closer you are to the airport, the more expensive it gets. After a few days away you may think it worth the premium to be able to walk out of the airport terminal straight into your car (short term parking). The cheaper (long term) car parks are usually a bus-ride. Book online in advance and you can see some significant savings for both types.

You may also want to take a look at http://www.airportclub.ie, I haven't used it but it might be worth taking a look if you're going to be in Dublin Airport 20+ per year.

Hire cars I'd recommend one of the big names that have an onsite presence at your destination. Try the price comparison sites before booking as they occasionally have better prices than booking direct. Don't bother with anything like Hertz Number One Club, it can be more expensive than booking without your club membership.

If you don't have one already buy a cabin sized trolley case, check the airlines websites for permitted sizes and buy the largest that fits, travel with this case as hand luggage alone whenever you can. Checked bags = more expense and more hanging around. Keep a couple of zip-lock bags in your case for toiletries.

Food - in order of preference. Eat at home, your hotel, the airport or (as a last resort) on the plane. That said the Aer Lingus breakfast isn't bad and can be ordered in advanced, very handy for any particularly early starts.

Peterdalkey

www.argusrentals.com has great prices for car hire for all destinations. I use it all the time. It was the genesis for a huge Irish web/ecommerce sucess story in the online car hire booking space cartrawler.com.

mneylon

If you're flying into London then CityJet might be of interest, as they fly into London City

If you're going to be flying internationally at all then an airline that is part of an alliance usually works out better in terms of frequent flier programs etc.,

Aer Lingus does have a frequent flier program, but it's not very good

BA also flies to London.

Not sure about the other cities - sorry

Parking - the official airport carparks are fine - depends how long you're going to be away and what you value most

relaxed

Skyscanner.net for price comparison on flights

Car hire probably have a similar comparison site.

Peterdalkey

relaxed wrote: »

Skyscanner.net for price comparison on flights

Car hire probably have a similar comparison site.

the argus site offers cars from different rental companies operating out of the same location based on price/class./availability

dbran

Folks: This thread is about Business Travel to UK in case you need to be reminded.

afatbollix

If you are flying a lot you want comfort and as little time in an airport.

I usually fly between Dublin and London when I get my expenses paid by company / client I use this way to travel:

Pick the closest car park to the airport. If it is a flight over and back in one day it might work out just as cheap to use the short term parking.

Don't check in a a bag and check in online as you can be at the airport 45 minutes before departure where as if you have to check in at the airport they recommend 90 minutes.

If I was flying to London it depends on where I need to go, the majority of the time is is south or west London. If it is west I fly to Heathrow, Either Aerlingus or BA fly the route I prefer BA Club Europe as I get a meal so I can spend less time in the airport and have breakfast in the air. Aerlingus fly to Gatwick and its a 10er on the train to get me into London in 45 minutes.

In London I use a mini cab to get me to where I need to go if it is close to the airport or use Hertz as they are who my company use and give us Hertz gold circle so all I need to do is swipe my card and get the keys and off I go.

Look up the frequent flyers clubs. BAs one is very good which includes lounge access after a certain amount of flights. Same with the car hire firms. You might as well collect points for all your travel to maybe save up to use on your family on Summer flights.

simon334

Thanks folks

Do any of you find the boarding passes on the phone thing handy and is it just aerlingus that do it?
Boarding passes are about the only thing i print these days!

Regards

afatbollix

simon334 wrote: »

Thanks folks

Do any of you find the boarding passes on the phone thing handy and is it just aerlingus that do it?
Boarding passes are about the only thing i print these days!

Regards

BA have a app that you can check in with and the boarding pass goes into the passbook app on the iphone meaning it comes up every time you wake the phone up so no need to keep getting the app out each time you need to scan.

srsly78

When visiting London I fly into London City airport, this is right beside my customer. It's a little bit more expensive, but it cuts out the annoying commute from gatwick/heathrow/stanstead. And there is only one runway, so when you land you just get off plane and go straight through! Always very quick.

As already mentioned CityJet flies Dublin<->London City. With an avrojet turboprop, takes about 25 minutes longer than the usual turbofan 737. So worth it tho for the above reasons, also free food + drink.

No rubbish with boarding passes etc either... As usual booking in advance can get you cheapest ticket. At peak times it can be expensive (that means mondays and fridays).

The main advantage of this is that I can get up early and be in work for 9am at London office. Not stupidly early either!!! Also at London City I have shown up foolishly 5 minutes before the flight and been let through!!! No way this would happen at other airports. I love flying, but I HATE airports - so LCA is quite a refreshing experience.

onedmc

As a frequent traveller on business to the UK there is one key piece of advice that I'd give. Its to make sure you point those mini milk cartons that you get with coffee away from you. There are under pressure and always splash.

Everything else is common sense.

srsly78

Good advice, I had to learn that one the hard way!

Also, YES you can have as many of those mini-whisky bottles as you like!!! Stuff em in your pocket!! The flight isn't long enough to neck them all unfortunately, unless you are seriously hardcore.... If you really insist however I would only recommend it on your homeward leg.

onedmc

srsly78 wrote: »

Good advice, I had to learn that one the hard way!

Also, YES you can have as many of those mini-whisky bottles as you like!!! Stuff em in your pocket!! The flight isn't long enough to neck them all unfortunately, unless you are seriously hardcore.... If you really insist however I would only recommend it on your homeward leg.

I suppose I'm showing my age now but it reminds me of the good old days when Aer Lingus used to supply a small bottle of champagne with breakfast. Didn't go down so well with the steamed fry so the savvy ones could easily collect half a dozen after a flight.
The lads in the office were like flys on sh*t hovering around the laptop bag ready to clean it out.

Tabnabs

simon334 wrote: »

Commercial Director Role, based in Ireland, channel managing UK customers with small UK team.

Company paying obviously, but value for money imperative as with everyone these days I am sure. (Private jet out for moment!)

Travelling out of Dublin, predominantly. Into LGW, Birmingham and Manchester at a guess.

Travelling up from Carlow.

Where do people park?
Who do they fly with and why?
Is it worth having Lounge access air miles etc etc...
Who do people hire cars from?
I would use trainline in UK for rail, any other suggestions.
Hotel chains worth looking at?
Anything else anybody thinks might be useful.

Kind regards

Quickpark car park if staying for more than 24 hours. Come off M50 at Ikea/Ballymun and take the old airport road to avoid the traffic. Otherwise, park short term for day trips.

Ryanair will get you to your chosen destinations cheaply and effectively. Aer Lingus staff have the nasty habit of threatening to strike relatively frequently these days which puts me off. However, if flying in poor weather conditions (eg. snow) Ryanair will cancel at the drop of a hat where AL will hang on and hang on until they can get a flight out (in my experience).

Lounge access, generally not worth the expense.

Car hire; I use Europcar. I have received outstanding customer service from them when flooding was an issue in England. They are cheaper than Budget Business class hire and I've never had an issue with them overcharging or anything like that.

Any of the big hotel chains will provide the service you'd expect and pay for. If not, their complaints procedure is usually up to spec and you will get satisfaction.

At Dublin Airport, consider http://www.airportgenie.com/ the fast track access and a free coffee can be a nice way to start the day.

srsly78 wrote: »

As already mentioned CityJet flies Dublin<->London City. With an avrojet turboprop, takes about 25 minutes longer than the usual turbofan 737. So worth it tho for the above reasons, also free food + drink.

[pedant]

Turboprop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AirDolomiti_ATR72_I-ADCC_MUC_2010-02-21.jpg

Turbofan (i.e. jet engine) http://www.cityjet.com/dyn/_pictures/new-headers-wide/%281%29Our_fleet.jpg
[/pedant]

Peterdalkey

My best UK travel tip: I always try to fly to the smallest airport, Luton, East Midlands, John Lennon Liverpool etc. as it save sooo much time at both local ends of the trip.

mneylon

simon334 wrote: »

Thanks folks

Do any of you find the boarding passes on the phone thing handy and is it just aerlingus that do it?
Boarding passes are about the only thing i print these days!

Regards

Aer Lingus only give you a mobile boarding pass if you check in from their mobile app. If you check in from your desktop / laptop you don't get the option. They also don't have any simple way to reprint your boarding pass if you check in from home without printing it ..

Most of the airlines offer mobile boarding passes these days and most of them are passbook compatible - the Aer Lingus one isn't

CelticRambler

Ryanair are supposed to be bringing in on-phone boarding cards in the next few months.

If you're on a day-trip, you won't need overhead luggage space. I'm happy to arrive at T1 at Departure-30min. 10mins to get through security, 5mins to walk to Pier D, 5mins to use the toilets (if necessary) and 5mins at the tail end of the queue. Grab the first available seat, there is always space under the seat in front for a laptop-size bag, and the priority boarders don't get there any faster than me.

I've never had any real problems with Aer Lingus but I too would not trust them not to go on strike for one reason or another.

simon334

HI

Does anyone know how long before a flight you can use the aer lingus upp to check in?

Ta.

Simon

mneylon

simon334 wrote: »

HI

Does anyone know how long before a flight you can use the aer lingus upp to check in?

Ta.

Simon

Probably 24 hours?