~~**~ Our Travel Bargain Alerts **~~*

JohnCleary

Hi folks,
Does anyone know of a website that offers genuine last minute deals, no hassle? ie. Just log onto the website, they show you what they have and for what date (ie. as little as 2 days)

Could do with a break after the exams, only requirement is that it's by the sea and hot (something simple like canaries/spain etc. would be fine)

Generally, how do these systems work? Do you just get the accomodation and you book your own flight? Is it generally up to you to get from airport to the accomodation? Or is it generally a package? Or totally dependent on what has been cancelled?

Thanks in advance for any info/links!

JohnCleary

BTW planning to get away with the GF so would happily avoid package destinations, last thing I want it to be living next to a group of 20 lads on the p1ss for the week (just back from one of those )

stevood

Hey John,

I would look at the Ryanair destinations and choose something within their travel log. I have been booking flights and accom separate for the last few years and with enough notice you get flights to central europe and the islands around for about 180. Accom would be no more than 100 for a week.

JohnCleary

That's great thanks for the info. You reckon defo book accom/flights seperate yeah?

dragonfly!

if your doing a city break or a short break id say do it seperately well thats what i did after my exams last year anyway went to paris and got flights a lot cheaper than i expected with airfrance and then booked a hotel on holidayinn's website and it worked out cheaper than any packages I had seen for paris.....
But if you wanna go on a sun holiday id say book a package just for convienance!

JohnCleary

Thanks for the info. I'll try a package deal last minute. I just want to relax after the exams. Having said that, I don't just want to sit on a beach all day. Wouldn't mind doing a bit of exploring (ie. hire a car) or scuba diving. I'm nearly considering the likes of Tenerife, base myself in the like of Los Christeanious (spelling way off I know) and seeing the rest of the island by car... anything along the lines of that really

dragonfly!

yeah if you arent fussy where ya go id say just pick a week and then get a last min deal to wherever has them on! its what im gonna do next year anyway theres some great deals there at the min!:)

MonsterMob

I'd recommend www.skyscanner.net. Type in your dates and departure airport. Leave the detonation empty and it will give you a list of country you can fly too starting with the cheapest. It includes ryanair flights so you will definitely get cheap flights to somewhere. It's quite handy. Enjoy

MM

scout353

Marks Travel has Egypt for £199 this week and I think it is £225 next week - they are out of Gatwick but they are an excellent website and great to deal with. They always have specials!

www.markstravel.co.uk

tipptop2008

I just booked a holiday to a place a few miles away from salou with Direct Holidays. Booked it last Saturday and leaving this friday and got a package deal for a 4 star place for €180. Could have gotten a place in Salou for €160. Had a good look around on Saturday and found that these were the cheapest but might just depend on when you look.

JohnCleary

tipptop2008 wrote: »

I just booked a holiday to a place a few miles away from salou with Direct Holidays. Booked it last Saturday and leaving this friday and got a package deal for a 4 star place for €180. Could have gotten a place in Salou for €160. Had a good look around on Saturday and found that these were the cheapest but might just depend on when you look.

Was that just general browsing or did you come accross an offer?

tipptop2008

JohnCleary wrote: »

Was that just general browsing or did you come accross an offer?

Was just general browsing. Was looking to go away this Friday / Saturday so went around to a few of the shops (budget travel and Cassidys) and looked up a good few websites and found that directholidays had the cheapest one.

snubbleste

pg 520 onwards on www.rte.ie/aertel have last minute offers advertised
Granted they are package deals including the one that tipptop2008 mentioned

scout353

How about a new subsection for stand alone travel alerts - something along the lines of bargain alerts but purely for travel deals.

So often you come across something but it could be a little too late - if we had a travel bargain alert forum it could be a one stop shop!

Gazza22

I think this is a good idea, a catch-all-areas thread for bargain alerts. There's plenty of bargains around lately in the travel industry worldwide. People come across travel deals intentionally/unintentionally all the time and for a variety of reasons can't travel but this could be a place for these little gems to be posted for others.

Pending the rest of the communities opinion on this and the mods, you would need to propose this in Forums, as a sub section request. But i reckon a stickied thread would suffice for now to see how it goes.

pandamoanium

Great idea!

Would love to see this also!

That is a great idea, it is something that could really take off.:)

atgate

Two of my favorite things in life - travel & bargains so I'd be all on for this!!

brettmirl

Personally, I think threads get lost in sub-sections and stickies. I'd say let people post travel bargains in the main Travel Section.

Bluetonic

Bad idea, there are 100s of bargains in travel each and every day from flights to hotels to package holidays to weekend breaks.

I imagine the forum would soon be filled with rubbish. There is already a list of useful resources where people can search for said bargains, that should be enough.

ciaramc

I like it, good idea.

buzz55

Yes please, I think it sounds like a great idea.

Maybe if we could split it out in to hotel/accommodation bargains, holiday bargains and flight bargains, would that work?

Pythia

brettmirl wrote: »

Personally, I think threads get lost in sub-sections and stickies. I'd say let people post travel bargains in the main Travel Section.

Agree.

gaiscioch

A thread on money-saving tips would be very useful.

Avoid atm-offered conversion rates to euro: Many of you probably know this already, but when in a non-Euro country and withdrawing money from the atm, avoid the atm offer of a "guaranteed rate" currency conversion when withdrawing. I accepted it on my first day but later downloaded the XE currency convertor app and noticed there was an €8 difference. In another withdrawal, I checked my online account a moment account and my bank charged me €104.20 yesterday for what the atm offered to give me for a "guaranteed" €108.76.

Any others?

gaiscioch

Use Trivago at the US flag setting, rather than the Irish flag setting: Just a moment ago, I searched for Muckross Park. It was €199 on Trivago's Irish setting, an incredible €73 on the US setting. It was for the same dates. Here's the search:

Muckross Park, tonight: €73 (Trivago, US setting)


Muckross Park, tonight: €199 (Trivago, Ireland setting)

zagmund

Does anything think there might be value to be had in having a dedicated bargain alert thread in this forum?

I know that one persons bargain might be another persons rip-off price, so this one could be quite tricky.

I'm thinking of the likes of the €128 return fare from Dublin to Zurich that Swiss seem to mostly permanently have that includes luggage plus skis (if you have them). I think I would be happy enough paying that amount to most European capitals. I'm sure there are others that other people can mention.

It might be necessary to split it up into something like "Europe under €150 return", "UK under €70 return", "US under €350 return", "Long Haul bargains"

I don't think there's a *huge* need for a thread like this, but it could be useful for some folks who are flexible in their destinations.

What do others think?

z

Layinghen

I for one would love it.

zagmund

Actually, just to counter my own "bargain" . . . I checked back on the fare we actually paid and it ended up being €198, after they added €63 charges and €7 booking fee. I can't believe I fell for it and didn't notice.

Still, this doesn't take away from the principle of the bargain alert format. Another example (now expired) would have been the €35 single from Dublin to London City I got back in November. I had planned on getting the boat & train over but this was actually cheaper so I flew instead.

z

athtrasna

Travel bargain alerts, like the recent bargain flights to Argentina, have always been a feature of the Bargain Alert forum

bittihuduga

not a real bargain for dubliners but still...
toronto to dublin in march/april for 253euros..

http://www.skyscanner.ie/transport/flights/yyz/dub/150331/150409/airfares-from-toronto-pearson-international-to-dublin-in-march-2015-and-april-2015.html?adults=1&children=0&infants=0&cabinclass=economy&preferdirects=false&rtn=1&outboundaltsenabled=false&inboundaltsenabled=false

kerry4sam

Interesting Idea.

As a Travel mod I'd be okay with leaving this open for a short while to gauge interests and comments on the idea.

Ordinarily to date, any threads relating to any bargains being offered or indeed requested would have been sent over to the relevant BA forum with this in the London mega-thread being an exception that I added in, in March of 2014.

I'd still like to leave this suggestive thread open though and see what peoples' thoughts and opinions are.

Thanks Everyone for your thoughts & input in here,
kerry4sam

ProudDUB

athtrasna wrote: »

Travel bargain alerts, like the recent bargain flights to Argentina, have always been a feature of the Bargain Alert forum

I didn't know that the Bargain Alerts forum even existed until I saw this post. Would I be right in I presuming that I am not alone in that? So I think that a travel specific bargains thread is a great idea. Wouldn't be a fan of splitting it into different categories (UK, USA etc etc) as it makes the forum too cluttered imo.

zagmund

Yeah, I agree that separate threads would be overkill, it wasn't a great suggestion. Other forums have their own bargain alert threads - cycling & PC building for example. As far as I know they are pretty strict on them - you can post the bargain on the thread, but if anyone wants to launch into a "that's not a bargain, you're wasting money, try this instead" sort of discussion they have to take it off to another thread. This stops them turning into 300 page behemoths which are 80% waffle and 20% fact.

z

Yamanoto

I think this could be worth a go, even on a trial basis to see if it adds anything to the forum overall.

There are times I'll come across a good deal on flights or accommodation, but it wouldn't necessarily lend itself to a standalone thread over in BA. It'd be nice to have a space hereabouts to share such information and benefit from the keen eye of other folks with a passion for travel.

ProudDUB

zagmund wrote: »

Yeah, I agree that separate threads would be overkill, it wasn't a great suggestion. Other forums have their own bargain alert threads - cycling & PC building for example. As far as I know they are pretty strict on them - you can post the bargain on the thread, but if anyone wants to launch into a "that's not a bargain, you're wasting money, try this instead" sort of discussion they have to take it off to another thread. This stops them turning into 300 page behemoths which are 80% waffle and 20% fact.

I take your point about the waffle vs fact aspect. But plane tickets and hotel rooms generally cost a lot more than kettles and cheap cycling gloves from LIDL. Perhaps a little bit of wiggle room for discussion could be allowed, given the often large amounts of money involved?

kerry4sam

Okay just a tester just to see; you know; what or where this will end up

Today over in BargainAlerts Dublin->HongKong approx 400Euros Nov 2015.

Linking it in here but the discussion on said BA remains in the BA forum itself.

Any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
kerry4sam

http://www.airasia.com/ot/en/book-with-us/asean-pass.page

Air Asia.. Most big routes are one credit. Others are three. There's a two month option as well with 20 credits.

I'm already out here but that's my summer sorted.. Probably a week in each destination. Could be useful to some people currently planning!

token101

Secret Flying is an absolute goldmine if you're flexible on dates/destinations. London-Rio for £289 has been available for a few days now. Lots of error fares so don't book anything else until you have confirmation, but the prices are ridiculous so worth a punt if you see something.

dogcat

Does anybody know websites other than "Secret Flying" or "2015holidays" which post good bargains on flights and/or hotels?

househero

Deleted User wrote: »

http://www.airasia.com/ot/en/book-with-us/asean-pass.page

Air Asia.. Most big routes are one credit. Others are three. There's a two month option as well with 20 credits.

I'm already out here but that's my summer sorted.. Probably a week in each destination. Could be useful to some people currently planning!

If you are planning in advance, booking direct is cheaper. There are loads of cheap airlines in asia, why restrict yourself to air asia? And force flights you might not need. there are a lot of restrictions with that promotion. I spent ages working out a route before I dumped the idea and booked with a few different airlines...

I tell you what i found too, the airline that nobody dare say the name, is often cheaper, gives you free baggage allowance, free food, entertainment, a proper ticket, good customer service and food on the plane. Malaysian Airlines.

househero

Are we posting travel bargain alerts here now??? Or should it be in the thread asking if we should start a bargain alert thread #confuzed

I found 12% off ebookers hotels on http://2015holidays.com with code WELOVE12 expires on sunday night

50 euro off a package holiday on ebookers with code LOVETRAVEL
3 night minimum, need to book a hotel and flight or car. expires sunday night. it looks like you get £50 off on ebookers.com so if you have a credit card, you might be better off booking on the uk site coz £50 is 70 euro coz of the terrible exchange rate, well might as well make it work for us when we can

athtrasna

househero wrote: »

I tell you what i found too, the airline that nobody dare say the name, is often cheaper, gives you free baggage allowance, free food, entertainment, a proper ticket, good customer service and food on the plane. Malaysian Airlines.

Not in my experience. Rude staff, burnt/raw food, broken in flight entertainment systems, broken lights... Truly awful. Flew about ten flights with them but never again

galwayjohn89

househero wrote: »

I tell you what i found too, the airline that nobody dare say the name, is often cheaper, gives you free baggage allowance, free food, entertainment, a proper ticket, good customer service and food on the plane. Malaysian Airlines.

Flew Malaysian around 8 times in the summer. Was very impressed with them. As much drink as I wanted. Very polite staff (except on in KUL which I got an apology + free miles for).

househero

househero wrote: »

If you are planning in advance, booking direct is cheaper. There are loads of cheap airlines in asia, why restrict yourself to air asia? And force flights you might not need. there are a lot of restrictions with that promotion. I spent ages working out a route before I dumped the idea and booked with a few different airlines...

I tell you what i found too, the airline that nobody dare say the name, is often cheaper, gives you free baggage allowance, free food, entertainment, a proper ticket, good customer service and food on the plane. Malaysian Airlines.

Well it's expensive and awkward for me to get anywhere from Hanoi and I'm happy to come back through Ho Chi Minh so it's perfect..

From Hanoi, the cheapest flight to Bangkok this June one way is $77. Singapore and Malaysia around $160 one way. To get to Bali and back would be at least $200 and that's me being limited due to those cheapest days.

For $160 and a couple of $40 flights within Indo, and $50 from HCM to Hanoi afterwards, I can get KL, Singapore, Bali, Sumatra, Borneo, Bangkok and maybe even Yangon or Cebu.


If you're starting in Bangkok or KL, maybe your way would be better but for me, the ticket is worth it if I only used it twice.

zagmund

Here's my contribution - Swiss have recently launched direct DUB-GVA flights and they are currently only €66 return in the middle of the Summer. Flights start on 26 June and are on Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun. They call this fare something like "Swiss Light" and it's seat only, so you don't get any luggage allowance, but this just means that they are the same basis as EI/FR and other seat-only carriers.

z

Zascar

For those that use AirBnB - they have a new invite scheme where you can each get a €23 voucher for each person who signs up - and €69 if they host. So €92 in total per person you refer. Pretty cool offer.

The site is: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/invite <mod snip>

hdowney

I'd be all for having travel bargain alerts in the travel forum rather than the main ba forum

Poochie05

Taken from Bargain Alerts thread, buy one get one free on Lonely Planet guides, on Lonely Planet website, ends today

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057529267

Zascar

Need to take a trip with the mrs in 2 weeks - i'm very late in booking but wondering if I can get a package deal? It's also the weekend after valentines so probably a popular one. Looking for 2-3 nights in a city - I dont mind where but it has to be certain dates. Any tips for sites that are good for finding deals like this?

Zascar

Sorry not in Ireland, I was thinking something like spain, italy, prague etc

messrs

have you tried the likes of laterooms.com or lastminutedeals - although these may be room only , you would have to book flight seperate