BA vs. VA, deals, and LGW questions

[chmurf]

Hi,

we're getting one step closer to booking our flights for 2015. Flights are not released yet, but I want to be prepared
And I have several questions

So far, on any date I've checked (at the 6 to 8 months mark) flying direct from LGW to MCO was consistently cheaper than flying indirect from CDG to MCO (no direct flights)

So LGW it is.

we'll be coming on the Eurostar from Lille to Saint Pancras, around 7:30ish (PM) after work.

1) Am I correct that we can get the train at the new thameslink station at St Pancras, straight to LGW ?
Is there something I need to know going from the Eurostar Terminal to the Thameslink Station ?

2) this one is an alternate for 1)
I had the silly idea to take advantage of being in London to hop on the tube and have a couple of hours of "london by night" (something I seldom have the opportunity to do, as I'm mostly in London on day trips)

2a) If this sounds like a good idea, can you recommend a good hotel, in very close proximity of St Pancras/Kings Cross (ideally under £80/£100 a night)

2b) We're looking at a 11:15am flight on VA or an 11:20am flight on BA, so 8:15 at LGW and an early start around 7:00am (7:30am tops), wouldn't it be best to go straight to LGW instead.
I'm always wary of early morning transportation before a flight, I don't know how reliable UK trains are, but in France... (ok I won't rant, lol)

3) If we go straight to LGW without staying in London, can you recommend a good hotel (same budget of £80/£100 for the night not including breakfast) in very close proximity of the airport.

4) now the airline. BA or VA ?
4a) when do sales usually come out ? and is it worth waiting for those sales, or it won't get lower than a very early booking (cheapest fare class)

Thank you for reading that long post, and thanks for any views you can share.

 

[Elise79]

Yes you can get the train from St Pancras straight to Gatwick. Fares are £10 for adults and £5 for kids. From the international arrivals you need to just walk down to the other end to the local services.

You won't get a hotel near Kings Cross for under £100 a night - my DH works near there and when he stays over its always over that.

You might want to look at the Premier Inn at Gatwick as its right next door to the North Terminal.

As for Airline - after my experience with BA this summer you couldn't pay me to fly with them again but others love them.

 

[Sam1]

What do you usually do? Do you usually have an overnight stay in England?

I'd personally want to be staying at Gatwick for an 11:15am flight. The Premier Inn at the terminal is fine for an overnight stay, especially if you can get a £29 a night room. It's a budget, but definitely a much higher standard than budgets in France so worth looking at. Plus if you decide to go with Virgin you can use their twilight check in to get rid of your bags if you did decide to go into London. You could also look at using the Gatwick Express straight from there.

We booked our Virgin flights for this year not that long after they were released, but booked them as a flydrive with Virgin Holidays in their sale just before christmas because it worked out cheaper. I know you're going for roughly the same weeks as us, but next year, so it's worth looking at them then.

Is there a reason why you're getting the train from France? Is it time restraint or cost? We personally found it cheaper to book a separate budget airline flight straight to Gatwick, but we're further south so to go by train would've been very expensive for us.

 

[chmurf]

You might want to look at the Premier Inn at Gatwick as its right next door to the North Terminal.

Brilliant, thank you.

What do you usually do? Do you usually have an overnight stay in England?

we usually go indirect from CDG. It would be our first time through LGW.
And we always spend the night at the airport before a flight. I don't really trust trains to take me to the airport on the day ... I could trust a 45 minutes train ride from London to Gatwick, but a ride from Lille to London and then to Gatwick would be too much stress on the day.

We booked our Virgin flights for this year not that long after they were released, but booked them as a flydrive with Virgin Holidays in their sale just before christmas because it worked out cheaper. I know you're going for roughly the same weeks as us, but next year, so it's worth looking at them then.

thanks for that. I'll keep an eye out for sales around christmas time then.

Is there a reason why you're getting the train from France? Is it time restraint or cost?

I think we could call that "time constraints", lol.
we live in Lille, a couple of subway stations away from Lille Europe.
There is no flight between Lille Airport (Lesquin) and London. We would have to take the train to CDG (50 minutes) to catch a plane (with 1h30min layover in CDG) to LHR (1h20min flight) and then transfer from LHR to LGW.
at that rate, we might as well go indirect CDG-MCO


Since our journey will start in Lille-Europe, no matter which option we choose, taking the Eurostar (1h30min) then going to LGW (45 minutes) is a no brainer.
This way we'll be in our hotel room in gatwick before we would even have boarded the plane to LHR

If we had stayed closer to Paris, I'd probably have considered a flight to London, but we're too close to the UK (and to a Eurostar station) to not take advantage of it.

 

[Sam1]

Oh right, a train is a lot easier for you then. We looked at that option but the time it took and the cost was just not worth it for us.

We only live half an hour away from Toulouse airport, so for us a flight to Gatwick is the quickest and cheapest way.

 

[zippy99]

How many kids/adults in your party?

There are ways you can save further money on the train tickets

Group Save 4 - (4 adults) is £25.60
Group Save 3 - (3 adults and 1 child) £24.80
Whereas 2 adults & 2 kids is £30.00

We travel from our home town to Brighton and London as a family and always bump the kids up to adults as the Groupsave discounts can be huge - you don't need a railcard - just travel together.

Just had a look on holiday extras (not sure of your dates) but Hamptons by Hilton were priced at £85 - walking distance to airport (no transfers needed) and included breakfast.

 

[chmurf]

How many kids/adults in your party?

2 adults 1 kid
I've priced it up, and I was offered a Group save 3 (anytime single) for £19.80 (all passengers as adults) overground only.

I'm a bit confused about operators and ticket brokers or whatever.
Each time I use national rail enquiries (for example) I seem to end up with a different operator/broker, always with the same fare, but I really don't know what to do with that

operator-wise, is there anything I should know before I book ? (if I could use paypal as a payment method, it would save me almost a quid on bank fees)

Just had a look on holiday extras (not sure of your dates) but Hamptons by Hilton were priced at £85 - walking distance to airport (no transfers needed) and included breakfast.

our dates are not available yet (october 2015) but some quotes I got for premier inn were as high as £75pn. It sure would be nice to get the £29pn Sam1 was mentionning
I'll have a look at Hamptons by Hilton too, thanks.

 

[Sam1]

I originally booked Hampton by Hilton over the phone not that long after it opened, but after phoning to check something a week later they couldn't find the booking so I waited to see if any money came out of the bank before booking again.

While I was waiting the £29 rooms became available with Premier Inn and because we needed two nights it was massively cheaper. That was at the beginning of May and more or less every single night from the summer right up to the end of the year went down to £29. I did read that they only discount them just three months before, so I don't know whether that is the norm and won't happen next year. I did wonder whether it was something to do with the Hampton opening. I'd definitely check weekly when it comes to May for an October stay though. I don't think it's hard to get a £29 room and to be honest I'd probably go to the Hampton rather than pay full price for a Premier Inn room. They're fine, but when you know they sell rooms for just £29 it's hard to pay much more for a basic overnight stay.

 

[BudgieMama]

National Rail don't sell the tickets, the regional companies do, that's why you're seeing different vendors all selling tickets for the same price. Feel free to pick one. I use Southern Railway, and their service is pretty decent. Avoid The Train Line... they charge a booking fee!

I've not flown with Virgin, but we flew BA last week. We've done 4 flights to the US with BA, 1 in their 747, and 3 in their 777 fleet (including both flights last week). Their 777 World Traveler Cabins are dated, and pretty cramped if you are tall. IFE wasn't great either- the screens aren't good quality and I ended up watching stuff on my TINY iPod screen as it was a better picture! However, they were a lot cheaper than Virgin when we booked, so we sucked it up and dealt with it. Food was good and the cabin crew helpful. We have, however, between the two of us had at least one broken seat on ever BA 777 flight... worked in my favour on my night flight home- I ended up with a lovely pillow from Club World to prop my headrest up, and it meant for a better nights sleep!

We wouldn't pay much more for a better cabin, because we see the flight as a means to an end, and the food is good enough not to be an issue (at least for us). But I know other people have their own priorities. Everything else with BA was a-OK!

 

[scoobydooby]

I'm afraid I am another one who wouldn't fly with BA ever again of you paid me. Their service in flight is similar to Virgin so it's not that, although their premium economy equivalent is, in my opinion, noticeably inferior to Virgin. Their approach if something goes wrong though (e.g. Significant delay at the US end) is appalling. Given I would personally have to drive three hours longer to get to a BA flight than a Virgin one, they would have to really up their game before I'd book with them. As appropriate context, my poor experience (s) with them are not particularly recent but when I lived in the South of England they were convenient. Now I don't they have zilch to offer me.

 

[timc17]

To the OP, would you not consider flying from Paris to London and then onto Orlando? We live near Bordeaux and the cost of flying to LGW, a night's hotel at Gatwick and then an early flight to MCO is the same as flying direct from LGW. I know this is with BA but to us as long as we get to Florida we don't really care about who takes us.

 

[chmurf]

thanks for the input.

To the OP, would you not consider flying from Paris to London and then onto Orlando? We live near Bordeaux and the cost of flying to LGW, a night's hotel at Gatwick and then an early flight to MCO is the same as flying direct from LGW. I know this is with BA but to us as long as we get to Florida we don't really care about who takes us.

I have considered this at one point but it ended up being ludicrous, let me tell you why (hang on to your seat)

we would need to get to paris, 1hs train ride on the TGV, after work, then to Orly, another 30 minutes on the subway. (by the time we even get to the airport, we would already be in Saint Pancras.)

then if we're on time, we could catch the last easyjet flight to LGW at 7:30pm, for roughly 200€pp ( £150pp ) and that flight goes through ... Barcelona with a 8h55mins stopover there ...

our other option is to go to CDG, catch a swiss flight to LGW at 8:45pm for 300€pp ( £240pp ) with a stopover in Geneva ... for 16 hours ...

the last direct flight from paris to lgw (at £65pp) takes off from paris at 5:55
we absolutely can't make it.

There are nice flights from BOD to LGW, but none from Paris (none that would get us to LGW on the day before our flight to Orlando)
At that rate, it would be easier (less time consuming) to fly Lufthansa through FRA (Frankfurt) which operates direct flights to MCO.

I've crunched the numbers, and travel time.
taking the train to LGW would take us half the time required for a connection
by the time we get to paris, we're almost in Saint Pancras.

It might be more telling on a map. below on the image, in red the TGV route to CDG, and in yellow, the same distance on the Eurostar route.

 

[Minniesgal]

Hi, we're getting one step closer to booking our flights for 2015. Flights are not released yet, but I want to be prepared And I have several questions So far, on any date I've checked (at the 6 to 8 months mark) flying direct from LGW to MCO was consistently cheaper than flying indirect from CDG to MCO (no direct flights) So LGW it is. we'll be coming on the Eurostar from Lille to Saint Pancras, around 7:30ish (PM) after work. 1) Am I correct that we can get the train at the new thameslink station at St Pancras, straight to LGW ? Is there something I need to know going from the Eurostar Terminal to the Thameslink Station ? 2) this one is an alternate for 1) I had the silly idea to take advantage of being in London to hop on the tube and have a couple of hours of "london by night" (something I seldom have the opportunity to do, as I'm mostly in London on day trips) 2a) If this sounds like a good idea, can you recommend a good hotel, in very close proximity of St Pancras/Kings Cross (ideally under £80/£100 a night) 2b) We're looking at a 11:15am flight on VA or an 11:20am flight on BA, so 8:15 at LGW and an early start around 7:00am (7:30am tops), wouldn't it be best to go straight to LGW instead. I'm always wary of early morning transportation before a flight, I don't know how reliable UK trains are, but in France... (ok I won't rant, lol) 3) If we go straight to LGW without staying in London, can you recommend a good hotel (same budget of £80/£100 for the night not including breakfast) in very close proximity of the airport. 4) now the airline. BA or VA ? 4a) when do sales usually come out ? and is it worth waiting for those sales, or it won't get lower than a very early booking (cheapest fare class) Thank you for reading that long post, and thanks for any views you can share.

Yes you can get the train to gat wick from .saint pancreas I did this easily why traveling from Paris to gat wick this year.

 

[Feebarn]

Do Delta not do direct flights from CDG anymore? I'm sure we had one once. Actually now I think of it ... might have gone via Atlanta. Thats not a bad thing... immigration in Atlanta was a lot less horrendous than Orlando.

 

[dabootie]

saint pancreas.

lol, St Pancreas....I work there and people mispronouncing the name is one of our biggest bugbears!

As for the original question, when you arrive on Eurostar and come out of Arrivals turn immediately to your right and walk up past M&S and the large Eurostar Departure area. At the end of the row of shops immediately in front of you is the train service you need. You will need to go downstairs (the lift is in the left hand corner) and depending on the time of day/night will be catching a Brighton or Three Bridges train....5 stops to Gatwick....a little under an hour. The ticket office at St Pancras is open until around 11pm after that tickets can be bought from a machine. If there is nobody in the help desk on the left of the gate line and you need help with anything just ask any of us in the blue hi-vis vests. We are there as Customer Service Agents and Security.

 

[chmurf]

Do Delta not do direct flights from CDG anymore?

Air France used to have a direct link from CDG to MCO ... well ... it lasted a few months before they axed it down ... not profitable enough ...

just ask any of us in the blue hi-vis vests. We are there as Customer Service Agents and Security.

thank you.