Hi all!
Last time I visited Corfu and Arillas I traveled from Cardiff to Gatwick on a coach (5 and a half hours) in the middle of the night for a 7am. flight from the busiest airport in the country. I hated the experience and vowed never to repeat it!
However, it would appear that the operators from my local CWL Cardiff International (thats a laugh) Airport and the more distant Bristol Airport are charging 'silly money' for the same trip.
I saw one recently advertised for £176 but after tax, and all the other bits and bobs the true price was over £260! Some as much as £400 and more.
Has anyone any ideas or tips? Its cheaper to book a package holiday and not stay at the 'given' accommodation!
Hi Martin...its getting that way that the package may be the cheaper option...yes book a cheapo to Kavos!!! then take the escape rout to Arillas....
Kes has the right idea there Martin. It's a good option. But obviously you need to allow for a taxi to/from Arillas in your costing.
Cheers
Negg
Yes but..cant even find those I know what you mean Martin,cardiff bristol birmingham or even east midlands have all drawn a blank for us too and we have done the flight only a few times, best deal I got on sat was £47.99 inc taxs etc from birmingham good flight times only problem ...one way so I searched and searched for a return from corfu from 3day to 7 but nowt, we would have been happy just to have had 3/4 nights in Arillas, its got crazy these past few months.
Good luck
Ang
Cheers all!
At least it's not me getting paranoid! I hope the problem will resolve itself otherwise its Gatwick/Luton/Stanstead mayhem again. It seems daft to me that London and the 'home counties' get all the perks at cheap flights from the most overworked and congested airports when the airports 'in the sticks' with hardly any flights in comparison, hike up the prices to the point they become ludicrous!
The thought of the coach link alone is off putting enough let alone the anonymous cattle drive of the London airports. Will keep looking and if I find anything of value will update this thread!
We need a once a week charter 'Arillas special' for all the regulars!
Problem is "where from?".
We live in Norfolk.
It's as far to Birmingham as it is to Gatwick!!
Wouldn't it be great to have a 'Fantasy Island' flying boat that could pick up in Cardiff Bay, Norfolk Broads, and other remote places, and land in the sea off Arillas so we could use the jetty to get to our accommodation! That would be something!
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth I will keep searching and hoping!
Hi all!
Have been searching the internet at all hours and have found a site that seems to be quite reasonable in price and is 'up front' with what you get for your money!
A1 Travel, not sure where they are based, but they can do CWL to Corfu for £233.
Anyone had any dealings with them?
Yes Martin, I have used A1 several times with no problems. They have even offered XL flights cheaper than XL on occasions.
Are you looking for flights for this year or 2008? If you are looking for next year, the general consensus is to wait a little longer before booking due to various mergers going on with the big boys.
I normally book in September for the following year, but prices are definitely up at the moment. My flights with XL this Sept/Oct were cancelled and no alternative offered so I will not be booking with XL again - although prior to this I had no problems. The good thing about XL is that you only have to pay around £50 per person if you are booking well in advance and the rest about 8 weeks before the flight.
Fiona
Thanks for the information Fiona!
I had originally planned a visit this year, end of September/beginning of October but due to flight availability will now be looking at May next year. It seems that now I am traveling solo (lost my wife three years ago) there seems to be an added problem with 'singles supplement' on everything! Could really do with a break now and Arillas would do me a power of good. All good things are worth the wait!
Single supplements are always a problem - I experienced the same when my husband died. But in May and October, most companies don't charge the supplement in Corfu - certainly Manos never used to so you could try Dionysos or Perry and Jimmy's at the Rainbow through them.
Where are you from in Norfolk Brian? - i live in Norwich.
Damn sorry not paying as much attention to this forum as I should recently and missed this thread.
Yes due to mergers prices are high, going to be the start of the 2nd quarter of next year before things settle. The good news is and this is still a bit of a secret so don't tell anyone as of next summer Thomas Cook (which will then incorporate) Mytravel will have at least one aircraft based at Bristol and Cardiff throughout the summer. Can't even guess what prices may be but it looks very good for perhaps Monday, maybe friday Corfu flights from those bases during the summer.
I like good news.
I'm off to Dalyan in Turkey this afternoon. I could not get anything for Corfu without taking out a second mortgage. Remember the days when you could get late deals? all the prices are much higher now.
The late deal market is still a very active business model, Corfu unless you are very lucky tends to have very few of these deals now capacity has been reduced. Next year things will be very different.
so,with your inside knowledge Joe,when should I book my five flights for August 2008? (no pressure!)
Now if they are cheap :)
Failing that I would guess around March / April 2008, August though is a bad month for seat only's as its peak holiday time. Here it can be best to wait until the very last minute but this usually is not very practical. £250 is our average August price at the moment, I imagine that will fall.
Mergers Happen the Directors get richer and us poor travellers lose out on cheap flights and availability just about sums it up.
Just this minute booked Thomsonfly for 7 to 21 July 2008 from Bristol. Total including all taxes etc £358 for two ie £179 per person. The nearest to that was XL at 0515am for £209. The Thomson is at 7am - just a bit more pleasant.
Found this by searching Yahoo with "corfu flight" and got to the Thomsonfly site.
Hope this might be of use.
phil and jen
Cheers philandjen!
Will check for May at Cardiff and Bristol.
All the best,
Martin.
For all those who go from Bristol
Just got back from Majorca into Bristol. Apart from the renovations and solvent smells etc which didn't do us much good, made complete fools of ourselves (yes all - we can do that without trying!) with the luggage trollies. You now have to pay either £1 coin or 2 euro coins to "borrow" one - they are all locked together and one gets released when you put the money in. Didn't know that when we landed - there are no notices, and we spent an age trying to get one off several locked rows to the amusement of all and sundry! Someone pointed to the coin slot and hey presto - paid our £1 and away.
Unlike the supermarkets, it isn't a deposit that you get back on return of the trolley. It is a charge.
Phil
oh i do hate bristol airport!! we flew from cardiff last september, it was really nice, we live not far from the old severn bridge, so it was easy. martin prefers to go from bristol cause he thinks its closer, it probably is in miles, but sometimes it can take over an hour to get there. after our trip from cardiff we thought we'd try again in june, and would you beleive it, we couldn't!!! we're going from bristol again!
ger x
Hi All!,
Living in Cardiff I always thought the title 'Cardiff international Airport' meant what it says. It has since dawned on me that many flights available throughout the U.K. are not available from CWL. If they are there is a hefty 'penalty' in the hiked up price for flying 'local'. It strikes me that despite the 'hype' introduced by the so called 'Seneth' or Welsh Parliament there is a lot to be desired with the service from Cardiff Wales Airport! Most of the 'International' flights are via Holland with a relatively expensive link with K.L.M.
Bristol offers more reasonably priced flights, but with the additional journey and expensive parking.
Martin.
Martin, Edinburgh is the same! They put on flights with Globespan to Corfu, and then cancelled them all. Our nearest is glasgow or Newcastle, Newcastle being slightly cheaper, but a longer drive to get there. Edinburgh Airport calls itself 'international', but doesn't appear to have a huge choice of destinations.
Hi Maggie
Jen and me have a massive soft spot for Edinburgh. We spent all three weeks of the Festival there for our silver wedding in 1997. Many stories to tell, but maybe not on this forum. It cost us £3,500 but money well spent. We even thought of living there till we realised the pollution and the Guiness would kill us! Gotta chase happy places and never stick in the wrong ones. Sorry Scotsmans Lounge - Arillas turns us on even more. Talk to us about Edinburgh. Do you know how Doogie is doing who sings for a living? Have his tapes...
You just confirmed our decision Bristol is bad, but Martin points out that Cardiff and you that Edinburgh is even worse. Campaign needed!
with best wishes
phil (but jen is with me on all this)
Posted all day on this subject. Not only do we lack choices, but whatever we do somebody gets the extra money. Who the hell (f**k) are they?
Corfu is apparently expensive for the airlines so they don't go there. Let's all
Phil, £3,500 for 3 weeks in Edinburgh????????
No wonder you plumped for arillas!!
Thanks Maggie. Just need to say that the strange stuff that appeared at the end of my post was not mine. Haven't a clue how it got there and jen and me don't have anything to do with it.
But yes - we did do 3 barrels of Guiness, 80 fringe shows and every night we could we supported the band called North Sea Gas (Dave Kilfillan we think) and Doogie Rush. We were more energetic in those days! We loved Finnegans Wake - could never move in there but still managed to drink too much Guiness!
Slower and wiser now - good food, sea, sand and wonderful people in Arillas do it for us. Looking forward to meeting you one day
phil and jenny