h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: How to Fly on a Low Budget Airline - A18737562
Author: The_Jon_m - Scout, Sub-Editor, Young, Educated and proud to be so. Lineman for the County - U204330

A quicky entry

Loved it!

A few spelling mistakes, but I'll pick those up a bit later.

Jon, it's hilarious - well done!

Reminds me of the classic Bob Newhart sketch "The Grace L. Ferguson Airline" - check it out if you haven't heard it.

Icy

Good comedy entry, but not, in my experience, that accurate.

The most enjoyable economy class flight I've ever had took off on time from Liverpool airport, was staffed by the most cheerful and efficient cabin crew I've ever come across, was comfortable and clean, and cost me less, *including* taxes and excess baggage for a snowboard, than the taxi to the airport.

SoRB

>> but not, in my experience, that accurate.

but definitily inaccurate ?

Traveller in Time not finding any names
"It comes close to libel . Perhaps there should be some more words suggesting it is all a 'little' exaggerated. "

"carry-on-follow-that-camel-baggage supplement"

However, it's not terribly accurate, and you've missed out the wonders of the ABCD system - turn up ten hours before the plane is due to leave and you can obtain an 'A' ticket at check-in, allowing you to board the plane first and snaffle the only seat on the plane with any legroom. Turn up 9 hours beforehand or sooner and you will receive a 'D' ticket, meaning that you will board last. To make the scheme seem fairer, some of the people meant to receive 'A' tickets are given 'B' or 'C' tickets, thus allowing them to board at the same time as the 'A' ticket people while letting the 'D' people know that they arrived Far Too Late.

Hmmmm...might need to be a touch more balanced!

Yes the cheapest prices tend to be for the times and dates for which there's no big demand - that's how the pricing system works: supply and demand.

Some (Easyjet?) have a guarantee scheme so that if the price goes down between booking and flying they will refund you the difference.(In the form of credit against another flight, to be used within 6 months, so it's not totally without stipulation, but still)

The perfect budget take on food for budget flights is the Boots £2.99 meal deal, usually avaialable near the departure gate.

"Despite the concerns about the environmental devastation they cause and various security and safety problems at airports, more and more people seem to be using low-cost airlines for their holidays."

This makes it sounds as if only low-cost airlines cause environmental problems. To call it 'devastation' is rather emotive, so this line could do with rewriting. Maybe:

"Despite the concerns about the environmental damage aeroplanes cause and various security and safety problems at airports, more and more people seem to be using low-cost airlines for their holidays."

After reading the rest of the entry it is biased against this kind of travel and as such it's not quite what we're looking for. Entries do need to be balanced, instructive, informative and factual.

A907463 & A586604 are good examples.

>is like trying to get alcohol-free blood out of a Rolling-Stone, it isn’t going to happen!<

Isn't this comment somewhat libellous, defamatory and unnecessarily derogatory?

perhaps use something like "trying to get blood out of a stone" Says the same thing without being any of the above.
ST.

You've capitalised Budget Travel, which is probably unwise because it is actually the name of a company.

http://budgettravel.ie/

TRiG.

If you're going to call the entry "how to fly on a low budget airline" then it does need to point out the advanatges, even though those are less well publicised.

Prior to Easyjet, getting to and from Northern Ireland was an absolute nightmare - fares to London STARTED at £100.

Dai has just been making enquiries about flying to Liverpool, form where he'll ride somthing back, on the ferry.

The flight, at a convenient time, to a convenient airport, is costing £15.99, including all taxes.

The return leg on the ferry is £120.

It is a funny entry, but, to be fair, it just confirms all my prejudices about Low Budget Airlines, it certainly wouldn't make me even think of going with one of them - not as long as I live in Fran kfurt, with the airport being quite close and can be reached with public transport, whereas there's practically no way to reach 'Frankfurt- Hahn', which is more than 100 kilometres away, and it is true, we once looked for flights to 'London-Stanstead' - the cheap ones were in the middle of the night,forth and back, and if you calculate the costs of getting to where you actually want to go, plus the time it costs you to go there, this just can't compete with a 'regular' airline.

Prejudiced is the word B'elana.

This entry is amusing, and points out many of the things that have to be borne in mind when travelling with a budget airline, but it completely fails to point out that in many cases it IS worth it, and that the added hassle, where it exists, is insignificant.

I had a few more thoughts on this, and specifically the out-of-the-way location of some (by no means all) of the airports used.

First, it should point out that part of the reason for the cheapness is the avoidance of high landing fees at more central airports. And so travellers should thoroughly research how they are going to make their onward journey, without assuming that there will be a train link/ shuttle bus or whatever.

From a personal point of view, travel times and costs are relative. When I lived in Luxembourg I did use Ryanair at both Charleroi and Hahn airports. Both of those were about a 2 hour drive from me, but a taxi and/or parking at the closer Luxembourg airport would have been at least 30 euro, before even comparing flight costs.

Dublin airport, Ryanair's hub, is hardly out of the way. And links from Stansted and Gatwick (Easyjet) are as good as at any other London airport. I believe the journey time from Heathrow to central London by tube is somewhere in the region of 1 1/2 hours.

Norn Irn denizens with holiday homes on the Costa del Sol find the Easyjet link from Aldergrove to Malaga spot on.

removed pending rewrite when sober

Hope to see this sometime next year, then

Has the makings of a good article - look forward to the revised version