Cheap flights to spain

Hi

East Midlands to Alicante with EasyJet seem the most reasonable but Jet2 from Leeds to Murcia is still under £200 for 2 people. I generally go direct to the airline site but skyscanner is a site I will be checking out to see all flights. Hope you catch some bargains.

Eileen

With Skyscanner, when I put in Leeds & then I tick the box with "direct only"  against it all it shows as destination airports are UK, France, Belgium & Ireland.

When I leave the box unticked &, by that, I would've expected a NON direct flight, it does give Murcia & Alicante. 

Well that seems even more stupid then! Fancy showing the direct flights in the non- direct section , no mention of

Almeria then as they fly there until the end of October?

I'm totally

i tried to use skyscanner too and it gave me some options but when i went to the website the prices were completely different.  It also didnt offer me the Jet2 flights which from Leeds to Alicante were the cheapest on my dates when i trawled round all the sites myself and compared. 

Well i suppose i was giving it a hard time cos i could have flown from Leeds or Newcastle and into Murcia or Alicante and had a bit of flexibility on dates.  But it didnt take me that long to go around the sites myself and do all the comparisons!

HMMM!!! This is confusing me now.  I put in LBA yesterday and Spain came up as an option if I picked July or August but not December or January.  Trying it today, don't even get Spain as an option from LBA.

Travel Republic has told me "an unexpected error has occurred" on all destinations/departures for the last week.

Cheap flights.co.uk just gives me scheduled airlines non-direct at over £300 each way.

Aren't these sites simply great?

  I think I'll stick with BMIBaby or EasyJet sites.

Oh, and just as an aside, I booked 4 seats to Murcia from Cardiff for August 9 to 25 back in February and the cost was £576.  Try booking today and the cost is £1,127.00.  These are with BMIBaby.  So book early.

flippin heck Bob, you must be made of money!

I wont book any flights unless i can get 2 of us there and back for under £200 (I think i went to £220 once) ... is that my scottish upbringing do you think?

Mind you they do sometimes ping us off the runway with an elastic band!

oops sorry ... i just noticed that it was the price for 4 seats you were quoting  .... phew!

hi valf

great minds think alike ... i usually try and time my trips when i can get the cheapest flights .... but £44 return ... I like your style! 

Are you flying from Dundee?  Did they tell you that the £44 was for a pot of glue and some feathers?

Well, yes, we do book the cheapo ones well in advance.  Went in January for £57.00 for two (advertised as £7.99 each way), £38 in March (advertised as £1 and £9.99), and £64 in June for the two of us (advertised as £12.99 each way).

Unfortunately, we are stuck when we want to take the grandkids out as prices fly up in the school holidays.  The £576 is for 4 of us (including supplements, fuel, taxes, suitcases) etc.  Love the new scam for charging for suitcases.  How do they expect me to bring all the fags and booze back? 

Seriously, it does get my back up with all the extras.  They have an internet only booking system and then have the nerve to charge you for using a credit or (another new scam they've thought up) a debit card.  How else do they expect me to pay?  I've tried shoving used fivers down the phone line but it doesn't work.  And, of course, the good old Gordon Ripoff tax.  Like me paying an extra tenner each is going to stop the flooding in Gloucester when those flying from Spain don't matter.  Is it just us Brits that roll over and accept these iniquitous charges?  Do the septics flying from New York to LA pay extra to plant trees in Wisconsin?  Would a Chinese pay to get his suitcase from Hong Kong to Singapore.  I don't think so.....

Bob, you crack me up!

But you do have to admire Gordon's outpouring of his presbyterian values ... if you can afford to fly to Spain on your jollies you can afford the odd extra tenner that he extracts from you as a punishment for displaying your wealth.

Joking aside, what do you find the flights like on the "low cost" airlines that you use?  Do you have a preferred carrier (for reasons other than price) and why?

We have flown with Easyjet from Gatwick & Stansted to Alicante & Almeria on 3 occasions this year. We are regular travellers with Ryanair from London to Dublin (Haven't tried them for Spain yet) but on each trip, Easyjet have been excellent - far better than our experiences with Ryanair.

We like Easyjets no weight restriction on hand luggage because, when we were over for the Easter weekend we used small suitcases which we could take into the cabin, so got away from the airport within about 10 minutes of landing. We also, always book their speedy boarding for about an extra £20 return for the 2 of us & we have managed to get the emergency exit seats which have loads of room.

Our holiday plans for the summer changed fairly late on & the flights were very expensive for the school holidays (sister is a teacher, so no choice!) so we have booked with Iberia from Heathrow to Murcia via Madrid. There is a 90 minute stop over on the way out & 2 hours on the way back but as we have no kids to drag along, we thought we would try this option - the fact that we saved over £200 on the Easyjet price swung the decision.

If we don't like it, we don't have to do it again.

I caught the Easyjet site about 10 minutes after they put the winter flights on & booked for 20th - 30th December from London to Almeria for £80 each & then Feb half term for £57 each. In Feb we are going out with 2 friends & are sharing the cost of car hire so the week will cost less than £100 each - Bargain!! 

Noreen

Tinasolera

Be aware that the same does not apply to Ryanairs luggage policy.

Basically with them, if 2 people are travelling together with a suitcase each, you could have a case weighing 5kg & one weighing 20kg which would be within the 15kg per person allowance  & you would have to pay excess baggage on the larger case.

Ridiculous!

I normally use BMIBaby from East Mids to Alicante.  One, you can register with them and they will e-mail you when the cheap seats come up so you can book at the best times.  Two, they actually allocate you a seat when you book in so there's no rush to get a seat together (very important as my wife uses a stick since her knee op...Yes, you can book preferred boarding with other airlines but so many people do it that it has outlived its usefulness).  Three, up until recently they didn't charge for hold luggage but they do have 5Kg more on their luggage allowance.  Four, they have a busy schedule so are generally smack on time and have a really quick changeover period so you're off the plane and getting your cases whilst others are still coming round clearing up your old newspapers.  Five, they are cheap.

Have flown Thomson but they don't, generally, fly each day so you're stuck with a week or two exactly.  I like popping over for long weekends in the winter because the flights cost less than a train ticket to London.  Thomson also has one of the worst track records for flight delays.

Also like Monarch but, again, generally 1 or two weeks.  Plus they put their prices up this year.

EasyJet are usually too early in the morning or too late at night.  Plus I don't like the colour Orange.  And the scramble for seats is appalling with people pushing little old grannies out of the way to get better seats.

Airtours (or JML) for the same reason as Thomson.

Also fly from Cardiff to Murcia in the summer with the grandkids and have found BMIBaby to be the cheapest with the best times although the midweek flights get in a little too late (arrive Murcia 8:15 pm - get the car and drive to Torre usually there about 9:30 .... just after the supermarkets have closed.

Of course, when those six numbers come up I'll be chartering my own private jet to get me there.  Don't laugh, I was very close last week, the bloke next door won it.

We go the opposite way!! and always end up travelling with Ryanair from Murcia to Luton although we visit Leicester, it's cheaper to go to Luton than East Mids. Just booked for two 12 to 28 September at 0.04 0f a euro for both of us both ways.........then it goes up to 102€ with all the added bits on.

The kids usually manage to get reasonably priced flights out to us and they too have to be in school holidays,

We like the Easyjet early morning flight because we don't lose a day travelling - we would normally be at our apartment by 11am just in time for lunch.

Unfortunately BMI don't fly to Almeria & when I checked them from London to Alicante, they were very expensive & Heathrow isn't my first choice to fly from (even though that is where we are flying from in 3 weeks).

I have also checked out Monarch & at times they seem reasonable but where we have been happy with Easyjet, the small difference in price hasn't given us the incentive to try them.

I can understand the benefit of having your seat allocated before you travel but I don't necessarily think it makes much difference to how some people behave. You always get someone who has to be first on/off regardless of who gets in their way.

From my experience there aren't actually that many people who pay for speedy boarding & we have been able to get the extra room seats - without trampling any grannies underfoot!!

Noreen

thanks for that.

I also have to use a stick ... usually to hit people with if they dont get out of my way!   I know what you mean though, I hate the idea of the scrabble to get seats, and i need a bit more room than the average bear and that can be a bit of an issue (and of course cant book the extra leg room seats for obvious reasons)

I have used Thompsons and wasnt too impressed, and was totally squashed! 

Jet2 was ok.  I have had good and bad with them, but on the Newcastle Murcia flights there were plenty of empty seats so could move about and got quite comfy.  I found that you got through Murcia airport very quickly ... i dont know if Alicante is the same.

Monarch i thought were first class .... at Xmas/New Year their prices are equitable, but at other times of the year when other airlines are reducing their prices Monarch's are still quite high.  Their customer service was very good though and it didnt feel like a "low cost" carrier.

Its interesting to hear other people's experiences as we havent had the opportunity to fly out to Spain much, but hope to do so a lot more in the future as we look for property, so would be great to hear what people have to say about their flights (good and bad)