Dublin-London-Dublin?

[kent_allard_jr]

Looking through the cost of travel for my June trip. I was thinking of taking a side-trip to London after the Ireland tour, but I came upon a small problem: Airfares from London are about $500 more than from Dublin! I'm wondering whether to take the rail/ferry back to Dublin, then fly back to NYC from there. That would be the cheap route -- I'd save about $400 that way -- but I don't welcome the 7-hour trip (assuming the schedules are reliable). Any advice?

(Normally this post would be friend-filtered, like most that discuss personal plans. I'll make this one public, though, to see if I get any info from people I haven't met, or friends without LJ.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Here's an idea, Matt,

Fly out of Paris. It's fairly inexpensive to take the Chunnel from London to the Continent, and I seem to recall air-fairs are often cheaper. You could spend two or three days in the eternal city, and then just fly back home from there.

It may also be a little cheaper even to spend a few nights in France. The last time I travelled overseas, I recalled it was *much* cheaper to find rooms in Paris than London, and it was more fun to wander at night along the Seine, visiting bars, chatting up fellow travellers, etc.

::Brian::

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Hey there, Brian! Sorry I'm so late with your GURPS supplement, which I'll finally wrap up tonight. (That, and I've been screening "anonymous" LJ posts for the past few weeks, so it might've been awhile before you saw this.) I will check out air-fare from Paris, if it's that much cheaper I would definitely love to go there. I'm a little nervous about going alone somewhere where I don't speak the language... but hey, I live for danger.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I just checked fares: Sadly about $900 for a one-way Paris to NYC. Might have to leave from Dublin anyway.

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you checked out this airline yet, but I had a decent experience last time I flew with them. I found leg space a little cramped, but then again I have a lot more mass than you do. Check it out.

http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obel01im1/index.jsp

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the URL. I was planning to NYC to Dublin and back via Aerlingus, but I was ordering through Yahoo! travel. The AL website gives me other ideas, although I have to say, their prices are so low I wonder what's going on. (I mean, Dublin to Paris for twenty fucking Euros? Do you ride with the livestock or something? Do you get out and push?)

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

From my time in Dublin 2 years ago it's been locked at that rate. My only guess was that they get enough people to make it worth their while. I think you could reach anywhere in Europe with AL for 50 Euros or less. Hell I just which they'd do something similar in the U.S. Picture being able to fly to Boston or Philly for $40 (very rough equivalent), Greyhound and Amtrak would just give up.

[(Anonymous)]

20 Euros to go from Dublin to Paris???

Heck, this is what you could do, Matt: fly NYC to Dublin on a return ticket, then fly to Paris, somehow from Paris get to London (Chunnel or Ferry) and then nip back to Dublin to fly home.

(Honestly, unless you can share digs with friends, or a youth hostel, it is tres expensive to stay in London, and that was 5 years ago).

As for speaking the French language, I could understand more Parisian's than I could the thick accents and idioms of many young urban Londoners...

::B::

[mylescorcoran]

Ruthless competition in the budget airlines market has driven the prices way down for the well used routes. It's also worth noting that many of these really low price fares are limited availability, i.e. only a handful of seats on any particular flight. It's not a problem if you're booking well in advance.

I think it should be simple to get a Dublin-London-Dublin flight for well less than $100, let alone $500. Don't bother with the train/ferry. You won't save much money that way. Ryanair and Aer Lingus both do cheap flights from Dublin to London.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip, and for a bit of reassurance on the airlines. I wish I could stop by Cork, but it doesn't sound like I'll be in the area; looks like the tour is east coast to west coast and back...

[mylescorcoran]

Glad to help. No worries about missing Cork. I imagine that your schedule is already pretty tight.