Cheap flights to Edinburgh

So i thought one of the things i should probably talk about is how you choose which airport you are going to fly into or out of for Edinburgh. This is not just true of Edinburgh but of cities all over the world. I have to admit when i started to travel i often didnt think about which airport in a given city i was going to use, 90% of the time it just came down to the price and with which airline i could get the cheapest deal. However as i have got a little wiser ive started to realise that theres alot more to the flight business that price. For instance if your chosen airport is right in the centre of the city then you can often expect a long wait to get out of the city though the traffic is usually not too bad in Edinburgh.

Another point i wanted to make is the price of car parking is pretty drasticly increased or maybe there wont even be car parking at all if the airport is in a very urban area. Also since Edinburgh airport has become pushed for space the price of many of the amenities around the airport has gone up by quite a bit. Ever since they took on Flyglobespan and Ryanair the airport has seen a huge increase in passenger numbers and as you can imagine it can be hard to cope with demand.

Another thing to think about when choosing an airport for your next trip is how long you are going to have to stay there. For instance last year i was stuck in Quatar for 4 hours and i can say that there wasnt alot to do but take advantage of the air con an try to sleep. When you compare this to a really modern airport like heathrow which has showers and even beds for you to use the difference is obvious.

Theres also the factor of capicty to explore as many smaller airports only run one or two flights to some destinations per day leaving you with a very limited choice, and this can be especially problematic if you miss your flight and need to find another. I suppose all in all it comes down to how much futher one of the main hub airports for large flights is from where you are starting from. Still i always think its better to evaluate everything beforehand so you can make the best dessison.

Well its quite ironic that just after the EU announced that its 18 month into the investigation into the ticket price practices of several major airlines RyanAir came out with an absolute gem! They are starting from the end of July to charge their customers for checking into flights online! Now what makes this more ridiculous is that you have to pay extra if you check in at the airport too so no matter what you do you end up paying the fee. After all you have to check in somewhere don’t you? If this practice is not the very definition of a hidden charge then i don’t know what is.

Id also like to point out that this kind of issue effects all kinds of people travelling but in particular on short haul flights within the uk and definitely people looking for cheap flights to Edinburgh. Airlines are also notorious for some of their credit card charges. For example if we go back to RyanAir again (oh how i love them) they charge a credit card fee of £16 which is pretty excessive in my opinion. This charge is more or less compulsory for anyone wanting to book. However they get around the fact in their many adverts for cheap flights by saying that you can avoid this charge by using a “Visa Electron” card. Now it’s worth noting that less than 2% of the UK population actually have this type of card. So for the vast majority of people who see a cheap flight deal on a poster or magazine to fly to some exotic location for just £10 it just isn’t a possibility. Once you count airport taxes and other misc fees into the price of your average budget flight then the price of a flight can quickly triple or more.

I suppose from the airlines point of view they are just trying to get people onto the site and then at the final stage of the booking process reveal the true cost of the flight to the unsuspecting customer. Most people myself included just will end up just paying the extra having already gone through the process of picking the flight they want and then entering all of their personal details and have no desire to go and try somewhere else. I really hope the office of fair trading looks into some of these practices very soon as at the end of the day it’s us the customer who is getting the bum deal. Also i hope sometime soon to do some kind of league table for some of the best and worst airlines for this practice so we can really see who are the worst offenders!

Its weird some of the price differences that i keep seeing from time to time on various flight deals to and from Edinburgh. For example the average price for a return from London to Edinburgh is about £67 which i personally wouldnt class as a cheap flight. However if you are flying from Belfast to Edinburgh the prices are much more varied with BMI coming in at around £110 and Flybe around the £50 mark which is deffinitly more in the budget range.

Flybe Cheaper for most

I suppose it mainly comes down to the fuel costs for alot or airlines. London is about 3 times further away from Edinburgh than Belfast but its still a relativly short flight, ie its only about another 40min the air. Also you would think that there is going to be alot more people flying from London and this would bring the prices down. Its hard to tell with the airlines sometimes, i dont doubt that there is still massive competition still for passengers but the prices often seem to follow a very predictable pattern for some routes, while for others there are huge variations.

For example i just dont understand how a Flybe flight can be twice the price of a BMI one for the same route and when you are sitting in the same class? They are both budget airlines so surely there should be an averge there somwhere? As stated before it could be that one flight has almost reached its capacity and so they want to squeeze some extra money out of the desperate last minute passengers. However you have to wonder how effective this technique is if there are still seats available on other flights. Any ideas?

Ever wonder how the major airlines such as easyet and others manage to fly so cheaply in to Edinburgh and other major cities? If you look at the prices many of the deals don’t actually make sense. Ie how can the airline make a profit on a seat the costs just £10. The simple answer is that not all the seats cost the same and if you looked at the average price of the seat compared to the lowest there could be a really big difference in price. In a way this makes perfect sense, the more expensive seats substitute the cheaper ones.

So how do you get the cheapest flights to Edinburgh possible? Well its actually not that complicated, you need to book as soon as possible. The airlines make their money on the expensive seats as someone who is booking at the last minute is probably desperate and will be willing to pay over the odds for a seat even if the person next to the paid 10% of what they did. Yes thats right i said 10%. This is especially true of easyjet and ryanair as the most people who have had to book late have found out. So what are you waiting for? Book now.

I keep turning on the tv these days to see new ads hoping to get people to visit Scotland. Its a great scheme but i am quite worried if people are unable to find cheap flights to Edinburgh and other major cities then it is unlikely people are going to want to visit if even for a short stay. Many people coming from the south of England to visit Edinburgh would prefer to fly rather than take the car or even the train. This is mainly because it is always faster and in most cases alot cheaper than other methods. There are also alot of people visiting Scotland from Ireland these days, i think mainly because of the close link between the two countries and the similarities between the landscapes of the two places.

Ive found that most people coming from Northern Ireland are taking one of the main ferry services such as P&O or Stenaline which run from Larne to Ken Ryan. I think the main reason for this is that people want to take the car with them so they can drive around the main scenic highlands of Scotland. What i would say to people is that they should work out what it is really costing them in terms of the ferry price versus the cost of a flight to Edinburgh and then renting a car once in the country. On the whole i have found that it can often be cheaper and almost always less stressful to fly and then rent as the price of car hire country wide has gone down considerably. So as mentioned before i hope people work out all the costs before they book so they can have the best holiday possible.