Common knowledge to the most astute traveller on a budget, but a survey by InsureandGo has concluded that buying your travel insurance from your travel agent will indeed cost you more.
If you shop around and compare travel insurance policies you find with those available from your travel agent you could save up to 9.3% on European trips and 23% for world-wide policies it was found.
The only excuse to buy your travel insurance from your travel agent is because it's convenient, but with the Internet and insurance comparison sites that excuse is wearing thin.

Labels: money saving, travel agents, travel insurance

Ryanair is the latest airline to claim their piece of the cheap transatlantic flights cake. Ryanair boss Michael O'leary has claimed that by the summer of 2009 we could expect flights to the US to be as low as £7 not including taxes. These flights will be to smaller airports, a method already used by the budget airlines to reduce cost. Long Island Islip MacArthur airport would be used for New York, Providence, Rhode Isalnd for Boston etc.
Transatlantic flights have recently been opened up to all airlines following the EU-US Open Skies agreement.
This news follows the news that Zoom will fly to New York from Gatwick starting from £129.

Labels: Flights, money saving, open skies

Zoom airline which mainly flies in Canada, is the first airline to take advantage of the Open Skies agreement and take on British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and the US carriers in announcing a Gatwick to JFK route for as little as £258 return. They claim this deal will provide savings of upto 70% over rivals prices.
Zoom will use the EasyJet model where prices rise as the planes seats fill up.

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Labels: air passenger duty, Flights, money saving, ope, open skies

The FT published an interesting article yesterday. Apparently if you miss a flight for whatever reason, even if the ticket is non-refundable, you have a good chance of getting at least your Government taxes back. read the FT.com article in full.
Most airlines do not advertise this fact and pocket the money, but there is however a catch to making a claim; Most airlines will charge you an administrative fee to process your tax refund. Having said that, with the recent increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) that refund is becoming more worthwhile; especially on a long haul flight.

Remember, if you miss a flight, your first course of action should be to attempt to reschedule your flight. Your success will depend on which airline you bought your ticket from, and will almost definitely be subject to a charge.

Labels: air passenger duty, APD, Flights, money saving

Holiday Which? A consumer watchdog has revealed that traveling by train around Britain is more expensive than by plane or coach.
It goes on to say that advertised cheap rail fares are almost impossible to book.

The coach was the cheapest form of transport in the survey but took the longest, rail prices were the most expensive even if air tax of £20 was added to the return air fares.

Air travel is by far the most poluting (approx 9 times the amount of carbon emissions emitted per person) out of the three methods of transport surveyed however.

Labels: Flights, money saving

With the tabloids constantly reporting on how household bills are forever spiraling upwards it's nearly always the luxuries like holidays that people tend to cut back on when faced with higher energy bills, higher mortgage bills etc.
So rather than just putting your next holiday on your credit card and trying to forget about it, are there any clever ways you can get to go away on a holiday and not face a huge bill with high interest afterwards?
Ok, ever thought of the amount of unused junk you have lying around your house? Have you seen how much people are paying for this sort of stuff on eBay.co.uk?
Seen the Halifax advert which promises £100 if you move your current account to them? (£1000 or more paided in every month)
What about switching energy supplier? There are online comparison sites like Uswitch.com which will tell you if you can save money by switching. Some will even give you cash back for switching...

Of course you can also save a bucket load of cash by buying your holiday online, depending where you want to go this will either be cheaper as a package holiday or separate flight + hotel/apartment. The best advice is to shop around and compare prices!

Labels: money saving