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- flights & airports

A collection of bucket-shops, where you can find random last-minute bargains, or you can try the budget scheduled-flights for a quick jaunt around Europe - at least one of them usually has a sale on.

You will notice some of the better-known last-minute sites are not included. The day I find a genuine bargain on one of these sites, I promise I'll add it.

If you know of a site which I have missed and which you think highly of, click

submit a link - if it's as good as you say, I'll include it.

You are in the 'flights & airports' page of the 'Travel Tools' section.

All links open in a new window.

Sites marked

are an idiot approved.




1 Call Flights	Cheap last-minute charter flights from the UK. The cheapest deals to be found online says I. If you find a cheaper site, I'd love to hear from you. The flights are sorted by destination and by price bracket, but clicking on an item or heading will re-sort by that criterion. Alternatively, you can use the specific-search facility. Here's the small print: 'Credit card charge 2.5% + £10 per person flights or £15 per person packages. Tour operators may charge up to £10 for collection of tickets at the airport.' (There's no surcharge for debit cards.)	This is my current favourite source of last-minute bargains. The cheapest and most plentiful flights are always from London or Manchester, and it can be a chore sifting through all these before you find other airports (the same goes for destinations), but it's usually worth the effort, since they are rarely beaten on price or choice. Unfortunately, their search engine is unbearably slow, and often you'll just give up. The site's interface limits you to wading through the results 20 at a time, in sequential order. It can be a real drag clicking through hundreds of Alicante's, Barcelona's and Costa Brava's looking for your Zaragoza. One solution is to edit the 'query string' directly in your browser's address bar - first, perform a flight search. When the first page of results loads, click the 'next' link (located just below the results). Once the next page of results loads, look in your browser's address bar at the very long address which begins: 'http://www.1callflights.co.uk/results.php?' - look for the part which says: '&offset=' followed by a number (initially 10 or 20). Change this number to any number (smaller than the total results figure) and you will jump to that part of the results table, saving endless wading.



1st Airflights	Cheap last minute charter flight search with the easiest imaginable search form. If their site is down (these things happen!), you can try the two links below - both sites offer the same access to the same flights and prices, but their websites are not as relaxing as 1st Airflights: fly-4-less Airflights Direct	A clean, simple web design, and a fast and powerful search engine make this site a winner. They may not always be the cheapest around, but the flight search is quick and easy, so what do you have to lose? Bear in mind there are several 'hidden costs' to add to the advertised price. They also offer lots of One-Way flights to holiday destinations - ideal if you're heading off for an open-ended season in the sun - or trying to get back from one! The 'Scheduled-flight' search section seems pretty useless - maybe they're still working on it. I'll keep my eye on it and let you know.



ABTAnet	Association of British Travel Agents e-directory. Searchable database of ABTA-approved holiday firms. Find a tour operator that goes where you want to go, or does what you want to do.	Type in your destination or activity and the database will return a list of relevant tour operators together with links to their websites, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. Even if you don't intend using a tour operator, a wander round their websites may give you some ideas for your own trip.



Airlines of the World	A handy list of links to the websites of the world's airlines, hidden away in a family homepage. Easily arranged by region, just click on the image map.	Straight and simple list, takes you straight to your airline. What more can you ask. It even has the all-new Air-Scotland listed.



Airport Codes	'Airport & city-code database for 9,000 airports worldwide' Almost 9,000 airports are listed, searchable by airport code, city or country. The site also has a few other interesting sections filled with airport-related articles, info and trivia. The articles focus mainly on the American market, but there's plenty to learn about Europe there too.	Use this site to check that you're heading for the right aiport, or to identify that mysterious flight-label on your backpack. The site utilises an old-fashioned frameset design and could perhaps benefit from a redesign, but it works fine (except for the time & distance calculator) and you can't fault the data. (The author says he's busy, so fair enough.) The headings in the left frame are perhaps a bit confusing, but if you take your time, you should identify the relevant link for your search, be it country name, airport code, city name or 'city name - full data'. (Full data includes geographic coordinates, runway length, time-zone etc.)



Air Scotland	Low-cost flights from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen (they're all in Scotland) to mainland Spain, Majorca and the Canary islands. Consistently attractive prices, and even more bargains in the 'special offers' section. Entering the website pops up a a handy wee window which shows forthcoming flights to the various destinations. Click on a flight to feed the details to the search form, then just click 'Go'.	After some initial teething problems, the site seems to be working fine. It still doesn't quite look the part, though. If I were them (which I'm not), I would reconsider the use of the 'Scottish' heraldic script, which doesn't make for easy reading, and is more in keeping with a shortbread tin than with a modern, high-tech airline, but that's just my aesthetic opinion - don't let it spoil your flight! There are only a few flights at the moment, but the numbers and routes are set to increase as the company develops.



Bargainholidays	One of the better known sources of last-minute deals (charter flights, scheduled flights and full holidays), but not necessarily one of the cheapest.	Their prices aren't as low as 1call flights and others, but they do have a more flexible search system, and fewer 'hidden costs' to add on to the final price than some of their rivals, so it's always worth comparing. Quick and easy search engine.



Cheapflights	This is the definitive cheap flights site, mainly for scheduled flights, but their charter-flights section is growing rapidly. Unlike most sites, they don't sell the flights, they just show you who's quoting what and let you follow-up any promising ones yourself. This means that you shouldn't blame Cheapflights if the vendor you end up at quotes you double the advertised price.	Don't book any scheduled-flight, anywhere till you've checked Cheapflights. The site has also benefitted from a recent makeover, making it even easier to use than it already was. Sign up for their excellent newsletter to stay informed about all the airline sales and promotions.



EasyJet	Easyjet is the big (flying) fish of the low-cost scheduled-flights airlines. Since gobbling up British Airways' budget-line (Go), they've become a very big fish indeed. They don't fly anywhere interesting from Glasgow, but from London you can fly to Faro, Malaga, Athens, Prague and more. (for full details of where they fly, check the Easyjet Destinations Map). They may have a sale on now, if not, register for their email news and catch the next sale early.	The website is easy to use, finding and booking your flight is a relatively painless procedure. The site's server works well most of the time, but tends to (understandably) clog up when their big sales start. If you register for Easyjet email updates, you will know in advance when the sale starts, and can set yourself up by your pc with a flask and a blanket and try to get near the front of the (server) queue for a free flight to Athens. So, thumbs up for the website, but what about the airline? I think most people will agree that they didn't come across too well when they had a film-crew hanging around them a few years ago, so it will be interesting to see if they've learned anything from that. Well, I'll be flying with them to Amsterdam soon, so I'll let you know how they treat me.



Flightline	site description coming soon.	an idiot's opinion coming soon.



flycheapUK	site description coming soon.	an idiot's opinion coming soon.



Germanwings	site description coming soon.	an idiot's opinion coming soon.



Holidays By Phone	Mostly cheap holidays to be had here, but sometimes a holiday with a hotel-room can be cheaper than the 'flight-only' deal. The 'Charter Flight Warehouse' section (to which this link directly leads) accesses a powerful and flexible flight search engine.	This used to be my favourite flights site, but in Jan 2003 their prices seemed to shoot up and now they are focusing on holidays, not flights. Still many great bargains to be had, but the same deals are often found cheaper on 1 Call Flights - which is strange because they're the same company. Virtually the same interface (and thus the same criticisms) as 1callflights.



Last Call Flights	site description coming soon.	an idiot's opinion coming soon.



Ryanair	Irish-based Ryanair are the second biggest budget airline operating out of the U.K. They recently increased their London Stansted routes by buying Buzz from KLM. Their network is now very extensive indeed. (For details see the Ryanair Destinations Map). Their flights are usually the cheapest too, and they usually have some form of 'just pay the taxes' deals on offer. Easy and efficient online-booking service.	Flying with Ryanair is great - it's getting to and from the airports that causes all the stress. Ryanair often use smaller, more distant airports - often as much as 100 KM (60 Miles). These airports are not as well served by public transport, and often the bus fare to the city can cost more than the flight. Allegations that their naming of airports is misleading (e.g. Frankfurt-Hahn which is closer to Luxembourg than it is to Frankfurt) are continually refuted by Ryanair.



Travel Select	If you have more specific travel needs, and price is less of a consideration, this site will find scheduled flights to and from anywhere for you. The site is part of lastminute.com.	If the charter flights don't go where (or when) you want, then you'll have to fork out for a scheduled flight. This site will return an extensive range of scheduled flights, but the prices (when compared to charter prices) will make you wince.



Zoom Airlines	Cheap charter flights to Canada (Calgary, Halifax, Ottowa, Toronto and Vancouver) from Glasgow and London. Prices start around £89 one way. Flights run once or twice weekly.	If you can't get a cheap charter flight to Canada, then this site offers the next best thing: a cheap scheduled flight. The prices are as reasonable as you could expect from a budget airline. No sign yet of any sales or promotions, but I'll keep you posted. The site is simple, attractive and well-designed - what more could you want?

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