FAQ page for those frequently asked questions.

Why are there no medium/long haul flights listed?

A boat on one of Bangkok's many canals, Thailand.
Well, my definition of a medium/long haul flight is anything pushing 5 hours. In 5 hours you can cross America, cross Australia, and get from London to Athens. People are quite happy to be unfed, not to have a TV screen to watch, and to put up with minimal leg room. Any more time than that, and they start to get hungry, and start getting cramp. Which with DVT these days isn't such a good idea. Therefore budget airlines haven't quite hacked into the long haul market yet. At least, not in my book (despite the fact you can just about fly a 737-800 across the Atlantic). If you want to fly long haul, contact your travel agent (I always find STA Travel very good (despite the fact I'm not under 26 nor am I a student) and get them to fly you with a regular airline.

In the mean time, for flights from the US to the UK try the following websites (none of which I earn money for mentioning or pointing you to):-

www.statravel.com (for students and under 26's only).

www.orbitz.com, www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com (all much of a muchness probably in price). Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity sell about 70% of all plane tickets in the US between them.

Consolidators:- www.cheaptickets.com, www.priceline.com (name your price and see if there's any takers - if there are you won't be able to back out though) and www.hotwire.com.

Also have a read of the major broadsheet newspaper travel sections (Washington Post, NY Times etc).

The top five hub airports in Europe in no particular order are London Heathrow and Gatwick, Amsterdam, Paris Charles De Gaulle and Frankfurt. Additional (albeit limited) tranfers are available via Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, Brussels, Rome and Zurich. There's also decent transfer facilities in Copenhagen for Scandinavia, and Madrid and Barcelona for the Iberian peninsular.

If you are flying elsewhere, bear in mind that return carriers are often cheaper than outbound. For example Malaysia often offers cheaper fares from the UK to Malaysia than British Airways whilst Pakistan Airways and Air New Zealand can often offer much more appealing fares to the Far and Middle East from the States than the American carriers can. At time of writing, Emirates was offering crazy prices across the Tasman sea on the Australia/NZ run.

Top But they're so cheap! How come?

For that, I'll refer you to a guide elsewhere on the site.

Top Which ones have you used?

Most of the European ones:- Easyjet, Go! (before Easyjet bought it), Ryanair, Buzz (before Ryanair bought that), Virgin Blue.

Top Which ones do you recommend

Aerial view of Innsbruck, Austria.
I don't. My attitude is that a plane is a glorified very high speed high altitude bus. They're much of a muchness, and they haven't killed me yet, so there is no clear favourite.

Top What's an open ticket all about then?

It allows you to return as and when you like. Which is convenient as you can be flexible. But you'll pay a much higher price for it. See the following link for more info.

Top You say you fly a lot - how do you put up with airline food?

I used to fly a lot on businss, but these days I don't. I rarely fly off my own bat as most of my friends are in the UK. And for those that aren't they so far away my budget won't stretch to it. So I rarely eat on a plane. But for those of you that do, there is a special website, dedicated to airline food. See here for more info and some horror stories.

Top Are the budget airlines always the cheapest?

That's just it, they're not. If you're booking 3 months ahead, it'll be difficult to impossible for the big boys to beat those prices. However, if you're going within the next month or even sooner, check out the regular airlines that also compete on that route. They could be cheaper. It happens frequently, especially in Europe. Budget airlines love hidden costs. Excess baggage is a particular favourite, and if you miss the check in time you will pay a fortune for their next flight whether you like it or not. So check in early!

Top How are the airlines rated?

I used to let people rate airlines, but this website now averages at least 250 people a day, and I can't keep up. Refer to the chat forums for people's views on airlines. Add one yourself if you like, I have in some cases.

Top How come sometimes you take a while to update your site?

Airlines like to launch new routes with major marketing campaigns, but routes will drop with nigh a whimper. They just disappear overnight. As a result, I have to check each individual airline's total network.

Top How long does it take to update it?

Saltwater crocodile, Daintree River, FNQ, Australia.
Pure updating, ie checking all routes and cities served, for all regions I currently cover takes between 1 and 2 hours per region each time (Europe and the US are by far the most time consuming to do), and I try and do each region at least once a month. To add a new airline is now down to 10 minutes per airline, to add a comment nothing at all with the new system. And that's before answering emails I get everyday!

Top I've got a site I think you should know about.

Great! I like new sites. Please email me if it meets the following conditions:-

Anything else goes though.