|
|
Public Transport By Train The TrainLine offers the complete aggregation service for times, tickets and seats for the UK. | Category | Detail | Potential Annual Saving | Train Delays | Train operators don't advertise the fact that passengers are entitled to reclaim some of their fare back if their train is delayed by more than a certain amount of time (varies by operator). If you are a regular train commuter, register with Train Delays for free with details of your route and each time your train is late the site will email you a form to fill out to make your claim. Commuters can typically get back up to 20% of a season ticket. As a London Tube traveller you can also reclaim for delays (of over 15 minutes) using forms here. | Typical saving £200 | Discounts | Thetrainline, the comprehensive website for rail travel bookings, has launched a new feature called Best Fare Finder. Rather than asking you to state specific preferences for your journey (dates, times), it requires just rough details of your travel plans, and then returns the lowest fares over that week or month. How it works: when someone finds a cheap ticket through Thetrainline, the site tracks this and loads it into Best Fare Finder, so it is an amalgamation of great deals found by customers. | Pay less for travel | Fares | There are a variety of ways that rail passengers can use to save money on fares, such as buying tickets for different legs of a single journey. Seat61 gives a good breakdown of them all. | Seat61 covers the new Beijing in China to Lhasa in Tibet route (3,400km of beautiful terrain) for as little as £60. |
By Plane Be aware that most flight search engines do not take into account excess luggage charges brought in by many airlines recently. | Category | Detail | Potential Annual Saving | Long-haul low-cost flights | Very recently it has become possible to fly round the world entirely by low-cost operator. Here's how to do it for just £550. Fly Oasis Airlines from Gatwick to Hong Kong for £150 (including taxes), then pay Oasis another £150 to Oakland, just across the bay from San Francisco's main airport. From here fly to las Vegas and then on to New York with JetBlue for £125. From the end of 2009 Ryanair is going to offer budget flying to the USA. By buying planes on the cheap from struggling carriers, it will expand its operations to include trans-Atlantic flights. The flight prices will begin at an amazing £8. Airport taxes will then need to be added in to get the overall cost. But prices will undercut all current flights to the USA by a massive margin. | Save £900 on a similar route using British Airways and its associates in the Oneworld alliance | Short-haul low-cost flights | Flightchecker is MoneySavingExpert's free budget airline flight price comparison tool. What makes it invaluable is that it searches by price not by date, and compares the main budget airlines. You can ask it to find all flights under, say, £20 (including taxes and charges) to a destination, within a broad date range, rather than only being able to establish the cheapest price for a specific journey like traditional flight comparison services. | Typical saving £70 on flights for 2 people, twice a year £140 |
By Bus A comparison of London to Manchester fares reveals that the cheapest way to travel is by bus: Train: £59.50 (Virgin); Plane: £223 (British Airways); Car: £130 (based on 35p/mile); Coach: £27.50 (National Express); Bus: £21.50 (Megabus) - all typical fares.
| Category | Detail | Potential Annual Saving | Fares | Stagecoach run a cut-price bus service called Megabus which offers journeys between cities for as little as £1, plus 50p booking fee. | Pick up a return fare for £3 and save over £50 compared to the train |
Also see this useful page on MSE: coach, train and bus travel deals updated weekly. All the latest promotions, discounts and special offers listed here - if you are a regular on public transport then check in here before you book.
|
|