I'm an old timer returned to the UK from Oz, feeling pretty bloody lost!
I came here on a one way ticket bought for me by my bootiful trolley dolly daughter and can't get another until January.
I'm puter literate but having one hell of a time finding travel bargains on the net.
Is it my imagination or am I correct in thinking that air travel (like everything else) costs far more here in the UK than Down Under? (OK, OK, I know about Ryan Air!)
In my day we used to use "bucket shops" but they seem to have become redundant.
Please can anyone give a stoopid old fart whose partying times are long past but has not lost his sense of adventure some tips on how to begin to get started in finding interesting and (especially)economical ways of wending his way home? (For example I have a fantasy about going back to Oz via Central and South America but can't even find a decent search engine on Google UK.)
For flights, you need a website like www.skyscanner.net</a>, they also cover some of the budget airlines as well as the big carriers. Always my first port of call when searching for flights.
Plane tickets are still heavily discounted from 'retail', but these days they are more accessable and you're just as likely to find a cheap flight in Thomas Cook on yer local high street as from a dingy shop in Earls Court.
Webwise - travelsupermarket.com will search the major online retailers such as opodo, airlinenetwork and ebookers etc and give you live prices, cheapflights.co.uk will give you lowest published fares from a range of airlines, these are not live though so you'll actually have to pick up the phone.
Another major development is the emergance of longhaul budget airlines such as oasis (£75 plus tax top hongkong) globespan (£99 plus tax to capetown, new york and canada) Airasia x is due to start in sept with one ways to indonesia / india etc for under a ton. These flights are usually sold through websites rather than travel agents (like easyjet and the rest are now)
Flying charter rather than scheduled can be useful as tour operators sometimes unload unsold seats from their package holidays for next to nothing. I've seen seats to Gambia offered for 40 squids. Airtours fly to Mexico and the carrib. If you're lucky you can get some real bargins, so keep an eye on the package operators.
Finally, if you haven't seen it before then check out seat61.com No planes just trains - from London to anywhere in the world. Great site. Guy who runs it posts on here occasionally.
www.statravel.co.uk (even if you're over 26 and not a student), www.expedia.co.uk, www.travelocity.co.uk. And wot #1 said.
try the website for Austravel, I have used them in the past and found them to be fantastic, and the cheapest for the time that I was travelling.
UK still has bucket shops, except now they are known as 'consolidated agencies' - actually most of the travel agents in London Chinatown operate on this principle, but you may have less choice as to your destination (i.e. China, HK Asiapacific). No harm in checking them out though.
We always try the agencies in the back of the saturday/sunday papers such as travelmood, bridgetheworld, travelbag and ebookers etc.
You can't do a deal or trade one off against the other on the internet but you can if you are talking to someone over the phone.
You might find that they can wrap up a flight including decent quality hotel for cheaper than the internet.
Have a great journey.
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