It's personal money. No budget airline flies transatlantic, so it really doesn't affect us when we go to visit family in the States. We do spend more to get direct flights tho, and up to maybe 10% more to get an airline we like if necessary I suppose.

I used to go to and from Helsinki fairly regularly when I worked there, and the only budget option was a flight from Stanstead to Tampere, which worked out about £20 cheaper when you factored in all the trains and stuff needed, and took a day instead of less than three hours.

Use Ryan Air to get back and for to Sweden, its ok but the hidden costs really piss you off. The £10 to buy the ticket makes me grind my teeth every time. Never really had a problem and they get me to Stockholm cheaper than I can get a train from Bristol to London.

An airline making a profit is no mean feat at all.

molgrips – not disagreeing with you for a second that AA and United (and every other US airline apart from JetBlue) are unutterably crap. But they are (were, when I was flying that route a lot, at least) very cheap.

My hatred for BA is pathological and beyond reason.

"can't stand the whinging Irishman! "

Thats odd, I thought it was always people that whinged about him.

Surely everyone in the universe now knows Rynair web prices are not what you actually pay?!?!?! Play the game and you can get a flight cheap.

I wouldnt dream of booking a flight these days without comparing all the carriers that fly in to one destination. If say BA worked out £20 more expensive I'd probably fly BA, but they don't do they, they tend to work out £100 more expensive so you plump for the cheap option.

I wouldnt dream of booking a flight these days without comparing all the carriers that fly in to one destination. If say BA worked out £20 more expensive I'd probably fly BA, but they don't do they, they tend to work out £100 more expensive so you plump for the cheap option.

Thing is though you have to factor in the cost and time of getting to and from the out of the way airports that Ryanair fly into. The transport to city centres is often much worse than the major hubs the main carriers fly to

Flying should be expensive, end-of.