South West DIBBERS - Where Do You Fly From?

[fiona3103]

For the Exeter one in May I’ve booked direct with virgin, we fly up to Manchester Thursday night, stay over then out to Orlando in the morning, coming back we’re orlando - Lgw, landing at 7am then down to Newquay at 9.30 ish so home by lunchtime. Ba & Virgin book the Newquay connection direct and I’ve used netflights too. Try skyscanner for ideas but I avoid booking with the really cheap ones as Im never sure if they’ll actually come up with the goods, netflights have been ok but obviously direct is best. I’ve done virgin and ba flights in May from Newquay for around £400, the last one was £500 and next years from Exeter was £720 but we’re coming back PE. Aer lingus is normally £4-500 max. Hope that helps.

[KateD]

We are in Torbay always go from Gatwick. Have driven up on the day and stayed overnight. I panic though if we drive up on the day I make DH leave 3 hours before we need to do think we will stay in a hotel again next year. It adds up though petrol, hotel and parking. The drive home is the worst.

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by KateD

We are in Torbay always go from Gatwick. Have driven up on the day and stayed overnight. I panic though if we drive up on the day I make DH leave 3 hours before we need to do think we will stay in a hotel again next year. It adds up though petrol, hotel and parking. The drive home is the worst.

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Likewise, we always drive up the night before. I would worry too much about things that can go wrong on a 6 hr journey that I would be unable to resolve in time to catch my flight.

[Burgmeister]

Originally Posted by KateD

We are in Torbay always go from Gatwick. Have driven up on the day and stayed overnight. I panic though if we drive up on the day I make DH leave 3 hours before we need to do think we will stay in a hotel again next year. It adds up though petrol, hotel and parking. The drive home is the worst.

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We are also in Torbay and always drive the day before. One year we were going to Gatwick (fortunately a day early) and the M3 was closed due to an embankment fire. We had a detour through the Surrey/Sussex countryside adding considerable tome to our journey. if we had been going up the same day as our flight then the whole thing would have been horribly stressful but, as it was, it was just a bit inconvenient.

[Clarey]

I usually get a lift to Tiverton then train it up to London the night before. For Europe flights I like Bristol. I’m in North Devon.

[kateh134]

We’re Wiltshire and tend to fly from Gatwick. We never sleep well the night before so we drive up in the early hours. Coming back is the tricky bit, particularly if we haven’t slept on the the plane, but we’re lucky in that we’re closer than a lot of the SW and can usually do it in around 2-2 1/2 hours depending on traffic. We’ve looked in to trains and buses, and also stayed in a hotel the night before, but decided driving up on the day is the best option for us.

[stressedofdevon]

Thank you everyone for your input, some really interesting ideas there. I'm only about 20 mins from Exeter airport and Bristol is fairly convenient too as it's that return journey which feels like it's quite literally a killer for me.

How do you find fares that will link with major airlines flying out of those two? I want to travel in June 2020 so no real flight prices yet but doing trial runs with June 2019 dates with Google flights turns up some silly fares leaving me to consider Gatwick flights and taxi transfers from Devon to the airport and still cheaper!

Should I be going direct to an airline like BA, Virgin, Aer Lingus or is something like Google flights the right place to find those one stop journeys?

[Clamshell]

There is a virgin/Flybe agreement I believe, when I checked, it offered flights from Exeter to Manchester then on to Orlando. Didn’t seem too bad an idea.

I like flying from Gatwick. I think we might try catching the train up next time.

[Bootrip2]

We have done various ways from Plymouth, used to have an airport which flew to LGW but that went years ago. Have driven once, never again, drive back too dangerous with being tired!

Last few trips we have had a local taxi transfer, cost about £200 each way, but is great as no stress of driving, (DH doesnt like motorways around london), we go up night before flight. On our return the drover meets is off plane, get in car and sleep. Driver asks where we want to stop, usually around stonehenge for snack etc, then back in car, sleep and wake up nearly home. Takes the stress out of travelling with DD, as she has her own car seat.

This time as there is only 3 of us, we managed to get coach to
LHR (we going to new york first) for £26 for the three of us, and coming home sharing taxi with others.

Even if we had to cover the cost ourselves we think it is worth it for the less-stress factor.

[KateD]

Originally Posted by Burgmeister

We are also in Torbay and always drive the day before. One year we were going to Gatwick (fortunately a day early) and the M3 was closed due to an embankment fire. We had a detour through the Surrey/Sussex countryside adding considerable tome to our journey. if we had been going up the same day as our flight then the whole thing would have been horribly stressful but, as it was, it was just a bit inconvenient.

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What a small world! we're in Paignton but used to live in Torquay. I agree the stress is too much for me so we are going up next year the day before.