A question for those in North East England

[wed2ared]

Thomas cook flights are out for Machester next October already. We booked for this Oct 12 months out. Returning from Miami - direct flight (after a few nights in Fort Lauderdale) to keep budget down.
Did Newcastle via London 2 yrs ago, taxi between was easy and £40 each way but agree with the long wait coming back (though exec lounge helped as DH was a frequent flyer).

[Amiee89]

Manchester direct, just for the price and more choice of days to fly! Xx

[scottish mama]

TBH we fly with whoever is cheapest, therefore have never flown direct from Newcastle!

We've done many different routes, generally indirect which have included:
NCL-Paris-MCO with Air France
NCL- Cork-Man-MCO Virgin PE
NCL-Dublin-Man-JFK-Mco BA (ended up Dub-LGW-MCO with Virgin as BA overbooked us)
NCL-Paris-JFK- Miami Air France
LGW-Toronto-JFK/Washington-MCO WestJet
(We've also done other routes but can't remember them!)

The only times we've flown direct have been from Glasgow, Manchester and LGW and have driven, which was sheer torture from LGW and we've vowed never to do that again.
Last year we got the train to LGW using a railcard and 4 return train tickets via Kings X/ St Pancras was £97 total.

As teachers we are restricted to school hols so indirect is the only way we can afford to go, as direct flights from NCL are ridiculous.We are aware though, that because we have the whole of the summer holidays, we can therefore afford the time to go these more circuitous routes. We stayed overnight in Cork and Dublin and enjoyed that little extra trip on our hols.

[wifey]

ChrisS we managed to timenbuying our train tickets down on TPE just right. For us three adult tickets one way to Manchester Airport with prebooked seats with a two together railcard cost us £33 total. We have someone meeting us on the return to the UK to bring us home so don't need tickets home. It can be very reasonable when you time it right.. next year DS will have his own Student railcard so will save him some money.

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by wifey

ChrisS we managed to time buying our train tickets down on TPE just right. For us three adult tickets one way to Manchester Airport with prebooked seats with a two together railcard cost us £33 total. We have someone meeting us on the return to the UK to bring us home so don't need tickets home. It can be very reasonable when you time it right.. next year DS will have his own Student railcard so will save him some money.

See more...

Wifey, nice one If you're heading down on a Sat or Sun, Weekend First may interest, not as good a deal as when it was £6.

Looked at the two together railcard, as we only use the train twice a year, to/from the airport, circa £41.50pp, wasn't financially worth it.

[CABLECAR1974]

We're from Durham and have never been able to get flights from Newcastle because of the times of year we prefer to travel.

We used to fly from Teesside to Heathrow and onto Sanford from there but stopped when BMI stopped flying from Teesside. (Star Alliance between BMI and United meant the luggage was checked in from Teesside to Sanford.)

Now we fly from Manchester, normally taking the car and staying overnight or getting a lift from our Son to save the drive back after the return flight.
A couple of years ago we got the train for the outbound journey. We booked as soon as the dates allowed and saved a fortune. We got a train that dropped us into the airport just before twilight check in. We walked straight there from the train station , dropped our bags, taking a change of basics in our hand luggage.
Like someone said earlier, we were due to change at Leeds but our train manager told us to get off at Huddersfield so we wouldn't have to lug the cases across Leeds to another platform.
The only down side was that I "had" to stand in the doorway the whole time for fear of anyone taking or tampering with our cases. There was insufficient luggage space and I'm a bit paranoid about having my stuff out of sight or out of reach.

Back to driving this year but will be booking a day room as we get back into Manchester around 6am so don't want to risk driving straight away.

[wifey]

It looks as though there will be little chance in the near future if taking a flight from Durham Tees Valley airport anywhere but certain EU countries or Aberdeen in the foreseeable future. Darlington Borough Council just this week approved the sale of the land surrounding the airport to build new housing estates on... you can see folks are not going to be quiet about noise from the planes taking off or landing right next to them. It's like the folks who moved in right next door to Croft racing circuit and then complained, impacting heavily on the operating hours of the circuit despite being there for decades without a murmur from the community in general. It's doubtful it will even be new council home being built which is in dire need across the country. Sad really but what can you do 😔😟😔 the train only stops there twice a day in the summer it's not even got good access to anywhere else unless you can drive. Oh well...

[SMPlantz]

Hi We are from Middlesbrough and fly from Manchester - is that £100 each way and what taxi firm is that? Thanks

[Kat11]

Originally Posted by SMPlantz

Hi We are from Middlesbrough and fly from Manchester - is that £100 each way and what taxi firm is that? Thanks

See more...

Have a look at getting a train from Middlesbrough/Thornaby/Yarm with Transpennine Express straight into Manchester Airport. They run hourly(mostly) and take a similar amount of time to driving and much cheaper than taxi and if you have rail card it's even cheaper. We have used mini busses in the past because there was 11 of us so in that respect its a decent option but if there is 8 of you or less (including children) the family and friends rail card is a better option imo.

Kat

[MTEC]

We travel by train from redcar to manchester airport, stay over night and fly direct from.there. plenty of choice. I dont want to mess around with indirect with 3kids, one of whom is special needs. Just easier to go from manchester. We go in february when its cooler and quieter too