TOOLS : GETTING THERE : PLANES : FIND THE CHEAPEST AIRFARE :

STEP 10: The Big Ben Switcheroo (cont'd)

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The Rules of the Game
1) First, find a cheap fare to London. Go through the steps for Getting the Cheapest Airfare and pay special attention to Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, where the best deals usually abide (Virgin is usually the overall price champ; BA usually charges $20 to $40 more, but it flies from more US gateways).

2) Check out all the no-frills to see which ones fly to the city you want to visit. Ryanair and easyJet are the obvious ones, as they're based in London, but don’t forget to "reverse-hub" your logic—germanwings may be based at Cologne-Bonn, but it flies to London from there, so if Germany is where you want to be, check their flights out, too.

Remember: no-frills tickets are one-way, so there's no need to book both directions with the same outfit. You could fly easyJet out and Ryanair back, and neither would be offended.

3) Figure out the "Switcheroo" portion in London. See, most transatlantic flights land in Heathrow or sometimes Gatwick airports. Most no-frills use Luton or Stansted airports—though easyJet uses Gatwick as well. You're either going to have to shuttle between airports (easiest by a long shot, but there may not be frequent service), or make your way downtown London and then back out to the other airport.

This is where it gets annoyingly time-consuming: (a) retrieve luggage, (b) haul luggage to means of transport to get downtown, (c) ride downtown, (d) haul luggage down into Underground to switch from the downtown station where you arrived to the one where you can get transport out to the other airport, (e) ride Underground, (f) haul luggage up to means of transport out to other airport, (g) ride to other airport, (h) haul luggage to check-in. (See "The Fine Art of Packing Light".)

4) Factor in the additional expenses and time to switch airports. The sidebar on the right lists the prices, travel times, and arrival/departure stations in downtown London for the fastest and easiest links with and between London's airports—though note that some "convenient" connections might run infrequently, such as Heathrow/Luton, which goes only every two hours. (more...)