Japan is out of the question so where should they visit?
Simon Calder answers your questions on travelling Europe, cheap flights to Japan and the ‘easyJet problem’
Q You kindly answered my question yesterday about a couple of university students who suddenly decided they fancied going to Japan as soon as possible for two weeks. Unfortunately, you explained the high cost. Sadly they have no platinum credit cards between them and are postponing until next year. Back to the drawing board for them. Europe is not much of a draw for them, so they will try to find other options. Any suggestions?
Kate C
A Travelling beyond Europe – whether to Africa, the Middle East, Asia or the Americas – will prove very expensive in the next few weeks. So I feel obliged to convince them that there is much in Europe that is exotic and intriguing, just as there is in Japan. The secret: go east. Start in Tallinn, Estonia, one of the finest capitals in Europe. A two-hour bus ride to Narva will take them to the Russian border – and a beautiful riverside location that has the chill of a Cold War frontier.
The impact of decades spent under the control of Moscow has left its mark throughout eastern Europe, as they will discover if they travel south through the Baltic Republics on trains or very reliable buses. They should pause in the Latvian capital, Riga, as well as Vilnius in Lithuania. Kaliningrad, the fragment of Russia on the southern Baltic coast, is currently out of bounds, but Gdansk in Poland has much to offer – including the spectacular Solidarity Museum in the old Lenin Shipyards, where liberation began.
Handily, it is also very close to Sopot, in my opinion the finest Baltic resort and a great place to indulge for a few days. Next stop, Warsaw: rebuilt after the devastation of the Second World War, with an impressive Old Town and some good museums. Krakow, just a couple of hours south by fast train, is likely to be the highlight of their trip: the medieval roots of its role as Polish capital until the end of the 17th century are preserved, along with what remains of the city’s once-vibrant Jewish neighbourhood.
At this point, they could fly back – or continue west to Prague or south, across the Tatra Mountains to Slovakia. Wherever they roam, the costs of accommodation and transport will be refreshingly low. I do hope they will consider it.
Q Any advice on cheap last-minute deals to Japan? Two university students fancy going there as soon as possible for a couple of weeks.
Kate C
A The spontaneity of youth is commendable – but not always financially practical. Right now the summer surge of aviation is under way, with more flights in Europe last Friday than at any time since 2019. But the supply of airline seats is not keeping up with demand. As a result, the only way is up for air fares. Before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine I would have hoped to find summer flights to Tokyo in the range of £750-£800 return. But the lead-in price was on Aeroflot via Moscow – and that carrier is currently banned from UK skies.
In addition, the direct routes across Russia are closed to Western aircraft and so they are taking wide (and more expensive) detours over Asia or Alaska. The longest flight on British Airways is currently from Tokyo to London Heathrow, which helps explain why the cheapest return non-stop flight is £1,979 on BA.
I have checked a range of UK departure points and London is the place to start; flights from other UK cities are much higher. A snapshot of London-Tokyo fares on the price-comparison website Skyscanner for departure tomorrow for a fortnight shows a lowest price per person of £1,084 return on Lufthansa via Frankfurt outbound and Munich on the return. Travelling to Osaka is a similar price, which means at least that they could get an “open-jaw” deal, flying out to one city and back from the other, which removes the need to double back.
To try to drive the fare down, I looked at a wide range of other European departure points, including Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Milan and Paris. The hope was that one would be significantly cheaper and make a bit of self-connecting worthwhile: taking a separate flight or ferry to the city in question. But all of them were hovering around the same £1,050-£1,100 band.
Finally, I looked later into July in the vain hope that fares might subside. Sadly, they actually increase by around £150. Unless someone is in possession of a platinum-plated credit card, my reluctant advice is to postpone the Japanese plan until 2024 – by which stage capacity, particularly from airlines from mainland China, will have risen and fares will have fallen.
Q I see easyJet has cancelled 1,700 Gatwick summer flights. I have a booking to Greece in late August. Three questions: should I have heard by now if my flight is cancelled? Is there still a risk it might be axed? I am looking at booking another trip from Gatwick for September. British Airways has similar flights and prices, but is the “easyJet problem” likely to spread to other airlines?
Philip M
A Over the weekend, the UK’s biggest budget airline cut some flights to and from its main base, London Gatwick. While most passengers who booked to and from the Sussex airport (hopefully including you) will fly between now and September, 180,000 have had their flights cancelled. An average of 20 per day have been grounded.
My understanding is that this cull has been completed and all affected passengers have been notified. However with air-traffic control delays across Europe apparently three times worse than pre-pandemic times, and some industrial action in the offing (for example this coming Saturday by Italian aviation staff), there is always a risk of more cancellations. Also, when severe weather strikes Gatwick and Heathrow all bets are off. So, yes, there is still a risk of a short-notice cancellation, as there is with any airline at any time.
On the point about the possibility of contagion to other airlines: counterintuitive as it may seem, the easyJet cull will actually help to improve reliability for all airlines using Gatwick. It will take about 2 per cent off the number of aircraft movements on the world’s busiest runway over the peak summer season, thereby slightly easing the pressure for everyone (including easyJet). In your position, I would book with whichever airline has the best combination of fare, times and baggage costs – with BA holding a distinct advantage on the latter parameter thanks to its generous policy of allowing two pieces of hand luggage totalling 46kg in weight.
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