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Eight genuinely good travel deals for Black Friday, including coach travel for £0
Some trains, boats and planes can be cheaper if you book at the back end of November
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Your support makes all the difference.What constitutes a “travel bargain”? In pure economic terms, it is any train, boat or plane ticket – or hotel room – that is cheaper than you would be prepared to pay. But in the annual late-November frenzy of Black Friday deals, shoppers are looking for deep discounts. And that is a problem for travel, where “dynamic pricing” prevails: the price you pay is determined by what other people are prepared to pay.
The cost of the cheapest plane ticket from London to Rome can veer from £19 (Ryanair from Stansted, next Tuesday) to five times as much (easyJet from Luton, three weeks later).
That makes travel unlike a toaster or a TV, where it is reasonable say, “the lowest price is normally X and today’s it’s 20 per cent cheaper”.
But each Black Friday brings a few genuine travel bargains. As always, make sure it’s somewhere you actually want to go – and, once you have committed, don’t look again at prices in case they have actually come down.
This year’s crop starts with two transatlantic deals from non-UK or US airlines.
Singapore Airlines, Manchester-Houston: £385 return
That price in itself is nothing special for low season, but what makes this a real bargain are the dates of travel: 15 January to 21 June 2020 and, crucially, 17 August to the end of September. Book up to Monday 2 December. In premium economy, the fare is £990 return.
Air New Zealand, Heathrow-Los Angeles: £179 return
This Black Friday bargain, for travel early in 2020, goes on sale at 10am on Friday. It will sell out within minutes, as it is half the normal lowest fare and there are only 100 tickets on offer.
Eurostar, London-Paris or Brussels: £25 each way
The Channel Tunnel train operator is selling the next tranche of its usual “Snap” tickets as a Black Friday deal. These are as cheap as Eurostar ever sells: £25 each way, but with tricky conditions. You decide the destination and day, choose between morning or afternoon, and two days before departure you are told which train you are booked on. Book up to Monday 2 December 2019 for travel from 7 January to 6 February 2020. Apart from some weekend departures, availability is likely to be very good.
Hong Kong: shopping voucher “worth” nearly £300
Cathay Pacific, the airline of Hong Kong, is in desperate straits because of the violence at its hub. So expect some bargains from Manchester, Heathrow and Gatwick to Asia and Australia. Japan for £500 or Australia for £600 return will be a good price – though over Christmas don’t expect any bargains. In addition, anyone who books on Friday to travel before the end of the year gets a HK$3,000 (£296) voucher to spend on the shops at Hong Kong International Airport – where the retailers are really suffering. Because of the high margins, reckon on that voucher being worth closer to £150.
Wight price: 30-50 per cent off
Closer to home, Wightlink has a genuine 30 per cent of its normally painfully high car ferry fares to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth and Lymington, and foot passengers get half price on the FastCat from Portsmouth to Ryde. But the deal only lasts until the end of the year, not the ideal time to visit this beautiful island. Book online from Friday 29 November until Tuesday 2 December 2019.
Ryanair: possibly 25 per cent off
Ryanair is offering a “deal a day” right through to Sunday. So far deals have included a general £30 off summer 2020 fares and a 20 per cent discount on some flights from UK airports to France. See what is on offer on Friday, Satruday and Sunday. But if you want to take more than a small backpack, factor that into the fare.
Romantic room: £56
Spain’s Parador chain – government-owned hotels in historic properties – has a Thursday and Friday deal with rooms priced at €66 (£56) right through to 3 April 2020, though don’t expect vast availability over Christmas, New Year and Valentine’s weekend.
London-Cardiff: £0
If any price is too high for you right now, then the on-demand bus service Snap has been offering an actual travel-on-Black-Friday for free deal. Its new coach service between London and Cardiff is being launched on Friday and the firm has been charging £0 between the English and Welsh capitals. Even if the free tickets are, er, sold out, there will be plenty around at £5 each way.
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