rootbear

Hi, we are traveling from Canada to Nice in March 2004 returning May 2004. I'm starting to look at flights from Toronto and British Airways has a seat sale on until tomorrow. They are the only carrier at the moment with a seat sale for March and the price is amazing but it means we land at Heathrow and need a flight to near Nice probably Ryanair (Nimes or Genoa) or Easyjet(Nice). The other option is to wait for AirFrance's seat sale and fly into DeGaulle and then on to Nice. It would mean a transfer to Orley for the regional flight. What would be your recommendation? The BA seat sale finishes on the 25th so I need to decide soon. Thanks in advance.
Gerry near London Canada

KathrynT

I would go for the BA flight if you are happy with the price (a bird in hand...) If you have to make a connection at some point I would prefer not to have to change airports. My French is limited so I would prefer to deal with any connection problems in England rather than in France. Good luck.

rex

The bus ride from Heathrow to Stansted provides a nice 80 minute nap after the typical sleep-deprived trans-atlantic flight.

I would go for the bird in the hand.

Best wishes,

Rex

Christina

oh, if the price is amazing, I'd probably go with the BA flight, even though I hate BA and transferring airports and airlines won't be fun.

However, you don't know if you'll get the price you want on Air France. I have gone AF and then to Nice, and did not have to transfer to Orly, however, if that affects your decision. They do have some flights to Nice from CDG. Right now they list at least 3, 12:35 pm, 1:25 pm and 7:30 pm. They also have flights to Marseille from CDG, and I have done that not that long ago.

Andre

Rootbear,

BMI generally has good prices to Nice and departs from Heathrow, so no airport change in London unlike EasyJet or Ryanair which leave from Stansted or Luton.

www.flybmi.com

Hope this helps,
Andre

flanneruk

Why schlep to Stansted or Luton (and then get processed by the low costs when you're nackered) when the alternative is, surely, to meander gracefully to CDG railway station and get the train direct to Nice? Or, at a pinch, get the train to Lyons and then do a cross-platform connection to Nice?

Would you really want to go to Nimes for Nice? Nimois non plus!

mclaurie

I'm having a similar dilemma about that BA sale. Anyway, for your trip, I agree changing airports is not ideal regardless of where & the carrier. There are no train links in London from airport to airport so it's a looong bus ride in lots of traffic usually. Are you aware there are direct flights (I think Delta)from JFK to Nice. I recently looked up for someone else interested in flying TO to JFK that Jet Blue flies Buffalo to JFK for $88 roundtrip. If going to Buffalo is a possibility, that could work for you. Also, doesn't BA fly LHR/NCE?

Andre

Flanneruk,

If I landed at CDG and needed to go to Nice, I would hope on EasyJet (which flies from CDG to Nice) rather than the TGV, which takes forever, since the high speed track ends in Marseille!

Anyway, Rootbear's first choice is to take advantage of the BA sale rom Canada to LHR. From there, BMI *should* be an affordable option onwards to Nice.

BTW, Rootbear, you should also look into simply purchasing a separate ticket from Heathrow to Nice on BA (check their own web site) - they probably are quite cheap this far out as well...

Hope this helps,
Andre

rootbear

Thanks for all your ideas. Booked Detroit to Heathrow to Nice, return Toulouse, Gatwick transfer to Heathrow to Detroit. It was $1000 cheaper than going from Toronto with the same seat sale. Thanks again, now I can begin to plot the last 3 weeks acommodation. Gerry near London