Still arranging our trip from USA to UK to meet friends in Darlington,spend a weekthere, then fly to France to drive around for the month of May touring on the continent . Using Air miles has caused great difficulties as we can't fly to Teeside, Newcastle,or Leeds Bradford!
Have 2 flight itineraries on hold using _air miles_.Both are for arriving 1st May returning 4th June, 2006.
One into and out of Manchester on USAirways(200,000air miles for 2 tickets), the other Delta (100,000 airmiles for 2 tickets)into Gatwick and out of Manchester on the return . All are Economy( coach) class.
We need to get up to Darlington where our friends live.
Train tickets/ prices are the problem- I have checked threads here and got lots of websites and have seen that cheap tickets SHOULD be available.
However,
I have checked thetrainline, virgintrains,and gner websites and I cannot find any cheaper tickets-72 GBP per person seems the going rate from Manchester to Darlington. I also checked BETS site, but could only find pass info there
I haven't started to check the King's Cross to Darlington if we do the flight into Gatwick 'cause----
I remember taking the Gatwick Express( or was it Thameslink???) and then having hubby going upstairs with cases( I have a bad back)at Pancreas and then walking down the street rolling cases to get to King's Cross to get train to Darlington. Seems such a hassle particularly after being jet-lagged from flying coach class.
Any advice on how to get cheap train tickets purchased from USA would be deeply appreciated-I need to be more informed to make my choice of flights-though right now my thrifty nature is leaning to the Delta option. Sorry this is so long and its probably murky due to my confused state and the deadline that the ticket holds impose.
Thanks for any advice- I don't know how I managed to travel before finding these forums!
Carol, South Carolina, USA

The USair miles required is really high for economy class tickets. USAir is a partner in the Star Alliance of which United and BMI are members. BMI goes into Teeside. Have you tried looking for flights on USAir's partners? You don't have to limit your searches to USAir.

Delta is partners with NWA/KLM which flies into Teeside as well. Again check the partners to find flights to use your airmiles. You may be pleasantly surprised.

For Newcastle, I think BA is the only major that flies there. Neither Delta nor USair are partners.

However, if you fly into Gatwick, you may be able to find an Easyjet flight to Newcastle.
The only caveat with this is you must allow for enough time between your US flight and easyjet check-in, i.e., clear immigrations, luggage pick-up, customs, and then rechecking into easyjet by their specified deadline. You must have boarding passes in hand by the deadline or you won't be allowed to board the flight.
Also they now have very restrictive checked luggage policies, charging for EACH piece of hold luggage as well as anything that is overweight. There excess weight charges are quite high. So if you are a heavy packer, no matter how much the ticketd are, the flight will be A LOT of money.
Something to keep in mind before contemplating easyjet.

In terms of rail tickets, have you looked on the offical rail site, www.nationalrail.co.uk? They can sell you tickets and list the different types and classes of tickets. Discounted tickets are also listed. You can purchase from them but I don;t know if you pick them up at the train station or them are e-tickets. I don;t purchase ahead of time since I usually don't have a set schedule.

Thanks, Nibblette,
I will try to work with Delta. We could get BMI to Teeside at 2100 but we arrive at 7 AM. Maybe KLM could work,I'll ask Delta again.
Good info on easyJet as I found a flight from Stansted to Newcastle.Just not sure if its feasible to get from Gatwick to Stansted. My cases are usually not too heavy. But I'll definitely check the easyJet restrictions carefully.
I

Don't recommend changing airports. Unless you have at least 4 hours in between the flights, I would not take the easyjet flight.

BMIbaby also flies out of Gatwick. You may be able to get a cheap flight to Teesside with them.

The easiest way of getting to Darlington from an intercontinental hub is the direct train from Manchester airport. The only bmi flight from Gatwick is at 1855 and the bus to Stansted typically takes around 4 hours. With a bad back and luggage, doing practically anything at Kings Cross right now is a rotten idea (though a slightly less ghastly alternative is to take the Thameslink to Farringdon, cross the bridge to a westbound Circle tube, then get off at Kings Cross. Only about a mile walk that way. But there is NO really mobility-friendly interchange between trains from Gatwick and GNER))

The walk-up fare on most off-peak Manchester airport-Darlington trains is £45 return.