Looking for Budget Airline in Great Britain
 

I am looking for a cheap flight from London Heathrow to Birmingham, England. Are there any low cost airlines that serve England that I haven't found?
thanks.

Its hard to know what you have found ???
But I think you won have much luck - if you have found anything anyway;
Birmingham - Domestic flights summary:

Birmingham has a solid network of UK domestic flights, but there is much less competition between airlines than at many other UK regional airports. This is partly because Birmingham is sandwiched roughly halfway between Manchester and London, cutting out the prospects of either of these cities being a destination for flights. Birmingham and Manchester might be similarly sized cities, but the latter's distance from, and huge range of flights to, London also gives it the critical mass needed to play host to two major "legacy" airlines (British Airways and BMI), and two major no-frills players (BMI Baby and Jet2), whereas Birmingham only has room for one of each, although the regional airline Flybe do have a significantly greater presence at Birmingham than they do at Manchester. This means that within the British Isles at least, there is only serious competition (three or more airlines) on flights from Birmingham to Edinburgh, compared to four cities which have such competition on flights from Manchester. There are still two airlines competing for business on flights to Belfast (despite the recent withdrawal of BA Connect), and also on routes to Glasgow and to Cork and Dublin in the Irish Republic. Next year, Flybe will bring some long overdue competition on the Aberdeen route. Nearby East Midlands airport provides some levels of competition on flights to Scotland and Ireland, but we would also suggest checking train fares as an alternative to flights from Brum to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Look into Ryan Air. They can be reached through their website of the same name. We flew from Paris to Rome last year for $51.00 US. We booked online and printed out the tickets. No hassels, very cheap, good flight. I believe they service England too. I know that there is another small airline that services England, etc, but I'm not sure of it's name. Here are a few sites to try ....visiteurope.com
eurotravel.com and eurotrip.com
This is where I found Ryan Air.

Thanks.

I've checked sidestep, BWA, orbitz, AA, Air Lingus, along that line. You explained it really well! Thank you. I didn't know about BMI, but I'm looking.
Thanks again!

There are no flights - cheap, dear or anything else - from any London airport to Birmingham.

Nor will there ever be: you can practically walk it. National Express bus from the airports to Birmingham: Virgin or Chiltern trains from most of the rest of London.

Virgin Trains run from central London to central Birmingham in about 1hr 30min. Were there a flight, it would take you longer than that just to reach Heathrow Airport and get through security.

If you are travelling directly from Heathrow Airport to Birmingham, the National Express bus will take a little longer.

site with list of budget European airlines:

http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp

are you landing at LHR and needing to go straight to Birmingham? Or are you going to be in London and planned on traveling out to LHR to fly to B'ham?

As flanner says - there are <b>no</b> flights (have absolutely no idea why others are recommending Ryan Air, whichbudget, etc.)

If you are landing at LHR - take the coach (bus). If you are starting out from central London - take the train.

Have you tried Monarch? They have flights as cheap as 10 pounds per person but I do not recall where they fly to exactly...

Monarch flies between the UK and mostly Spain -- that hardly helps the OP get to Birmingham.

<b>As mentioned above - there are no flights between London and B'ham.</b> - unless you want to hire a private plane or helicopter. But that won't meet the &quot;cheap flight &quot; criteria . . . . .

Morgiesmom: I just looked at your other threads. Is this question related to your trip to Paris and Italy?? Like - perhaps, are you flying into LHR and want to fly to CDG from Birmingham?

If so, post your itinerary and maybe someone can suggest an alternative.

As far as cheapness goes, I just went to nationalrail.co.uk and found a fare from London Euston Station to Birmingham New Street for <b>ten pounds</b>, standard class advance fare (buying it at the station it will be several times that).

If you really do need to travel from Heathrow itself, your journey gets a little more complicated, but still, that website will tell you what to do.

Until we hear back from the OP re her itinerary and such, I don't think we can help her much.

Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry I was AWAL, I was tied up in work.

This is actually for my 20 year old DD #1. DD #2 is the Italy trip. She's flying to England for Christmas. She lands in Heathrow, and then must make her way to Birmingham. She was thinking about taking trains, buses, etc. but I was hoping there was an easier way. She's going to visit her boyfriend and his family and he has exams that day and can't meet her at Heathrow so she's on her own. She's nervous, I'm nervous, etc.

I found that Brussels airlines goes from Heathrow to Brussels, (I think Brussels, I last worked on this late Friday night) and from there to Birmingham. That would be great if it was cost prohibitive, but their web site won't let me book multiple destinations. (If it does then I'm doing something wrong and I'm usually OK doing that with other airlines.) So other than doing two seperate tickets I'm at a loss. I don't know if I did it that way (2 seperate tickets) would the price be the same (duh, no, I'd pay taxes 2x's at the very least) if I purchased it as a multiple destination ticket.

I'm going to print out the whole thread from your replies and see what I can do. The Virgin Train sounds like a good bet.

Compliments and thanks to you all!

I have to tell you all that after searching for a couple hours Friday night (both of us on laptops at the same time) I told my DD, &quot;You know what? I know how to find out. I'm going to post this on Fodors. These people know everything!&quot; We recieved the first reply withing 20 minutes! She was amazed!

I had to throw a Turkey Raffle for 150 people on Sat., but that's over (thank god) so now I can concentrate on vacations again!

I'll check back in tomorrow.
Thanks again.
Robin

She can get on a bus at heathrow and end up in Birmingham in less than 2 hours. Why would she want to fly to Brussels and then back to B'ham w/ all the hassles of airports, security, 1 (and ONLY one) carry on etc.?

Would Chicago to Manchester work instead? :-?

Darn - posted to soon

You could also connect via Amsterdam - I don't understand the need to connect in LHR but then I haven't done the amount of research you have :-)

I prefer ease over price.

You could also arrange for a car service to pick her up at Heathrow and drive her to her address in Birmingham, if you're both nervous. It would cost more than the bus, of course. Last spring I took a pre-arranged car service from Heathrow to Leicester (near Birmingham) and it cost approximately 80 pounds. Maybe her boyfriend can pass on the names of a few taxi/airport transfer companies in Birmingham?

I hope he's besides himself with worry making sure she gets to Birmingham safely, since he's unable to meet her himself...maybe she could stay in London for a couple of days by herself first, and have fun and do some sightseeing. Then he could go down to pick her up after his exam. I actually like that idea best for many reasons, but then I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to these things :)

Continental flies non-stop from Newark to BHX. Air India from Toronto.

Or connect from US through various European airports.

But if you've already got the tickets to LHR, then flying LHR-xxx-BHX is absolutely silly.

It's like flying from New York to Chicago just to connect to Philadelphia.

Which of you is nervous about her getting from Heathrow to Birmingham? You or your daughter? ;-) The average 20 yr old is perfectly capable of such a trip. :-)

Since your daughter needs to go directly from Heathrow to Birmingham, the easiest, quickest, and most economical way would be to take the bus. These are special airport buses that stop outside the terminal and go to a central location where she can be met. The bus stops are well signposted, and there are information desks at each terminal if she needs help.

I also like Apres_Londee's idea about a pre-arranged car service to pick her up. There will be someone holding a sign with her name on it standing where she will emerge from the customs hall, and she will be driven directly to her boyfriend's family's house.

People really are being preposterously polite here.

We've told you there are buses. You didn't need to ask us: five seconds on the Heathrow website would have told your daughter (who presumably is just as capable of using a computer as you are) that:
a) there aren't any planes, but
b) there are loads of buses


Yet now you're seriously suggesting (and what's it got to do with you anyway? The woman's old enough to sort these things out for herself) your daughter goes from London to Birmingham via Brussels.

Quite simply, if this is a serious thread (and it beggars belief it can be: this really must be a troll), you're barmy.

Tell her to take responsibility for her life. And that, if she even thinks for a nanosecond about the Brussels nonsense, she's even barmier than you are.

Did I misread the posts, or did OP say the travel originate in Brussels? If so, why not just take Eurostar from Brussels to St Pancras, transfer to Euston (15min walk) and take the train to Birmingham?

W9London, yes, you did misread the post. Morgiesmom's daughter will be arriving at Heathrow, and needs to get from there to Birmingham, a distance of about 100 miles. To avoid doing the two hour journey by bus, morgiesmom's idea was to take a flight from Heathrow to Brussels, and then another flight from Brussels to Birmingham. :-D

Right, thanks for correction Heimdall. The possibilities are down to National Express or Train (there may be direct or non-direct services between Marylebone and Birmingham).

How about hiring a private plane? Helicopter? Or hijack the plane to LHR and force it to land in BHX?

;)

I have to say that flying from Heathrow to BRUSSELS of all places in order to assure an air landing at Birmingham is the funniest idea I've ever heard.

It's going to cost ten times as much and take three times as long as the bus, plus the additional baggage, security and immigration hassle.

Maybe she thinks the bus is going to be nasty and dangerous or something. I doubt it.

OK Fodorites. You guys are a tough group! Yes, this thread is real! That's the bad part about asking questions on this board, you allow people to glimpse your ignorance on a subject and then they castigate you for it! I live in the USA! I wasn't aware of how far things were or what ALL the modes of transportation are available.

Before you say I should have done more checking, maybe I should have. But I thought the point of this board was also to help people avoid HOURS of research.

I only thought of her flying because BF flies here from BHM to Ord with a layover in Amsterdam.

Doing an expedia check I saw that the expedia flights (some) were going thru Brussels. I checked Brussels airlines and saw one leg of the flight was 9 GBP! I thought I'd save time and ask people with knowledge what the options are. I didn't think to mapquest it (I know, I know) and didn't realize they were 100 miles apart!

I agree she should be able to do this - and she can, I have no doubt. This is not her first time alone out of the country. She's going to school full time, working part time, she has ADD (no excuses, just a fact)and she spends a tremendous amount of time studying. She also had a 6 MONTH old kitten that was ill for the last two months. She's been extremely worried her kitten as she had a large amount of non-reversible, life debilitating health problems and she had to put her to sleep today.

I tell you this only because it seems that some have the opinion that she's not functioning as fully as one thinks she should be. Under normal circumstances I would agree, but judgements are being made without realizing what the whole picture is here.

She's on overload and having a tough time right now. I was just trying to help her out. That's what MOM'S DO.

I wish the BF was picking her up, but SHE made the arrangements, NOT him and I wouldn't expect him to blow off a huge exam in his final year because she's nervous. Don't confuse SCARED with nervous. I fully expect her to pull up her big girl panties and be just fine. I was simply looking for a little advice.

And as far as the helicoper bit goes? Not a bad idea. I'll keep that in mind just in case that lottery ticket ever hits.

I printed out all the replies and gave them to her yesterday to decide what she wants to do.

Those who didn't rake me over the coals, Thank you. Those who did, Oh well. It was the only time I laughed today.

So thank you too.

I think I'm good on the advice now.
Morgiesmom

I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter's kitten. I know how difficult it is to lose a pet. She must be heartbroken.

I was serious with my suggestion that she spend a few days in London first. It would give her some time to unwind from the flight and recover from jet lag. She could enjoy herself sightseeing and shopping, and she'd be fresh and rested and caught up on her beauty sleep before seeing her boyfriend :)

Sorry about your daughter's kitten. It is hard losing a much loved pet.

The 9GBP ticket from Brussels would have been without taxes, surcharges etc, so not such a bargain. Airlines in the EU are not allowed to list their prices so, but still persist - Ryanair being especially bad at it. The EU have issued warnings, and serious fines will follow if they don't list all inclusive prices on their sites.
It is a pity your daughter didn't ask her BF about the route he takes before booking. She could then have flown to Amsterdam and onto Birmingham, instead of having to negotiate the bus.
But the bus is fine. It is safe and fairly quick. It doesn't leave her in some grungy part of town either, like so many Greyhound routes do.
I hope she enjoys her trip, amd gets to relax a bit.

I agree with those who say that the best way to get from Heathrow to Birmingham is by National Express.

However, is it actually Birmingham that she wants to go to, or is some other town near Birmingham? If she has to get to Wolverhampton, Coventry, Lichfield, or some other place, then the best route might well be different.

Morgiesmom, I do understand that trying to assimilate tables and tables of flight data can be confusing and trying. That's why looking at a good map, with a careful notation of scale, can be a good idea. By comparing with a similarly-scaled map of your home region, you can get an idea of distances in a way that is meaningful to you. Maps are pictures - and you know what they say about how many words (or flight data figures) a picture is worth.

A little nervousness is fine, everybody has a little pre-trip nervousness. Start emphasizing the positives. She'll be in an English speaking country (they're very obliging that way in the UK ;) ) which furthermore has a well-developed infrastructure. Point being, planning is fine, but this is one situation where help will be readily available after arrival if the unexpected happens, etc.

I second the idea to have her rest for a night in London after the flight if she expects to be exceptionally tired after all her studies, etc.

Pah, when I was her age I used to hitchhike the length of the country :-)

I'm still having trouble figuring out what she really wants to do.

Where is she starting from, and where does she want to end up?

It is quite possible that the best answer doesn't involve Heathrow at all.

If she is trying to get from CHICAGO to BIRMINGHAM, the connection in Amsterdam makes sense. Skip Heathrow. Or possibly fly into Manchester, as someone suggested; it all depends on where she's ACTUALLY GOING. We've heard about her pet and a bunch of other stuff, but not the basics.

Hi Again,
Thanks for the info.
She starts in Chicago and is flying into Heathrow. From there she's going to Birmingham.

She doesn't have any time to spend in London, they have a black-tie party Sat. night.

National Express seems to be the best bet - at least price wise.

These tickets were bought months ago. They knew when they were out of school for the holidays, (in order to purchase tickets) not when exams were.

Thank you again.

&quot;If she is trying to get from CHICAGO to BIRMINGHAM, the connection in Amsterdam makes sense. Skip Heathrow. Or possibly fly into Manchester, as someone suggested;&quot;

'Someone' would appreciate it if fnarf999 would concentrate on his trip report :-D :-D :-D