Plakias Forums

Ostraco's Bar => Gossip => Topic started by: Barny on October 23, 2008, 03:24:58 PM

Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Barny on October 23, 2008, 03:24:58 PM
Hello it's all very quiet, is anyone in?
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Graham_and_Karen on October 23, 2008, 05:20:11 PM
no!  
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Kerstin on October 23, 2008, 06:49:49 PM
Quote from: Barny
Hello it's all very quiet, is anyone in?

Yes, I am here!  

You are right, it is very quiet.


Maybe a new topic...
Every year at the end of October we can book cheap flights to all countries because the airlines come out with the new timetables for the next summer.
During the last days I checked the flights for the next year in May and as far as I can tell it is very difficult to find suitable and cheap flights to Crete.  
All flights are more expensive! The prices are very different from day to day. It is unbelievable and it remembers on the stock exchange.
Tomorrow I will check it again and again with the help of our travel agency.

Kerstin

Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Hugo V on October 23, 2008, 08:40:16 PM
Have a look at the website of Germanwings.  They are having cheap flights to Heraklion for May and June out of Koln.

Hugo


Quote from: Kerstin
Quote from: Barny
Hello it's all very quiet, is anyone in?

Yes, I am here!  

You are right, it is very quiet.


Maybe a new topic...
Every year at the end of October we can book cheap flights to all countries because the airlines come out with the new timetables for the next summer.
During the last days I checked the flights for the next year in May and as far as I can tell it is very difficult to find suitable and cheap flights to Crete.  
All flights are more expensive! The prices are very different from day to day. It is unbelievable and it remembers on the stock exchange.
Tomorrow I will check it again and again with the help of our travel agency.

Kerstin
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Graham_and_Karen on October 23, 2008, 09:09:11 PM
Cheapest price from Stansted next September is £250 (320€) for a Tuesday night flight or £300 for a Sunday flight   - never mind - whatever it takes to have a guarantee of a great time, as we always have in Plakias.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Barny on October 24, 2008, 08:24:12 AM
Thats not bad, as First choice want over £500 for me to go in August.

                      Barny.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Chris H. on October 24, 2008, 11:08:43 AM
Ah well, it's the after Plak blues I guess, wind howling around the house, rain coming down like mad, freezing cold, need I go on....?
only 8 1/2 more months to go....
Chris H.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: harribobs on October 24, 2008, 12:30:23 PM
Quote from: Chris H.
Ah well, it's the after Plak blues I guess, wind howling around the house, rain coming down like mad, freezing cold, need I go on....?
only 8 1/2 more months to go....
Chris H.



have a bit of Plakias blue sky

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3275/2948207752_cce6a7e830.jpg)
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Chris H. on October 24, 2008, 12:32:38 PM
Thanks harribobs!
Feel better already! (a bit)
Chris H.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Kerstin on October 24, 2008, 01:17:23 PM
[quote name='Hugo Vanderspikken' date='Oct 23 2008, 09:40 PM' post='12640']
Have a look at the website of Germanwings.  They are having cheap flights to Heraklion for May and June out of Koln.

Hugo


Yes, generally Germanwings offers cheap prices for flights within Europe.
Unfortunately they do not fly from our airport to Heraklion and Cologne is to far away from us.
Next week on Tuesday we will get the timetable and prices from AirBerlin and than we can make our decision between Condor, AirBerlin and Tuifly.
Yesterday Condor offered 362 Euro for each person including all taxes.

Kerstin
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Graham_and_Karen on October 24, 2008, 11:26:40 PM
Quote from: Kerstin
Yesterday Condor offered 362 Euro for each person including all taxes.

Kerstin
Looks like the UK prices aren't so expensive after all. I would have thought it would be cheaper flying from Germany as it's not so far from Crete.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: John R on October 25, 2008, 08:44:38 AM
Quote from: Graham_and_Karen
Quote from: Kerstin
Yesterday Condor offered 362 Euro for each person including all taxes.

Kerstin
Looks like the UK prices aren't so expensive after all. I would have thought it would be cheaper flying from Germany as it's not so far from Crete.

I am looking at prices from Newcastle, Glasgow and Manchester for late September. They are all fairly similar and in the £600 region, all inclusive, for two people - very expensive compared with when we booked this time last year. I really don't know what to do. Newcastle is very convenient but with silly hours late night flights, Manchester is a rather long car drive with a return night flight. Glasgow is tempting with good day flights and an overnight stay with airport travelodge (for the 7am flight) can be complemented with 15 days cheap parking at the hotel. I guess things won't get cheaper but I would like to know the price of the Easyjet flights from Manchester.

The Easyjet flights this year from Manchester were excellent. Heraklion airport at the easyjet end was VERY organised and the people who paid for speedy boarding (about 20 of us) were coached to the plane all on our own with about 10 minutes to ourselves to choose the best seats. There were two luggage X ray machines exclusive to our Easyjet check in queue and a long queue never developed for that facility. For once we found Heraklion to be well organised. The easyjet check in at the small and quiet terminal 3 at Manchester was similarly very well organised with a straight through zero check in queue  for speedy boarders and which was open more that 3 hours before the flight. This contrasted well compared with the terrible check in arrangements for the BA flights (Easyjet took  over BA flights) at both airports last year. The planes were on time with very friendly crew from the Captain downwards. I fly with Easyjet on domestic flights a lot and don't normally bother with speedy boarding but for this long and busy flight it was well worth it. If only they flew to Heraklion from Newcastle.

We enjoyed our stay at Plakias.- enhanced with our Ruby wedding anniversary celebrated with good friends at Medousa. We can't thank our friends and Babis and family enough for making it a very special occasion - including dressing up one corner of the Taverna especially for our benefit. Our Son flew out especially for the occasion and he was smitten with Plakias.

We found the place still very much to our liking with few significant changes. The new development doesn't seem (yet) to affect the character of the village. Much will depend of the people who stay there and their impact on the place if any.

John R
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Kerstin on October 25, 2008, 11:41:03 AM
Quote from: Graham_and_Karen
Quote from: Kerstin
Yesterday Condor offered 362 Euro for each person including all taxes.

Kerstin
Looks like the UK prices aren't so expensive after all. I would have thought it would be cheaper flying from Germany as it's not so far from Crete.

The prices depend on the school holidays in the several states in Germany and an other fact are the statutory holidays.
Our wish was to spent two weeks between the 22nd of May and the 5th of June 2009 but it includes statutory holidays and school holidays
and therefore the flights are so expensive. It is possible to find flights for around 200 Euros if you want to travel on an other date.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Mike G on October 25, 2008, 02:07:12 PM
Quote from: John R
I am looking at prices from Newcastle, Glasgow and Manchester for late September. They are all fairly similar and in the £600 region, all inclusive, for two people - very expensive compared with when we booked this time last year.

We found the place still very much to our liking with few significant changes. The new development doesn't seem (yet) to affect the character of the village. Much will depend of the people who stay there and their impact on the place if any.

John R
Hello John,

I think we are all facing much increased prices for 2009. My Olympic (Gatwick) package for 2009 is one third more than 2008 for similar dates and the first time I will have paid over £300 for Plakias. From my personal perspective, my 4 weeks in Greece are extremely important to me and so I'll be paying the extra. Many on this forum, including yourselves I'm sure, will take the same view.

The "XL" affair has made me more than ever want to stick with Olympic, in spite of the limited accommodation choice. I would be interested to hear whether any affected by the demise of XL managed to claim on their holiday insurance. I checked my policy but couldn't see any section that would cover such an eventuality.

I'm glad you didn't feel the new development had affected Plakias detrimentally. It was a bit too soon to tell when I was there in May. I hope Boxer Lover will post another video clip as he did earlier in the summer so we can compare.

Mike

Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Graham_and_Karen on October 25, 2008, 02:50:00 PM
Quote from: Mike G
The "XL" affair has made me more than ever want to stick with Olympic, in spite of the limited accommodation choice. I would be interested to hear whether any affected by the demise of XL managed to claim on their holiday insurance. I checked my policy but couldn't see any section that would cover such an eventuality.
Mike
I don't think it's not usual for holiday insurance to cover flights booked independently. This year, to cover ourselves against the airline going bust we will pay by credit card - it costs a few pounds extra but then the credit card company will reimburse you if the airline fails. Note - if the extra fee is a percentage of the total, then to be covered by the credit card company you only need to have paid part of the cost by credit card so, on a £300 flight, you could try paying £10 by credit card and the balance by debit card. Not an option online but should be possible for telephone bookings. Of course you would then lose any online discount.
Getting your money back is good but it doesn't guarantee you an alternative flight. Probably there's more chance of an alternative being found for you if you book a package, but I'm not certain.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: cornucopia on October 25, 2008, 04:21:28 PM
I was caught up in the XL affair, flying in on the 5th of September, due to fly back on the 20th, them going bust on the 12th, so I was stranded. Managed to book an easyJet flight back on the 20th so fine, but it cost me an extra 350 euros. It was booked on the credit card and I should be covered - put the claim in as soon as I got back but they did say it might take three months (it's been a month so far). A bit of contact, they've wanted a few bits of extra paperwork above just the tickets and receipts but it sounds as though it will be okay.

Hopefully, the refund will coincide with easyJet publishing next summer's schedule and I can do the whole thing all over again...

Seriously though, Crete is a pretty good place for that sort of thing to happen - Nikos Kazantzakis might not exactly be Heathrow or O'Hare, but compared to say Lesbos or Mykonos airports, there are plenty of options for geting back in an emergency.
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: Mike from Sussex on October 27, 2008, 10:09:20 AM
Quote from: Mike G
The "XL" affair has made me more than ever want to stick with Olympic, in spite of the limited accommodation choice. I would be interested to hear whether any affected by the demise of XL managed to claim on their holiday insurance. I checked my policy but couldn't see any section that would cover such an eventuality.

Mike

We were due to fly out on XL on the 16th. I had paid by Barclaycard and sent in a claim before we left on another flight on the 19th. The week after we returned, all the payments to XL had been credited to our account, so the system seems to work well with Barclays, at least.

Repayment doesn't get you a new flight, of course, and I had a hectic couple of hours finding something, which was less convenient and cost me an extra £140, but we did get our holiday!

Mike
Title: Anyone in?
Post by: harribobs on October 27, 2008, 10:56:00 AM
Quote from: John R
.

We enjoyed our stay at Plakias.- enhanced with our Ruby wedding anniversary celebrated with good friends at Medousa. We can't thank our friends and Babis and family enough for making it a very special occasion - including dressing up one corner of the Taverna especially for our benefit. Our Son flew out especially for the occasion and he was smitten with Plakias.
John R


Hi John


pleased to hear the celebration went well, but still disappointed we missed it!

cheers

chris