Holiday season is upon us and while most people who are going away will have long since booked and paid for their holidays, there are still ways to waste (or not waste) money at the very last minute.
Getting your parking planning wrong or wasting too much time in an airport’s dwell zone – the place where you can spend a fortune on stuff you neither need nor want, or blowing a small fortune on treats on a plane can quickly eat into your spending, with little or no reward for you.
1. Plan your route
Spending a few minutes researching the best way to get to and from the airport is key. Think hard about whether it makes sense to take a cab or a bus or if you’d be better off driving.
If you do decide to drive, make sure you get the best-value parking and book sooner rather than later. The short-term parking at the airport is obviously the handiest option but it is not cheap and a two-week stay in one of the car parks closest to the terminals will cost you around €700 if booked at the last minute. Booking in advance is essential. We priced two weeks in July and were quoted €377 in the Terminal 2 surface car park.
There is also the drop-and-go, concierge-style parking, which costs €369 and is probably the fastest way to get out of your car and into the airport.
The Express Red car park is the next-best option, with shuttles every 10 minutes or so ferrying parkers the five minutes to the terminals. It is cheaper than short-term but not that cheap, with the cost of two weeks likely to be around €272 if booked in advance.
The Holiday Blue car park, by contrast, is the best value, with two weeks priced at €213.50, although shuttles only depart every 15 minutes or so and the journey takes around the same time, so if you get unlucky you could find yourself a full 30 minutes from the terminals when you arrive at the terminal buildings. It is obviously not a huge problem but you will need to factor that in when planning your journey to the airport.
Then there is the private operator Park2Travel. It is 1.9km from the airport and promises regular shuttling, and was quoting us €262 for two weeks in July.
2. Check in with a human
When it comes to checking in bags, make sure to do it with a human being rather than a machine, Airlines can charge you well in excess of a tenner for every kilo over your allowance you carry. The thing is, most human beings are decent, even those working for airlines where management appear to go out of their way to be rude. And most humans will happily wave your 11kg or 12kg bag through even if you have only paid for 10kg.
Machines, by contrast, do their master’s bidding come what may. They don’t care if you look friendly or frazzled and will not cut you any slack if they see you travelling with four screaming children fighting over who gets to sit on the luggage trolley; they will charge you whatever is due once you are exceed your baggage allowance.
3. Think about fast-track
Consider investing in a fast-track option. It costs €9.99 per person but it can save you a whole lot of stress, particularly if you are scheduled to depart on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday between the hours of 6am and 10am.
4. Ask yourself, do I need it?
Most of us lose the run of ourselves as soon as we get through airport security because we are bored and excited to be going on holidays. When in the gilded shopping halls always ask yourself if you need the thing you are considering buying and if it is good value for money. It might be worth spending 90 seconds checking the price of the thing you are considering in the destination you are travelling to before handing over any cash.
5. Bring a book, download a movie
Fight the potential for ruinous boredom by bringing things to keep you and your family occupied while waiting for your flight – download movies to tablets and pack a good book – and you might want to consider one of the airport lounges, although perhaps not if your are travelling with a large party including many children.
You can get access to the Martello Lounge at Dublin Airport for €46 per person if you book online, and that gives you access to “snacks and premium drinks” which sounds like code for booze to us. We are not suggesting you buy access and then spend two hours lorrying into the wine but it can make economic sense as it takes you away from the maelstrom of shopping and gives you access to drinks you would otherwise pay close to a tenner for.
6. Eat before you fly
The food on planes is rarely a delight. It is, however, almost always overpriced. Do you really need to spend more than a tenner on what looks a bit like a fried breakfast? By all means buy yourself a cup of tea but the idea of spending 50 quid to feed a family treats of dubious quality on a 90-minute flight is kind of silly when you think about it. We all do it, mind you, because we are bored and it can be a useful distraction. But if you are going to be on the plane for less than two hours you can probably get by without three glasses of w…
Read the full article at The Irish Times →
Ireland