 Poster: A snowHead
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Sat out, Sun back (2015 this is, not 2016!) for Feb half term
Easyjet outbound £80 including speedy boarding and bags
BA return £26 on Avios in Club with 2 bags each
£106 all in for flights (X 4 people)
Beat that early bookers 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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snowdave, that's extraordinary, congratulations! Which route? Cheapest Luton - Geneva with easyJet is £289 single.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Lucky to find an Avios flight with 4 seats (& its not the true cost accumulating the Avios cost something)
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Luton-GVA doesn't have to cost that much... 26th Jan flights are £79.99 on a changeable fare, and there's no cost in moving them to 14th Feb (albeit you have a slightly scarey 24hr lag before you can change them).
The Avios were the signup bonus for the BA Amex which I've just recruited my wife onto, so the cost in accumulating them was effectively zero. I know that there's a card fee, but I offset that against the 241 voucher which supports next year's summer holiday.
There were 2 avios flights each with 2 seats on. Strangely, straight after bookign one of them, it seemed to stimulate BA to release 2 more seats, so I called up and switched 2 of us onto the same flight as the other two. I'm not costing the 30mins this took to explain and execute!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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snowdave, but do you not have to pay the higher price if you move the flight on EJ?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Nope, the flexible fares can be moved to another flight with no additional fee or fare difference. The cheapest halfterm-compatible flights (i.e. within 3 weeks of half term) are still only £80. Fourth time I've done this now...
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snowdave, that sounds like a clever trick!
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Snowdave - can this possibly be true?? There's no extra fee for moving your flight (within the permitted window) to one that would have cost 3 times more if booked originally??? Surely EasyJet would have spotted the obvious flaw in this (from their point of view)?????????????
I've never heard of this trick before - could this be the best kept secret in the airline industry????
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Somebody delete this thread now, don't want this secret getting out. (not that I can find any 'flexi fares' within the 3 week half term window either way. 
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This "trick" has been known about for over a year... it was even on moneysavingexpert some months back. At that point I figured it was game over, but no, it continues to work. The secret was well and truly out some time ago, and there was even a thread on here about it.
However, EJ have become increasingly wise to it and are getting cleverer about where/how it works – e.g. it doesn’t work on the smaller airports where there are very few flights.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ansta - you're looking at the wrong place. Look for LON-GVA on 26th Jan. £80 from LTN or LGW. Book it, then in 24hrs time you can move the flight to 14th Feb at no extra charge.
Furthermore the fare concerned includes baggage, speedy boarding, fast track security and seat selection.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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snowdave, but you can't book flexi fares with ski carriage, right? Looks like one piece of cabin baggage and one hand luggage only.
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I haven't gone all the way to the payment confirmation, but the "manage my booking" process happily lets me add skis on as an extra. The flexi only includes 1 piece of hold baggage for free, but I don't think that prohibits you from adding skis as an extra.
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You know it makes sense.
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Wow! Having read your first post, I have just looked on Easijet, Leeds to Geneva (Sat. To Sun February half term (21.2.15 - 1.3.15) £51. £60 ski bag with all required clothes. That's pretty good IMO.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Dougie, 21st February is not half term for many hence the cheaper price
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Poster: A snowHead
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chrisb, he knows but in 24 hours he can change the flights foc to half term dates, subject to availability. snowdave, yep found the flights just after posting.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Doh! You are right. Sorry. Got a bit too excited! 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Yup, dougies flights look like normal fares to me because the flexi fare are only available up to 31st Jan at the moment ( tho you can change that to 21st feb.
There are some downsides to this approach
1 you can't book flexi flights till 120 days before, so until then you are gambling that the fare/ flight you need will actually be available., vs the known advance booking fare. Eg if easyjet change the rules next year then it'll be too late by the time you realise in October that you should have booked in June...
2 you have to wait 24 hrs after booking to move your ticket to the flight you actually want.
Still, if you're sitting here today wondering about feb half term with nothing booked, here's the way to do it in the cheap!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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looks like they have just caught on and changed the rules.
t's and c's which look like they were updated yesterday.
Free route changes (unless the new fare is higher, then the applicable difference applies)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Nope, the change they've made looks favourable to me! Date changes are still free, but route changes previously were not allowed, even on payment of fare difference. So, if you booked GVA-LTN there was no way to change that to GVA-LGW. Now they allow the route change, albeit you do have to pay any fare difference on that one. Bizzarely tho the updated FAQ say you are allowed route changes on payment of fare difference, the Ts and Cs still say you're not, so I wouldn't want to bank on it...
You had me worried for a few minutes - the flexi booking window for my flight home at Easter isn't open yet and thought my plans might be foiled.
I believe that Easyjet management are well aware of this 'loophole' but it is sufficiently little-used (i.e. the 120 days/24hrs restrictions put a lot of people of) that they aren't overly concerned. I keep thinking it will disappear, but not yet...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Return flights now also available at a good price, works out £90 for the return leg GVA-LTN including baggage, seat, speedy boarding etc. That makes the whole trip £170 return if you use Easyjet for all of it.
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Just as an aside to this .. the T&Cs for EasyJet for luggage booking was not very clear earlier this year.
But I would advise only book your ski bag and hold luggage about 24 hours before as there is no "early booking incentive" in the extortionate price.
Last trip I took about 22kg in my ski bag and a very heavy carry on case.
I read the T&Cs and it seemed that the Ski bag would be limited to 20kg which I think is a bit mean.
I was a bit concerned that I could get penalised for being over the 20kg limit and imagined that I might have to wear my ski boots form Luton to Geneva.
When I got to the booking desk there were no problems either way, even though it was probably up to 25kg on the way back.
(I have been ticked off at the Genveva Easyjet counter before for being a bit on the heavy side, but that was up at about 30kg.
I know we all like to stuff our ski bags with just about everything we could ever need.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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very interesting
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so typically this could be applied anytime where mid week flights are cheaper then weekend flights?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Yes, bearing in mind my previous caveats regarding taking 24hrs to change, and needing availability on the "real" target flight.
I started using it slightly inadvertently for a business flight where I wasn't sure what day I wanted to return, so just picked the cheapest one. Then I realised this would apply to all such flights...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Does anyone know for example if you want to fly Sat-Sat next feb half term. Do the flexi flights that you book have to be Sat-Sat or can the be Thursday to Thursday or Sat - Wednesday?
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You can book any time/day and move to any time/day with 3 constraints:
1) must be EXACTLY the same airport.
2) you can move the flight you book to up to 3 weeks after it. So needs to be booked for at least sat 24th Jan to move to Sat 14th Feb, but you could book Weds 28th Jan and equally move that to Sat 14th Feb. In fact, I find its better not to book at the precise first date because then you can' move any later than e.g. sat 14th Feb. So, I tend to wait a few days which means I can move flight to Sun 15th feb if I want.
3) you can move the flight to up to 1 week before the date you book. So you can book Sat 21st Feb and move that BACK to Sat 14th Feb but not any earlier.
Remember, you can move the flights as often as you want, so if subsequently you need to fly home days earlier/later (as happens to me a lot) then you can do that, but are still limited by the +3/-1 weeks on ORIGINAL booked dates.
This means, on present pricing, you can get Feb half term sat/sat or sun/sun flights for £80out and £70back, including all extras. I'll let you figure out which days you have to book the flights on to get that pricing, but the 3 week calendar option on EJ makes it pretty easy.
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You know it makes sense.
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Thanks Snowdave. Not actually any use for me but one of my group have not booked their flights for half term yet so this may save them a few quid.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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snowdave, Avios,......... don't you just love them.
I've done the ink cartridge recycling this year........... bought carts of Ebay........ recycled via Tesco, got a total of 20000 Avios. Then got the Amex card (no yearly fee) with 18000 miles on a £1k spend in 3 months. Booked my Xmas 2014 MAN-LHR-GVA return flights, now looking for short duration around feb half term.
But I doubt I'll get anywhere near your bargain! Good stuff, well done!! 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Thanks, yes, Avios are great. This year 2x west coast US return, 4x Norway, next year 4x Geneva and another 2x west coast, and I've still got lots left! Nearly all mine came from credit cards, boosted by some BA compensation for a non-reclining seat on an Avios flight, which more than paid for the Avios used for the flight.
There's still availability on Avios Geneva-London on the last Sunday of half term.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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snowdave, how do you work out if there is a seat that you can use Avios for? I don't get it!!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I use BA exec club, so I log into my account and do a search under "spend miles". As of earlier today there were 2 club seats each on the 13.30 and 14.35 flights from GVA to LHR so you could get 4 people back.
I don't know how you do it through the Avios website as I'm not registered on that, but I imagine there's some kind of search function. You might need to set it to club class to find the seats. Afaik if there's availability on the BA site that same availability should be available via the Avios site, I think they all book into the same fare bucket.
Overall, Avios availability is pretty random, and popular destinations long haul in club or first are hard to get.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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DrLawn, you do realise that if your "ski bag" gets lost you are insured for 1 pair of skis not all the crap you have shoehorned into your "ski bag". I hope you realise the impracticality of onward transit with such an oversized bag.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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anderoo, second time you've posted that - as I asked the first time, can you identify which insurers adopt that policy?
Would also be helpful if you can tell us which SKI transfer firm you work for that has such an aversion to large SKI bags.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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What happens if you by tickets and try to change but the new flight is full? I guess thats just the risk one takes...
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That's the risk you take.
However, you can mitigate it by checking how much availability there is on the 'real' target flight before booking the flexi. So, if there are still 40 seats left on the target flight you're probably alright in the 24hr window you have to wait. If there's only 5, you're taking a big chance that in the following 24hrs someone else buys a ticket.
I use Luton, where there are so many flights that I know it'll be ok.
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I’m bumping this to remind people its still available as an option (having seen one or 2 threads recently about how to get to the alps at Xmas/NY/Feb.
At present, flexi fares can be used at Xmas/NY for about £170 return and Feb half term can still be done for <£135 return (e.g. book Feb 3rd outbound for £70 and Feb 5th return for £65, then 24hrs later move both to an outbound on 14th and return on 21st).
A friend has just used this option and paid £150 for flights instead of £390.
If you're paying more than that for London flights, you're being done!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Have never heard of this loophole on EJ - we normally drive to the Alps but always good to know. Thank you
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FAQ
