Poster: A snowHead
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We have kindly just been offered free accommodation in February half term by a family member and need to fly to Geneva. We normally ski at Easter when it's cheaper and as expected flights now for half term are ridiculously priced. Other than the obvious carriers (Easyjet, BA, Jet2 etc) are there any other lesser known or non British based ones that I could try looking at to see if I can keep the price down? Any UK airport considered. Thanks
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@George06, there are no cheap flights to Gva at half term. BUT you could drive - that won't cost you a lot though the heavy traffic means you need to plan your timing carefully.
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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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If your kind friend could offer you accommodation at Easter...... the Easter holiday flights to Geneva have not yet been released (probably sometime in September). Resorts will be quieter at Easter - which is early this year - a great time to ski.
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If you are committed to those dates do you absolutely have to fly into Geneva - is your ultimate destination in France or Switzerland? If France would Chambery or Grenoble be alternatives? If Switzerland you could maybe fly to Zurich or Basel and get a Swiss rail transfer ticket to your destination.
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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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Swiss - although booking on the Lufthansa site is normally cheaper.
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I don't think you can get cheap flights during half-terms, but you can check Monday-Monday departures or Tuesday-Tuesday, they might be a little cheaper as many holiday makers prefer to fly on weekends, and TOs usually fly their tourists on weekends too. When you have your own accommodation you are more flexible. Couple seasons ago I had to fly to London in February and the cost of Monday-Thursday tickets was quite gentle. I flew with Swiss. Not sure if it was during half-terms though as I don't follow British school schedule. Or drive - this will surely be cheaper if you have a family. Again you have some flexibility so potentially can avoid the worst traffic.
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@Alastair Pink, And Lyon
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Swiss were cheapest for me last time with skis. I've previously flown Flybe which is personally convenient but last time they were insanely expensive. I don't think you can generalise.
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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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Train ? Now a service through Lille which looks promising
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@George06, Where do you want to fly from? Opodo appears to offer most of the options, including some I have never heard of such as VLM (£151 return from Birmingham on 12/2/16)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks all, we're going to Veysonnaz and has to be that week.
We're in the North so it's a bit of a treck to drive, especially with a fidgety child.
Might look at train options as an alternative.
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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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@George06, travel by air, or train, is so expensive at half term if you book this late that it might well be cheaper to have a holiday at Easter, including paying for the accommodation (you should be able to get accommodation quite cheaply for Easter, which is low season in France).
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George06, If you drive you might miss the worst bits of the French autoroutes by crossing into Switzerland at Vallorbe.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Surely with free accommodation you can factor in a bit more than normal for flights and transfers. I did look at flights for half term a while back and 200€ each way seemed the norm.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Monday 15th Newcastle to GVA 65£ with easyjet.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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But nice apartment for £400 at easter, cheaper ski lessons and quiet slopes.
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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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You should enjoy Veysonnaz - it's a spa resort but more family-oriented than the 5* luxury places like Lukerbad. Down in the Rhone valley at Saillon is another bigger thermal resort, the Bains de Saillon. The ski area isn't huge, so if you have a car, you could go to Verbier for the day, either drive via Martigny to Le Chable and park there, or drive up to La Tzoumaz and ski over. As mentioned, Veysonnaz is doable from GVA by train and connecting bus: to see the linked timetable go to http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html - taking a quick look, it seems like it takes about 3 hours door-to-door on train and bus, but you must check to make sure that your flight connects.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@anderoo, Yes, but I suspect @George06, will also like to come back as well. Though I cannot think of a good reason why they would want to come back.
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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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msej449, Why not ski from Veysonnaz to Verbier ?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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We went there at Easter last year but the people that own the chalet want to go on half term this year on the week they take the children so sadly Easter is not an option unless we decline their offer. Looks like it'll be just over £1300 for the three of us from our local airport and not much less if we travel so I think we'll bite the bullett and go with thatn
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Oops - rewind. My mistake: I was talking to someone about Ovronnaz at the same time as replying, and got mixed up. Shouldn't try to do two things at the same time. So let's start again! Veysonnaz isn't a spa:
You should enjoy Veysonnaz, which is part of the 4 Valleys, connected to Verbier. Plenty of skiing. As before, you can see whether train/bus is feasible by looking at http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html
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one airline used to fly to sion which would be better than geneva as it is in the valley floor just below veysonnaz.
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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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We go to Verbier a lot so have come to know all available options.
These days we drive but we have flown to all sorts of places.
Basle is very easy, a 2.5 hour drive, does not serve a lot of skiing compared to Geneva and can be a lot cheaper at peak times.
Both Milan and Turin work too. 2.5 hours to either. Make sure you pay-up for winter tyres, Italian cars don't always have them, Swiss cars do.
To compare Geneva is a 1hr 45min, but allow more at peak times.
When you are going for a whole week the extra drive to any of those is really not meaningful.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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See if you can piggy-back on a charter. We have flown to Sion airport through Neilsen on a 'flight only' option. Not sure if this is still available from them or any of the other Tour Operators. Sion is only 45 minutes from Veysonnaz down in the valley.
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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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@Ray Zorro, easyjet are slowly wising up to the flexi fiddle, and putting up the prices of any flight in the relevant booking window. So for mid-Dec flights that could be moved to the new year week, the flexi prices are already £160-190 one way. However, there are some new year outbound flights (26th Dec) that cost >>£200 so in some cases flexi can still be much cheaper. It looks like it won't be the bargain that it was last year tho (my cheapest flexi was £65 one-way vs £250 'standard' fare for the flight I actually moved the flexi to cover).
Cheap Feb half term to GVA now requires either an indirect flight, or using Avios (where availability still comes and goes - I booked an Avios flight back on the last day of Feb half term a few days ago). Watch the Avios site closely and its likely you'll find a couple of seats appearing every few weeks.
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Loads of good advice on this thread
You could try Brussels Airlines for cheaper flights, not direct but often a lot cheaper.
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