Fare alert! Take advantage of the fare war to Dublin!

by Grant Martin on

It’s been a little while since we’ve had a good hootenany like we’re having this weekend. Dublin, as you know, is on sale from the United States, from almost every good port of departure.

From Chicago, Grand Rapids, New York, Cleveland and many cities in the midwest, tickets are as low as $330 for travel into March. West of the Mississippi, from departures such as Los Angeles, prices are only $45 higher at $375. You can even score tickets from your local podunk airport — Bay City, Michigan is rocking prices as low as $308.

But the most jaw dropping price appears to be out of Miami, where you can score tickets for only $220 round trip. That’s outrageous!

To find tickets, start by running a flex search at Kayak.com. Use +/- 3 days if you want the best prices, then when you find a good set of tickets, bounce over to the airline of choice’s website and book tickets. Right now I’m sitting on top of some Feb 20 – 22 tickets, but seeing as I was just there, I’m a little gunshy to book.

Interested in learning more about what’s going on in Dublin? Check on Gadling’s list of 10 Things you Didn’ t Know about Dublin.

Ryanair to ticket passengers who try to cheat the baggage system

by Scott Carmichael on

Ryanair, the cheeky Irish low cost airline, has decided to hand out 30 Euro fines to any passengers trying to bring too much stuff with them in their cabin baggage.

When airlines started charging people for each checked bag, it was only a matter of time till passengers figured it would be much cheaper to just drag as much as possible into the cabin. And it was only a matter of time until the airlines noticed that not enough people were paying for their overpriced baggage service. Their solution? Ticket the passengers!

Checking a bag will cost between 10 and 20 Euros, but anyone caught trying to sneak too much into the cabin can pay the 30 Euro fine, or stay home, because not paying the fine = no travel for you.

The system appears to be pretty well planned, as it does not seem like you are able to check the excess cabin baggage once on board – which should force people to just pay the checked bag fee instead of trying to take a chance the flight attendant won’t notice your massive bags.

I’m really not sure what to make of this, on the one hand I’ve seen plenty of people drag far more on board than they should, and on the other hand I’m annoyed that airlines have started charging for checking bags, which has always been a free service included with your ticket.

The list of fees Ryanair charges their passengers is massive, but to actually start handing out a “fine” when you try to cheat things is just plain miserable.

I bet that some American airlines are probably looking at this new development, and I’m sure some of their bean counters have already been crunching the numbers to see just how much cash they could make off us poor passengers.

(Via: Independent.ie)

10 tips for smarter flying


5 steps to smarter packing

International Value Destinations

by Kraig Becker on

USAToday has put together an interesting list of 10 great international places to go for a value on your vacation. These places were specifically picked to allow us to get more bang for our buck when traveling abroad this year, something that seems to be on every traveler’s mind at the moment.

The list of locations really does span the globe, and there is something for everyone on the list. Want to head to the beach on your break? Then Bermuda is the recommended spot. Want something a bit more adventurous? Give LIma, Peru a go. And for a destination that is still a bit off the beaten path, they recommend Vietnam, where you can stretch your dollar a long way, without skimping on the amenities.

The list offers up some great ideas for international travel in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Each of the destinations has a link to a local tourism website where you can find more information about where to stay and what to do, and with a little creative planning it seems that you won’t have to skip that international vacation this year after all.

Planeload of drunk Irish passengers creates havoc on Cuba bound flight

by Scott Carmichael on

In what can only be described as Déjà vu, 40 Irish passengers bound for Cuba created a riot on their Thomas Cook flight.

The group filled up on booze, harassing and punching fellow passengers, and one of them even went so far as to attempt opening the emergency exit mid-flight.

One terrified passenger ended up sitting with the flight attendants in the galley for 5 hours just to get away from the ruckus.

According to the (sketchy) report, the hooligans continued their drunken rioting at their resort, and even on the return flight. 17 of them were actually barred from boarding the flight back home to London Gatwick, but the article does not mention what their fate was, so for all we know, they are still stuck in Cuba.
After reading the story, and the reports from passengers on the flight, I’d say the group was lucky they were not on a US flight carrying federal air marshals. If a drunk fool started smoking and punching fellow passengers on a commercial flight in this country, I’d hate to think what would happen to them, but I’m fairly sure it would not be the weak “investigating events with a view to a possible complaint to police” reported in the source article.

(Via: Daily Mail)

More troublemakers in the sky


There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama

by Jerry Guo on

President-elect Barack Obama is truly multicultural. His heritage list has added up during this year’s electoral race: Kenyan, Indonesian, Hawaiian, and Kansas’ian? Now it turns out that, like any good American mutt, Obama is Irish, too.

According to a search undertaken by Ancestry.co.uk, Obama’s maternal roots can be traced to the village of Monegal in Ireland’s County Offaly. Apparently the future President’s great-grandfather was a shoemaker from the village who eventually emigrated to New York.

A musical group from the village, Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys, has even written a song for the occasion.



The chorus of the song says: O’Leary, O’Reilly, O’Hare and O’Hara / There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama…
and the lyrics go on to suggest that Obama is as Irish bacon and cabbage and call for the President-elect to get his jig on doing Riverdance.

During the recent election hubbub, the villagers of Monegal have claimed Obama as their own and invited him to come and visit the village, with hopes that the President-elect’s search for his Irish roots will also boost tourism to the quiet town.