J2Ski group holiday to Tignes January 13th 2013

I reckon that will round up to something like £800 all said and done with flight price changes and extra charges for bags and skis etc. Roughly.

Its not bad as I'd expect to pay something like £550 for a week in Tignes in a chalet on a package which doesnt include lift pass, so its comparable. Only thing is the hassle of sorting your own flights and transfers, and slumming it on Easyjet for instance with their overly fussy staff and rules.

Those looking to go, may I recommend Swiss massively, and also BA flying out of London City is an absolute delight. No queues, 15 mins from landing to getting in your car, etc.

Tony,
Thanks for your help with this

I looked at the TO prices before I went for an independent chalet company.

As you say, the cheapest package holiday I could find with the mainstream operators was about £550 for the 12th/13th January 2013 which included catered chalet, flights, and transfers (but not lift passes).

Crystal, for example, have the chalet Pre du Lac for £556 (webprice) but they describe it as a 'lovely simple chalet' which I took to mean very basic (no hot tub or British telly in every bedroom!), and it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

Crystal also have a chalet I thought more promising - the chalet Glacier, in between Tignes Lavachet and Tignes le Lac, which sleeps 32 people and looks fairly attractive and costs £575.

However, when I enquired about it Crystal said they would charge a single occupancy fee of £539 (on top of the £575)

And, apparently this applies to all their chalets (unless they have a single room of course)! They only deduct £60 (for the airfare) from the normal price to calculate the single occupancy fee.

I knew from that survey I did that we were likely to have several J2Skiers that wanted a room to themselves, so that chalet was out of the running, and in fact it put me off Crystal altogether for our group holidays.

And then I looked at a few more TO's and chalet owners, before deciding that the chalet Bonjour-Bonjour in Les Brevieres was the best chalet I was likely to find, for that price

Tony, I'm afraid that British Airways flights from the City in London get into Geneva too late for anyone to catch the chalet transfer, because the earliest flight arrives at 15-55, and the transfer is only for flights arriving before 13-30. They may be more comfortable but they are also more expensive - at £141 plus £34 for extra ski luggage. EasyJet is much cheaper.

There are, however, plenty of BA flights from Heathrow arriving at Geneva in time, price around £122 plus the extra for ski carriage.

Ally,

Just curios: Does EasyJet charge "extra" for ski luggage even if that is your "only" check-in luggage?

I am asking because for example last year I flew with Swiss Air, and I used my ski bag as my only check-in luggage (it is large enough to fit all my clothing) and as carry-on I had my boot-bag and a small backpack.

Also, you wrote a few posts back: "Swiss are currently charging around £130 return from London, but don't charge for ski carriage."
--- From what I understand, they do not charge for ski-luggage just as long as it is your only check-in luggage, otherwise their regular fee for 2nd check-in luggage applies. Maybe I am wrong?

PS: I agree with Tony_H's's recommendation for Swiss: I flew a few times with them and was very pleased with the experience. Same goes for BA as far as the flight and in-flight service, but I was disappointed twice with other issues: One was poor handling of a missed connection -- due to their own flight being late; and another one was once when I missed my first flight and I wanted to buy a one-way Swiss flight and return on the BA flight for which I have paid -- they simply did not allow that, saying that because I missed my departure flight they had to cancel my entire itinerary (even if they gave me no refund!)

For the 2013 J2Ski holiday I will fly with Air Lingus, and I plan to use again my ski-bag as my only check-in luggage. I do not remember ever flying with Air Lingus before, so I don't know what to expect as quality of service... any comments from anybody else who might have flown with them?

Hi Cat,
I don't know if EasyJet would charge you extra for skis etc. even if they were your only checked in hold luggage, but I suspect they would.

Swiss don't charge for ski/snowboard carriage even if you do have the normal checked in hold luggage, but they are unusual in this respect.

I'm afraid I've never flown with AerLingus so I don't know what they're like.

Here is a photo (taken on my 'research' trip to Tignes at the end of April), just to remind us all of why we struggle with airline luggage regulations etc.

I was rather confused about where we were when my daughter took this photo, so I asked Old Andy about it. I think we are ski-ing down from the Eye of the Needle (L'Aiguille Percee), at 2748m, on the blue run Corniche, which if you follow it down, has a turning off for the black Sache into Les Brevieres (I saw the danger notice and kept going down the blue ...). And, depending which piste you take when you reach the junctions, you can either ski into Tignes Lavachet, Tignes Les Boisses (where we were staying) or Tignes Les Brevieres (where we are going in January) with a choice of blue or red runs.

The Sache run is 10 Km long so I would say that if you ski all the way down into Les Brevieres (at 1550m) from the Eye of the Needle (at 2748m), on the alternative blue and red pistes it must be a total run of at least 10 Km. The Eye is called that because there is a big hole in the rock formation, and when we were going up past it in the chairlift I thought there was a huge blue plate stuck to the rock, until common sense kicked in and I realized it was a huge hole and I was seeing the blue sky through the hole

In the photo the tallest mountain, above the lower skier, is the Grande Sassiere (3751m), which divides France from Italy. And the valley we are ski-ing down into is the Isere Valley which runs all the way from Albertville in the west, past Moutiers, Aime, and Bourg-St-Maurice. The whole area including the ski resorts of the 3 Valleys, Les Arcs, La Plagne, La Rosiere, Tignes and Val d'Isere is called the Tarentaise. During the winter the road finishes at Val d'Isere because the pass over the mountains is closed.

Wow, that's one beautiful picture Ally!

catp wrote:

For the 2013 J2Ski holiday I will fly with Air Lingus, and I plan to use again my ski-bag as my only check-in luggage. I do not remember ever flying with Air Lingus before, so I don't know what to expect as quality of service... any comments from anybody else who might have flown with them?

I havent but several clients of mine use them and say the service is very good. Akin to BA in terms of efficiency and service.

That picture just makes me want to wish the next 7 months away.....

Tony_H wrote:

catp wrote:

For the 2013 J2Ski holiday I will fly with Air Lingus,...
... any comments from anybody else who might have flown with them?

I havent but several clients of mine use them and say the service is very good. Akin to BA in terms of efficiency and service.

Thanks Tony! -I'm glad to hear that.