J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Oh, well if we're forward in the present now, is this what you're talking about and if so I wonder if Admin's been given any free tickets for us to try and win? :?:

http://www.eco.co.uk/event/the-ski-and-snowboard-show-2013/237

According to this, the full adult price on the door seems to be £20. Tony, how did you get tickets for only £5 each?

You know, I'm finding this thread very confusing :shock:

It's rather like that book - The Time Traveller's Wife :lol:

Thanks Tony for that very useful information on airports :D

OldAndy wrote:I do think that this thread is wandering off topic.....
:roll:

Sorry Andy, I will endeavour to bring it back on course :lol:

Actually, though, I think it's nice that people like Bandit and Ian W can post helpful comments on this thread even though they're not coming with us. I mean, they both know a great deal about airports, for example (far more than me!).

To recap - I began by doing an update on the cost of flights from London to Geneva, so that people could get an idea of the current total cost of this holiday.

The EasyJet flights from Gatwick (timed to fit in with the chalet transfer) have gone up by about £15 as compared with the price last time I looked, which is why I looked at the Luton flights and discovered they were much cheaper.

I also looked at the cost of flights to Geneva with Swiss timed to suit this holiday, from Heathrow and London city. There's a flight with Swiss departing at 08-55 from Heathrow and arriving at Geneva at 11-35, and coming back it departs from Geneva a 11-55 and arrives back in London City at 12-35. The total cost of the return flight is £141, which is more than the EasyJet flights but it does include carriage of snowsports equipment as well as the usual luggage.

For the final bit of today's pricing information on this holiday, I also looked at ski lift pass prices purchased using the Tignes loyalty card.

The card costs 10 euros to buy and enables adults to obtain a 5% discount, and teenagers and children a 10% discount on the Espace Killy lift pass. As an adult, if you go on more than one holiday to the Tignes area it's definitely worth it, but otherwise not. However, for children and teenagers I'd say it's worth purchasing even just for one holiday (you can buy it at the same time as the lift pass). For a teenager (aged 14 to 17 inclusive) the normal Espace Killy 6 day lift pass costs 235 euros, but only 211-50 with the pass, which makes a saving of 13.5 euros after allowing 10 euros for the cost of the card.

And for families as far as I know they are still allowing the family discount whereby for 2 adults and 2 children in the same family the second child gets their lift pass half price.

Seniors (aged 65 and over) get a reduced lift pass price, but I think they have to produce proof of age (like a passport) when they purchase the lift pass so presumably this has to be done in resort. Anyway, the price for seniors is 188 euros (reduced from 235) for the 6 day Espace Killy lift pass.

Thanks FarQueue and Felthorpe :D
All I was thinking about was how to save people some money on their flights and travel to the London airports - both J2skiers wanting to come on this holiday with us, and anyone else reading this thread.

bandit wrote:Luton...or I should say "London Luton" as it's formally known, is a horrible airport to fly from.

Thanks Bandit for your input on this :D

I've never flown from Luton. What's wrong with it? My daughter never noticed anything particularly awful about it.

I've just done some more checking, and it's actually cheaper to fly from Luton to Geneva with Easyjet, rather than from Gatwick, on those dates, at times to meet the transfer bus.

Flight departing Luton Sunday 13th January 10-40 arrives Geneva 13-20.
Flight departing Geneva Sunday 20th January 11-25 arrives Luton 12-05.

Total price = £88-98 with one suitcase, or £138-98 with one suitcase and one snowsports item (like a pair of skis).

EasyJet charge £25 each way for one snowsports item.

And EasyJet also own a very useful bus company, called EasyBus which does incredibly cheap transfers to the London airports (and you don't have to be flying with them to go on this bus).

So, to catch these flights, you could get a bus from Baker Street (they have several pick-up points) at 07-45 to arrive at Luton airport at 08-35 (50 minutes travel time) for the price of £3-99. And there's a return bus departing Luton 12-40 arriving Baker Street 13-45. There seems to be a bus every 20 minutes.

My younger daughter travelled to and from Luton on this bus recently and said it was excellent. The bus arrived at Baker Street on time, and the driver very carefully checked her ticket (to make sure she wasn't supposed to be going to Gatwick or somewhere instead!), it was a very comfortable bus, and it arrived on time at Luton. And ditto on the return journey.

You print out the ticket on the internet, with a specified time, and show it to the driver, but you are allowed on a bus either 60 minutes before or after this time, as long as there is room on the bus.

http://www.easybus.co.uk/travel-information/how-to-book

The Gatwick Express from Victoria, by comparison, although 10% cheaper if you book it online, still costs £21 for a day return, or £27-90 for an anytime return, and takes half an hour and leaves every 15 minutes.

If I fly to Geneva again I think I might consider going from Luton instead of Gatwick, but I didn't know about this bus before.

As I said on the previous page,we now have another J2Skier who is booked to come on holiday to Tignes with us :D

However, he is looking for a male room mate to share with. He says he doesn't mind whether they are a smoker or non-smoker, and he himself counts as a non-smoker because he smokes very rarely.

Bonjour and I have allocated him room number 14, which is a triple room on the second floor with a balcony (for which he and any potential room mate will have to pay an extra £20 each on top of the basic £399 for the catered accommodation).

If anyone is interested in sharing with him, or is just generally interested in coming with us, would they please send me a pm or post up on here. We have now booked 9 rooms but there are still 6 rooms available at the moment, although these could go at any time to non J2Skiers as we have not booked the whole chalet.

I have also done some checking up on prices. As this is a DIY holiday only the price of the catered accommodation (£399 for 2 people sharing a room) is fixed - the other costs are flexible and variable.

An EasyJet return flight from Gatwick to Geneva leaving on Sunday 13th January and returning on Sunday 20th January in time to meet the chalet transfer coach is now £114 including one bag of luggage.

Return transfers from Geneva to the chalet (organized by the chalet) are £60.

6 days adult Espace Killy (Tignes and Val d'Isere) lift pass costs 235 euros. The lift passes will shortly be available to purchase (October).

Ski hire with the Intersport shop in Les Brevieres currently costs 113 euros for 'black' skis and boots (78 euros for skis only), 106 euros for 'red' skis and boots, and 92 euros for 'blue' skis and boots.

Ski lessons with the ESF in Les Brevieres costs 169 euros for 6 mornings, or 145 euros for 6 afternoons.

The Visa exchange rate yesterday was 1.26 euros to the pound.

Edit
He says he doesn't mind me telling you all his J2Ski name - which is Tiger7.