Jordon Cox in Berlin by the Brandenburg Gate on his trip home to Essex via Germany.
ONE teenager’s money-saving flight from Britain to Germany and back may make some of us rethink our European travel plans.
Jordon Cox, 18, was so incensed by the cost of a train ticket from Sheffield to his home in Essex that he decided to see if flying was cheaper.
After searching the internet for a deal he decided that flying via Germany would be cheaper than a UK train ticket.
Jordon flew with RyanAir from East Midlands Airport to Stansted via Berlin. He saved GBP8 ($A16.25) in the process, despite spending his seven hour layover on a whistlestop tour of the German capital feasting on currywurst sausage at the Brandenburg Gate.
This extreme option may not be for everyone. Jordon’s journey took 13 hours door-to-door, while a train trip would have been just three-and-a-half.
Ryanair is the biggest low-cost airline company in the world.Source:Getty Images
Jordon, who blogs on how to save money, was dubbed The Coupon Kid by friends when he started saving money by using vouchers.
On the day of his Berlin jaunt, he had travelled from his home in Shenfield, Essex, to Sheffield by train to teach a class on couponing.
Writing on MoneysavingExpert.com, he explained: “I know that flying is not very environmentally friendly and I won’t do this every time I travel, however this was the cheapest way for me to get home and I got to enjoy a ‘free’ mini holiday to a city I’ve always wanted to visit.
“Even by my usual standards, I’ll admit this is a rather extreme way of saving money. I was teaching a class on couponing in Sheffield and I had booked a cheap train up there from Essex, but coming back home the cheapest one-way rail ticket was £47 ($A95.44), so it needed some blue-sky thinking.
“It turned out that flying out from East Midlands Airport to Berlin, spending seven hours exploring the city and then flying to Stansted and getting the bus home was cheaper than a single train journey in England.
“But that’s not all, I also figured out I could buy a return train ticket to Berlin city centre, enjoy a free tour of a government building and lunch while I was out there and STILL save money.”
His advice to anyone else who fancies trying a similar trip?
“This isn’t for everyone as it can take a whole day to get to your final destination, but if you’re not in a rush, your focus is saving money and you fancy a little walk around a European city, it’s worth a look.”
To get the cheapest price on flights, Cox says he’s seen the best deals crop up about two to four weeks before the travel date.
This won’t always work out cheaper than the train, but when he searched for flights on January 15 he found the following savings.
London to Bristol – Ryanair flights via Dublin: £14. South West train: £41.
London to Manchester – Ryanair flights via Milan: £33. Virgin train: £101.
Bristol to Newcastle – Ryanair flights via Dublin: £14. Cross Country train: £74.
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