Low-cost NYC with, erm, Primera Air from B’ham and London – book or avoid?

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• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  31 Jul31 July 07:20

  American and United have the same 3/5 rating. BA just a touch ahead at 3.5/5. Slim pickings on transatlantic routes with Delta and Virgin the winners on 4/5.

• Andrew says:

  31 Jul31 July 08:04

  For Birmingham this is good news as the United and AA routes have been dropped. Agreed, the prices aren’t exceptional, but in line with what you would pay from London.

• Andrew says:

  31 Jul31 July 08:06

  Are the fares available at £189 one way – in which case it could be useful if wanting to combine with an Avios booking for the other direction.

  • Matt says:

    31 Jul31 July 08:10

    That’s what the article says, yes…

• Mark says:

  31 Jul31 July 08:41

  I’ve used Norwegian for the return leg of a Transatlantic cruise. This offers some new options.

• Tim Millea says:

  31 Jul31 July 08:48

  “You do get 1 piece of hand baggage but with a very low 10kg weight limit”

  As an experienced hand-luggage only traveller, I can assure you that 10Kg is on the generous side of average. Thomas Cook Airline only last year increased their hand baggage allowance from 5Kg to 6Kg. I can also confirm that 10Kg is enough for ‘infinite baggage’, i.e. enough to wear forever and still be the best dressed in any circumstance. When I travel Club on BA I am usually transporting a kitchen or a vehicle within the silly hold allowance.

  • Peter K says:

    31 Jul31 July 09:03

    You’ve clearly never met my wife if you feel anyone can manage with 10kg of hand luggage!!

    • Kathy says:

      31 Jul31 July 11:58

      I did a 16-day coach tour in the US a few years ago. The tour guide and driver were responsible for loading the cases into the coach each day, and the tour guide always weighed them all and gave a prize to the person with the least luggage at the end of the trip.

      The winner on my trip was a couple who had done the entire trip with one hand-luggage suitcase weighing just 7kg between them. Apparently that was a record – the lightest case the guide had ever had!

      And, by the way, we weren’t staying anywhere more than 2 nights, and we weren’t in the kind of places with overnight laundry services – they were usual hotel laundry rooms or laundries in the towns we were staying in. So as impressive as it was, it did mean the first thing they did when we arrived at most hotels was locate the nearest laundry and do some washing….

    • Worzel says:

      31 Jul31 July 17:26

      Peter (09:03), yes, it’s a difficult one to argue-when the wife has 15ft of wardrobe space at home and you only have 3! 🙂 .

    • Lady London says:

      31 Jul31 July 17:43

      Nor me.
      Just wallet, phones, satnav, laptop, tiny network thingy and a very few cables and charges and I’m already at 8kg.

      That’s with no change of any clothing at all….
      Physically not possible.

  • Genghis says:

    31 Jul31 July 10:02

    I’ve done quite a bit of research and thinking on this and whilst I like the idea of travelling light in principle, it seems like lots of hard work (continual washing and drying etc).

    I use a 55 x 45 x 25 which is good for BA / EZY hand luggage and one reason I fly these airlines for work, but could never get down to below 10kg nor use the smaller hand baggage size some airlines adopt.

  • MrHandBaggageOnly says:

    31 Jul31 July 16:23

    Agreed. 10Kg is more than plenty. Even MrsHBO can travel with a couple of pairs of shoes and some hair straighteners and keep it under 10kg. (I do insist she leaves the industrial hair-dryer behind though!)

• Mikeact says:

  31 Jul31 July 09:32

  I think you’ll find that Andrew only uses hand luggage for all his travels,whether or not that is 10kg or not, I’m not sure., but I guess it can be done.

  • Rob says:

    31 Jul31 July 10:14

    I am very aggressive on HBO, although obviously it is impossible with kids.

    As long as you are not switching hotels every day, just use the hotel laundry service. Whilst paying £7 or so to get a shirt washed and ironed may sound offensive, it is a) probably cheaper than paying to check a suitcase, b) means you have zero chance of your luggage getting lost, c) cuts down airport hassle and d) you won’t be wearing creased unpacked clothes!

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      31 Jul31 July 11:20

      Plus you usually get hotel points on the laundry spend whereas you don’t earn extra miles for checking the case.

      So in a way it’s a cherry on the top

      I don’t mind paying hotel laundry prices for shirts as they’ll do a better job at ironing than I do!

      • RussellH says:

        31 Jul31 July 12:21

        Ironing shirts?

        I did not know that anyone did that anymore!

        • Lumma says:

          31 Jul31 July 12:26

          You just need to find a Primark like place in the country you’re visiting (so target or Wal-Mart in the USA). Then you basically have disposable clothes with no need to worry about laundry

        • Genghis says:

          31 Jul31 July 12:33

          Even non-iron shirts need a quick going over!

        • Kinkell says:

          31 Jul31 July 13:15

          Ha! I do! My husband appeared on TV for commenting on something years ago, in the days before we married. He never ironed his shirts and he looked very crumpled! So, one of my wedding vows was to never let him out of the house looking creased!

        • Fenny says:

          31 Jul31 July 13:35

          I think I may have ironed a couple of shirts in the last 10 years, but only ones I don’t often wear because they need ironing.

    • Claire says:

      31 Jul31 July 14:51

      It’s actually easier with kids (perhaps not babies as they need tons of kit) as you get all that extra luggage and their stuff is so small! We’ve managed many family-of-4 holidays with 2 kids. A lot of stuff that gets brought is the same whether there’s one person or 4 (phone chargers etc) and 4 clear bags for liquid makes it a lot easier than one or two if you’re packing for a week!
      Now the kids are a bit older and most of our trips are to the USA we always end up with tons of spare luggage. Usually best suitcases and check 2 in, and ram them full of stuff to bring home!

      • tony says:

        31 Jul31 July 15:14

        Have to agree with this 100%. Once you’re not schlepping infant formula or nappies around – and so long as you’re not going skiing for a week – travel with kids on a HBO basis is more than possible. I think the first time we managed it was 2 weeks round SE Asia with a 6yr old, a 4yr old and an 18 month old.

        I would also add that I find it difficult to get much more than 10kgs of stuff in our regulation sized carry on bags.

      • MrHandBaggageOnly says:

        31 Jul31 July 16:26

        Absolutely! 🙂

      • Anna says:

        31 Jul31 July 17:35

        Their allowance is great, especially the ziplock sandwich bags! The security staff always give me a look which obviously asks why one woman, one man and an 11 year old boy need 3 bags of makeup!

        • Andy says:

          31 Jul31 July 21:19

          Oh come on, why would you want to revel and dress like a pauper everyday. Use the allowance to the full. 10 night trip to Vegas, and we get a washer dryer in our suite. Wife, 10 dresses, 15 or so bikinis. 8 pairs of shoes and assorted daywear. I take 5 pairs of shoes, 6 trousers, about 8 shirts with 2 suit jackets. Then there is our running stuff.
          We only stay in 1 hotel so only have to transport the 3 suitcases once.

• Scottydogg says:

  31 Jul31 July 10:18

  I looked on their website last week and could find any super cheap flights to New York like the advertising I seen suggested

  • Rob says:

    31 Jul31 July 10:22

    What a surprise. Probably 2 seats per flight loaded at the very cheap headline prices as a gimmick.

  • Rob says:

    31 Jul31 July 15:02

    Does anyone really want to book a flight for September 2018 now?! On an airline which may not be about then?!

    • Mikeact says:

      31 Jul31 July 15:43

      Not only that, but if the thing goes tech, then what.

• Gavin says:

  31 Jul31 July 10:26

  I use a TImbuk2 messenger bag for trips of up to 5 days. Fits under a seat if required, has loads of clever pockets for laptop, tablet etc.

  • Lady London says:

    31 Jul31 July 17:51

    Getting a bit OT but like @Gavin, I used the XL size of Timbuk2 messenger bag for years as HBO. That bag I will admit, did carry everything. It didn’t weigh 8kg though it weighed more like 15kg! I tried to look nonchalant carrying it on but yes it was heavy. They wear like iron.

    With the Timbuk2 both on and off the bike I have always found it well worth purchasing the strap that holds it to your chest – it stops the bag moving and makes it almost feel pretty fixed like a rucksack. So much less strain. You can carry some surprisingly heavy/bulky weights in them. A tip with Timbuk2 bags : if you won;t be able to wait for a special order to be made, you’ll often find a better selection online than in the original San Francisco Timbuk2 shop.

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