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Advice on open jaw from London-Dublin or just London.

Hi, Traveling with 2 kids and we are jumping off in London and flying home out of Dublin. With 3 or 4 days in London, what is the best way to see the places in between Bath/Wales and get to Dublin? Or is the cost so much that we are best just staying in London?

Posted by
10222 posts

I'm not sure I understand your question. What do you mean you're "jumping off" in London? Is this a flight to Dublin that requires you to change planes in London? How long will you be in Ireland under this London/Dublin scenario? More details will help people answer your questions.

Posted by
23267 posts

I would suggest you attend our monthly travel discussion meeting. Every third Saturday, Dec 21st, Panera, Aspen Grove shopping center, NW corner of Mineral and Santa Fe. You could get a lot of your questions answered in a hurry. If you have a round trip ticket to Dublin that connects in London and you get off in London. Your return ticket from Dublin will be cancelled. You really need to attend the Dec meeting.

Posted by
27 posts

Much thanks for the advice as that was what I was thinking of doing. Not sure why they cancel flights as you paid the fare?

Posted by
23267 posts

Come on, Brad. If you don't make that flight, they think you are a no show, the seat is now empty, and we can resell it to some else. If you didn't fly into Dublin, why would you need to fly out of Dublin? Policies in Europe are no different than in the US.

Posted by
9363 posts

Brad, it is part of the contract of carriage that you are not allowed to do what you are suggesting. You agree to the contract when you buy your ticket. You might consider an open jaw ticket, landing in London and flying back from Dublin. Then you could get a budget flight between the two when you are ready to switch countries. It won't cost any more than you are already suggesting, and you won't be violating any rules.

Posted by
591 posts

Book the open jaw; into London & return from Dublin. I just booked the same and the fare was less than round trip to either destination.
If your England trip ends in Bath, Ryan Air & Aer Lingus both fly to Dublin from Bristol. They also fly from Gatwick which has more flights to choose from & usually lower fares. Be aware of the hidden costs that these 'low fare' airlines have... you may end up paying as much for baggage, etc. as the flight cost.

You could, of course, take a train & ferry, but you'll use up a lot of travel time, plus a lot of folks on this site have mentioned how rough the Irish Sea can be = getting seasick.

If you have really young kids (pre-teen), then it may be easier to just stay in England.

Posted by
1446 posts

There is an airport bus that now services Bristol airport with nearby Bath.

If you already have bought your roundtrip ticket to Dublin, with a connection in London, then you no longer have a "London" portion of your trip. You can call the airline and see how much they'll charge you to change that connection to a stop-over for a few days.

Otherwise, everyone here is right: if you're not on one of your flight segments, all the other segments after automatically get cancelled out of the system and you lose your flight(s) home. That's an expensive rookie mistake.

Are these tickets bought yet or no?

If your tickets are not yet bought, buy an open-jaw: fly into London and out of Dublin. Then buy a separate one-way to Dublin. 3 nights in London, train & 1 night in Bath + flight from Bristol to Dublin might work well for you with this kind of open-jaw scenario.