There are questions on this website virtually every day about how to fly from Point A to Point B, and which airlines service specific airports in Europe. If you go into Wikipedia and put the airport's name in, everything you ever wanted to know about that airport comes up. This includes the cities that each airline flies to/from directly. If you're flying from a smaller U.S. city to a large airport for a transfer to a European non-stop flight, you may have to look up both cities' air service to get you to your destination. Wikipedia is just a great website to use for travel. Also, Mapquest.com covers virtually every inch of Western Europe, and you can magnify and reduce the maps to any size you wish. I find it a fantastic planning tool to figure out the physical locations of cities. And you can filter Mapquest to give directions to and from any address. This shows how far cities are apart. Have you discovered these great travel tools?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32702 posts
Just don't believe anything you read on Wikipedia. Because of the way the website is creat-ed by anybody inaccuracy can creep in or be purposely planted. I use Wikipedia for many many searches every week, often to do with films or TV shows, and often for research into flags - but I often do see things I know are wrong. With the peer review methodology it up to all of us to make corrections. Just don't take everything there as gospel. Check with the source. Neatly, usually the source is a link straight off the Wikipedia page.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
I can't get very excited about either idea. A cursory examination of a few of the airport diagrams indicates that they are woefully out of date, tossing mistrust at the whole site. Additionally, I don't care who notionally flies out of a particular facility, just who has a flight when I want to go and at what price. Multi-airline search engines do the job much better. Also, a slew of apps/sites provide much better information concerning terminal facilites, etc. Mapquest is about the most limited of any of the software mapping/routing programs. For example, Google has contours and street view; Michelin shows tolls. All three, as well as any automotive gps, are horrible (in both directions) for times.
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9363 posts
I have always found Mapquest to be the least accurate of any of the map programs around, and I have never understood their algorithm for routing. I have had Mapquest take me off of an interstate highway, through a suburb, and then back onto the highway a couple of miles down for no discernable reason. Didn't save me distance and certainly didn't save me any time, and there was no construction or anything else going on. I much prefer ViaMichelin.
Posted by
OP
Huntsville, AL, USA
8124 posts
Nigel: You're right about Wikepedia being kept up by a mortal man. But when it comes to air travel, someone within the industry is making notes to flight schedules on Wikipedia showing dates flights are added and flights being cancelled. I agree that it's not the gospel. Wikepedia's just another tool to figure out where airlines fly to and from. After figuring that out, you can got to the big websites to figure out fares, schedules, etc. I've also been able to go directly to airlines' websites for flight info. In The States, we're experiencing massive changes in the airline industry. Many previous hub cities are seeing 40%-50% reductions in domestic flights. International travel is being pushed off to cities that didn't originally have so many international flights, like Charlotte and Philadelphia. I was amazed at how few flights there are to Europe from Atlanta, the world's largest airport. I also see that U.S. Air is canceling their service to Rome out of Charlotte. Flights are coming and going depending on demand. Air travel is just a big puzzle, and it's getting harder and harder to link up with non-stop flights to many European destinations. I'm sorry, but I really don't want to fly to Toronto to fly to Helsinki to get to Vienna on FinAir for a reasonable fare. And I'm not seeing any bargain fares to Europe in the near future. Fares that previously increased on April 1st are now increasing on March 20. I'm seeing some $850 fares, but they quickly jump to $1,150 for April and May. I stopped looking for the middle of the Summer, as I'm simply not going to pay it. I use Mapquest and Weather.com just as more planning tools. I see so many people asking travel questions, and obviously they have no idea where cities in Europe are. Web based maps can at least educate you to how far cities are apart.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15144 posts
I find Wikipedia to be rather reliable and updated. Just days ago Vueling announced they'll open a new hub in Florence with new routes. I checked Wikipedia on the same day the article was published on Florence newspaper online and the new routes weren't there, but the very next day I checked again and the Wikipedia article was updated with the new routes (with in parentheses the March 2013 starting dates). There must be somebody out there that does nothing but keep an eye on some articles. The most amazing thing to me was during the soccer world cup. Live games were updated on ALL applicable wikipedia articles within fractions of seconds. Sometimes to test it I would refresh the page immediately after I saw a goal was scored on TV. Incredibly enough when the page refreshed the new score was updated. My jaw dropped. How do they do that?