Consolidated thread about Ex-DUB and other Ex-EU travel.

Our next trip is ex Brussels, and the plan is to travel there via Eurostar the day before. Just been reading about the disruption and chaos on Eurotunnel/star today and wonder what the situation would be should this happen when we are due to travel. I know this isn't likely, but if it did, and we were therefore unable to travel to Brussles to get the flight to London, to get the flight to the US, would we be denied boarding in London???

Yes in all likelyhood you would be denied boarding in London as you will have missed your flight from BRU and the whole ticket would have been cancelled.

Crikey, let's hope that scenario doesn't happen then....

There's a lot to be said for doing the initial EU leg the day before the main flight. If something were to go wrong you'd at least have time to try and arrange an alternative, albeit at extra cost.

As tontybear said, if you miss first leg of your routing they will cancel the rest so always best to have an outline last minute plan with links saved in your browser for an alternative

e.g. fly to Brussels or Charleroi, fly to Antwerp (from LCY) and take train, fly to CDG or AMS and take train or one way car rental etc to Brussels.

At least you're on a route with multiple 'viable' alternatives that shouldn't all fill up immediately .... but normally less than 20 days of disruption a year on Eurostar so fingers crossed you have no problems!

Our next trip is ex Brussels, and the plan is to travel there via Eurostar the day before. Just been reading about the disruption and chaos on Eurotunnel/star today and wonder what the situation would be should this happen when we are due to travel. I know this isn't likely, but if it did, and we were therefore unable to travel to Brussles to get the flight to London, to get the flight to the US, would we be denied boarding in London???

Hmmmn, well, its pretty rare for the actual tunnel to close (personally I think the press is pretty crap in their distinction between the tunnel itself, the Eurotunnel trains which take lorries and cars across, and the Eurostar passenger services), the latter two use the former).

I commuted weekly. Issues have been had when there was heavy snow (seemed to be more a recent thing, I travelled 2001-2003 and far less problems when snow than 2010). Various french things went on strike and it seemed to be on all those times. The Belgians had a strike but tended to be on a weekday, and weirdly the old 5pm to 5pm thing...

But as others say, travel the day before, allowing for the chance to organise something different. Don't make it that tight. There are far less Brussels flights nowadays, pretty much because of the Eurostar, but Charleoi is a ryanair staple...

The recent stuff with the immigrants seems to be getting out of hand though, so its a new thing...

Our next trip is ex Brussels, and the plan is to travel there via Eurostar the day before. Just been reading about the disruption and chaos on Eurotunnel/star today and wonder what the situation would be should this happen when we are due to travel. I know this isn't likely, but if it did, and we were therefore unable to travel to Brussles to get the flight to London, to get the flight to the US, would we be denied boarding in London???

Hmmmn, well, its pretty rare for the actual tunnel to close (personally I think the press is pretty crap in their distinction between the tunnel itself, the Eurotunnel trains which take lorries and cars across, and the Eurostar passenger services), the latter two use the former).

I commuted weekly by Eurostar for 6 months. Issues have been had when there was heavy snow (seemed to be more a recent thing, I travelled 2001-2003 and far less problems when snow than 2010). Various french things went on strike and it seemed to be on all those times. The Belgians had a strike but tended to be on a weekday, and weirdly the old 5pm to 5pm thing...

But as others say, travel the day before, allowing for the chance to organise something different. Don't make it that tight. There are far less Brussels flights nowadays, pretty much because of the Eurostar, but Charleoi is a ryanair staple...

The recent stuff with the immigrants seems to be getting out of hand though, so its a new thing...

Today was pretty exceptional though.

There was a strike at the ferry port that caused problems and they then extended to the euro tunnel terminal.

Until the terminal was breached (apparently by both strikers and asylum seekers) Eurostar trains were operating normally but after the breach it was dangerous to operate because objects had been placed on the tracks.

Oops I replied rather than edited...

Hello! Forum newbie here

I have been planning a trip to New York in October.

I did a dummy booking (i.e. just checking prices) on Kayak going ex-DUB and it came to around £1100-£1200 in Upper Class. It also worked on Lastminute.

However, I tried checking prices yesterday and today on Kayak, Expedia (both UK and IE) and Google Flights and the ex-DUB doesn't seem to work any more for me. The cheapest price I can find is around £1600 on BA and if I want to go with Virgin Atlantic, the cheapest price is around £2700 :(

Also tried going with a few other dates too but still encounter the same issue.

Is that the same for everyone else?

Many thanks, C

Availability does change on an on going basis so yes that could be the reason. But I'd also give it another try now. Also check other starting airports such as AMS, CDG, FRA and OSL. DUB dies appear to be good for bargains but it can soon change,

When I booked my ex-EU it was there one minute, gone when I clicked 'book' abs then after swearing at the screen and trying again it was back again!

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond Tontybear.

I just tried those options but still no luck. Even tried putting Virgin as the preferred airline and either no availability at all or a fare of around the high £2000s.

Hopefully they haven't taken the DUB fares off! I'll try again in a week.

Many thanks.

Have you tried Cork Amsterdam Paris Brussles or Oslo all are options if DUB dosnt work and have several options to position to for the start of your trip.

Thank you. I tried Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris last time, I'll try the others now.

Does it work for anyone else? i.e. just making a dummy booking for any return flight from Dub - Lon - NYC - Lon - Dub for any dates in September / October?

Just out of interest, which booking agent do you tend to use where it works? I've tried going through Kayak, Lastminute, Expedia (both ie and co.uk) and eBookers.

Many thanks.

Whats's the dates for these. They've usually been based on certain dates and obviously getting closer will knock them out. Plus some never seem to come into the relevant date. October for instance never seemed to have any ex-DUB flights...

Thank you. I tried Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris last time, I'll try the others now.

Does it work for anyone else? i.e. just making a dummy booking for any return flight from Dub - Lon - NYC - Lon - Dub for any dates in September / October?

Just out of interest, which booking agent do you tend to use where it works? I've tried going through Kayak, Lastminute, Expedia (both ie and co.uk) and eBookers.

Many thanks.

I just tried with Helsinki, and can get £1300 ex-DUB to nyc any dates in september/october....not quite the lows of £1,094 on offer now, but still good savings.

Thank you for your responses

Just to check, which website did you use to find those flights from Helsinki?

I'm not sure if I'm doing it right but I don't even get Virgin Atlantic as an option (all the flights I see are either BA or American airlines).

I'm looking to go around 8 October and return around 20 October but am fairly flexible

Many thanks.

I did it on expedia.

Don't do the multi-stop thing though, just go directly to the flights tab, HEL-JFK, Virgin preferred airline, and business class. Hope this helps, let us know.

Just to say that I have tried this trick too and Virgin doesn't seem to be playing.

I wonder if it's because Delta offers an ex- DUB service directly to New York?

[honey lamb]

Just to say that I have tried this trick too and Virgin doesn't seem to be playing.

I wonder if it's because Delta offers an ex- DUB service directly to New York?

I think that's a strong possibility.

I've found that Expedia doesn't work with other routes too. I want to fly ex-EU -LHR-JNB-DUR on VS. Because my final destination is Durban, Expedia insists on routing me LHR-DXB on Virgin with the final leg on Emirates which I don't want because of the timings (and I wasn't particularly impressed with their Business offering on the 777). To do it the way I want I need to book JNB-DUR on a separate ticket. Oh and start my ex-EU in AMS

Sorry to jump on this thread, but I'm an obsessive when it comes to my holiday but having read this thread I thought I'd give the ex Dub a try. I'm looking to fly the Dublin leg on 13th may, to fly to Las Vegas 14th May and then return from SFO on 28th. My return flights have just been released and the return journeys are showing £2500 each. Is it because I've jumped in the minute they are released? Would I be better to do a return to one airport and internal flight it to my location? If this is because I'm early when would be the right time to try. I usually book a package deal the minute it's released so this is the first time I've tried to do everything separate. I'm really grateful for any guidance that you can give me.

I've just booked next May ex EU to Las Vegas. I've been checking for weeks and the ex DUB just isn't there any more as an option, my dates are now showing over £3000.

Thankfully ex BRU is coming up a treat at just £1460. I'm positioning to BRU & taking the first sector the day before the VS43 so I can have a chilled evening at Gatwick

Remember that this 'trick' isn't limited to Dublin, it's all of Europe, before Dublin, Amsterdam was a popular starting point.

The ITA flight search tool makes looking for Ex-Europe tickets really easy as you can search from all the European airports you are willing to start from in one search.

I've just booked next May ex EU to Las Vegas. I've been checking for weeks and the ex DUB just isn't there any more as an option, my dates are now showing over £3000.

Thankfully ex BRU is coming up a treat at just £1460. I'm positioning to BRU & taking the first sector the day before the VS43 so I can have a chilled evening at Gatwick

Did you use Expedia?

Yes used Expedia Billy. Opodo also offer good fares ex BRU but they levy a service fee & credit card fee making it £66 more per person. Something that surprise me was that I've ended up with seat assignments on the BA Club Europe sector, normally these have to be paid for!