My wife subscribes to this thing called “travelzoo” which emails her a list, once a week, of special discounts on airfare and hotel stays and so on. There are some pretty good deals, but nothing that stretches the bounds of believability or anything.
Except she keeps seeing these deals to fly to Ireland that really seem too good to be true.
The last one she got offered a round trip to Ireland, along with a five night stay at a bed and breakfast, and a rental car for that period as well, all for $599 per person.
Is there something specifically about Ireland that makes it possible to fly there really cheap?
I can imagine they might be flying you into the middle of nowhere, and the accomodations might be piss poor, but would it even then be as cheap as $599 for all that?
It’d be pretty easy to get a fare like that from, say, London. Where exactly are you flying from?
Assuming you’re in the US, $600/person is a pretty good deal, but it’s nothing to write home about. When I go to/from Ireland, I usually use Aer Lingus. Right now, they’ll getcha a round-trip for… hm… $437.
IANA travel agent, so I don’t know the ins and outs of package deals, but I think a big travel agency would be able to include the accomodations and car, and wriggle that down to $600.
There are probably hidden fees associated with it. Taxes, surcharges, fuel charges, etc, which bump up the price. If you decided to actually go with the deal, I suspect the final price might actually end up being $799 person. IANATA.
I joined up to travelzoo back in the dotcom era. They promised me free shares that I could never quite get hold of. That said, if they’re still in business all these years later, they must be doing something right.
I don’t know about the flights, but there are B&Bs everywhere in Ireland, and they usually are not that expensive, unless you want to be right in the middle of a city. Car rentals are usually pretty cueap, I’ve gotten them for under $200 for a week plus.
There really is no middle of nowhere in Ireland, at least not for the airports. The two big ones are Shannon and Dublin, both of which are near large cities. The only problem I could see is if you went through the London area and had to change airports there, that would not be fun.
I went four years ago in May, and for two of us I think it was just around $2000 for 10-11 days. That included the flight from Baltimore to Shannon. They may not allow you to go at peak time, but you would still have a nice time any time of year.
I have used Travelzoo, they are not a scam company, but all they do IIRC is compile and publish deals made available to them from other companies, so it is very possible this company who sent them this deal is possibly not on the up and up, but the price you qoted, while a good deal, is not impossibly good. However, please note that millions of people get the same e-mail, and they may only have 12 seats on one flight, and then that’s all- not really bait and switch, if you are one of the first 12 to respond. As noted above thoguh, this price most assuredly does not include the airport taxaes and what not, which are probably at least 100.00 extra per ticket.
A new airline called Flyglobespan is starting new routes between the US and someplace called Knock, Ireland, offering low introductory fares (which may be what you’re seeing advertised). That’s the first serious competition (state-owned, overpriced) Aer Lingus has had, and they may be matching them in the traditional attempt to drive the interloper out of business.
Flyglobespan is a spin-off from a major holiday operator from Scotland. As an airline they’re fairly new, but have built up a decent reputation for themselves. And Knock is a useful airport to kick off a holiday travelling around western Ireland (it exists thanks to a local priest’s relentless campaigning, to enable people to visit the local shrine…)
The Irish government recently relinquished its controlling share of Aer Lingus. And the airline has always had competition. It’s just that the competition has become much fiercer in recent years.
As Wee Bairn noted above, Travelzoo is not a company, they just compile cheap airfare that other companies are offering. The deals are not a scam although many of the deals have limited seating and have restrictions. Travelzoo helped directed me to a great airfare sale that Cathay Airlines was having and I was able to get super duper cheap airfare to Thailand.
So no, Travelzoo is not a scam, but read the fine print.