950quid a piece to send the family home this year - and I just paid 71,000 airmiles for mine. Utter madness. Thankfully our tickets originate in the UK so only cost about 600quid a pop.

Etihad have some decent deals at the moment.

Heading to KL at the end of the month. Got 2 tics plus 2 nights in a KL (4* suite) for 6K.

Also Mrs met some Etihad folk over the weekend in AD who have upgraded us. Happy days!

I paid £640 return using KLM this Easter to fly Dubai-Scotland return. Emirates was going to cost me a whopping £800. Looking back at my KLM experience - if I have to eat beans for a month I will in order to fly Emirates. Never again will I go through the hassle of changing flights and waiting around at Schipol. Also the food and entertainment on Emirates is far superior.

Do people actually have to pay for their flights and that of there families ?

How ghastly !

oops , their

Yes and some of us pay school fees too, muppet.

Not really.... we get a flight allowance. So if you get the ticket for less you have more money to spend in the pub when you get back! I usually get ~7,500 dibs per flight, so to the UK that's quite a lot of potential beer tokens to be saved.

As such this is a far better situation than just having your company book em. What's 'ghastly now'?

1-0

sitting in economy with some of the members on here

Or rather sitting in business pretending you can afford it?

How can you tell if someone is on a featherbed package?

They tell you.

you're just jealous.......

Of what? 6 hours once a year to the UK and back?

KLM used to be a good airline, but ununfortunately they linked up with Air France, who make Aeroflot look like in-flight ambassadors! As an aside, on of the best airlines I've flown on, bizarrely enough, was Balkan (Bulgarian Airlines.) Edible food, good flight staff, cheap, and Sofia airport less of a stress that any of the London airports.

With regard to Schipol, I'm always amused when puttering through duty free the big neon sign announcing 'DRUGS'. I do hope they mean it's a pharmacy...