Seriously - flying out on Thursday or Friday and back again on Monday is, far, far cheaper, by a factor of at least 10, than flying out on Sat and back on Sun.

The total bill for our flights the last time we went was £60 return.

The extra nights accom was £26

It just takes a little bit of thought before you book, and to say that you can't book one extra days holiday from work when you have 28 days in law is just ridiculous, WTF do you do with all your holidays ?

At short notice it is not always possible to do this when all arrangements have been made.
So when making arrangements you have to factor in the possibility that Sky may decide to show the game a day later



For Sky to do this when most people will have already made plans is just not on and the fans come a big second to the whims of Sky TV.

I'll bet they wouldn't have done this to a better supported club, with all due respect to Quins fans.

It may cost less for more when booking BUT I'll bet if you have to change details NOW it doesn't

That Rohipol for you!! Without it I would still be a virgin!!






PS

The above is a joke before the flak starts to fly my way!! I only want to be liked!!

I did the weekend trip last year (out Saturday / back Sunday) and at the time of booking (around 3 months before departure), as I had the option to fly out earlier, the prices were not significantly different for a weekday flight as compared to a weekend flight. Certainly not 'by a factor of 10' as you suggest. I've paid roughly the same amount this year to fly out on a Wednesday and come back on a Monday, as I did last year to fly Sat / Sun. I paid round about £100 return in total with Ryanair of which a sizeable chunk (60% ?) of that is tax to keep our MPs or MEPs in expenses for another few days.

Last year's game fell during school terms and thus, it was possible for the son of one of my mates to go to the game by flying out on the Saturday and coming back later on Sunday afternoon. In his case, he had one of those old fashioned parents that believes that every day of school is important and he wanted him back there Monday morning .... Which a weekend trip delivered, but would not have been possible otherwise.

Back to the original point with this game, I would suggest that the reason it is being 'tried on' with the Quins is the relatively low numbers of fans perceived to be travelling. I remember during the Catalans first season, there was a lot more chopping & changing of game times and venues (Figures ? Carcassone ?) and there was much protesting by the fans of those teams affected by those changes. IIRC, significant changes wern't done after that for a good couple of seasons until now.

We could argue that our game has been messed around, with at least three different kick-off times published. Thankfully, none of them have affected most people's travel plans (I'm not heading back on the overnight train to Paris this time

), but on the very lowest level the excessive mucking about of kick-off times makes the game look unprofessional. Our away games to Quins are habitually messed around, making it impossible for the independant travelling fan to get back by public transport due to later kick offs and the last trains back from London on Saturdays.

If the RFL truely cares about the supporters of the game in general, it really should be stepping in and refusing to sanction changes to games for television that involves the swapping of dates / venues either within a certain window (say 3 months for Catalan games against English sides both ways) or having the bottle to say 'Non' to the TV company concerned. Maybe it should be looking for a deal that is good for the game (which includes it supporters) with clauses covering the changing of fixtures, rather that just having its eyes fill up by the number of Euros it can screw from the deal.

Maybe in truth, the travelling support or fans at games is commentary to the needs of the RFL ? Given the lack of organisation, zero marketing and massive amounts of empty seats at televised big games in the past, finally the game might be heading to the prophetic statement of jovial Jack Mysercough the Leeds RL chairman of the late 60s ? He is reputed to have said something to the effect of (with regards to tv rights money) [i"Pay us enough and we won't even bother having the fans in"[/i

If the RFL wants the Catalans project to be a success and also maybe develop other sides in France, not to mention the Eur.5 million the supporters seem to have added to the local economy, then it better not kill the goose that lays the somewhat golden egg ....

By the way, the Cas Vs Cats game has been moved from Sunday afternoon to Saturday evening to pander to Sky TV ... Have you contacted the RFL or jammed the message boards with regards to potential messing about of their fans travel plans ?

Disagree. We are not all in jobs where we can do that.

I feel incredibly sorry for the Harlequins fans that this has happened to, and I think I would be sending my bill to the RFL.

Wow, a sensible post





I've just booked a flight to Germany, it was cheaper to go on the Saturday than it was on the Friday. I will be contacting the airline informing them of their mistake as McLaren_Field, who obviously knows everything, tells me travelling on a Saturday should be 10x as expensive. I'm only going for the weekend but I might take the day off Uni on Monday incase my friend decides to disappear and I miss out on my reason for visiting.

Well said Emma. Its nice to see there is some sense left on this forum. No doubt you will be branded a or something which seems like the "cool" thing to do on here for those who don't agree with the clique of regular posters

Now we know the whole post was a lie.

Still reeling from embarrassing yourself with your clueless post towards the start of the thread?

Have you ever kissed a girl?

Have you?

Kinky.

Often. Its nice.

Yeah, it is. Ever kissed a bloke?

Very kinky.

Yep, a much older man too.

Too far.

He liked me to call him 'Daddy' if that helps?



You never know though, there may be some on here for whom the whole age difference thing is quite a turn on.

Each to his own my wheeled friend.

Ryanair from Stanstead, booked on the week that the fixtures were announced (November ?), actual cost of return flight, Friday to Monday £19.95 (then add on the taxes).

You see, if you book far enough in advance rather than leaving it to the last minute you can not only sort out your holiday planner at work but you get the best prices too.

As a Leeds supporter I'd be fairly confident if I booked Sat to Sun that the fixture wouldn't be messed about, but Quins and Celtic are prime targets, they should know better.

If the RFL truly cares about the supporters of its' game it will act in an appropriate manner with the biggest corporate investor in it and if that means allowing them to change kick offs then so be it.

i had the same thing last year-booked train tickets from Grantham to Wakefield for the game against Trin, match tickets bought etc. Sunday afternoon. Then it got moved to a friday night as we had to play at the same time as Stains, for some reason best known to themselves. Trin were very good & refunded my tickets, but i lost £35 quid in train fares and got a snotty letter from the RFL when i complained.

Seems because i live down south I can't be a proper league fan 'keep up your interest in the game'. F**K the RFL is all i can say, and Sky along with them.

And then lump on how much extra to get to Stanstead ? (Say train+tube across London+coach to the airport ... I did exactly that journey after the Wigan play-off game and it cost me about £35 all in)

Your original post suggested that midweek flights were 'ten times' cheaper, but is the case on the likes of Ryanair ? They seem to use a quota system for cheap seats and then as the plane fills, the more expensive it gets. One of the most expensive flights I found on the route from a range of airports that are easily accessable from Yorkshire is the Friday flight from Leeds to Girona, because of all the fans (and a number of privately organised tours) using that flight to get people in to the region. Certainly far more expensive than I paid for a Saturday flight out from Doncaster in 2008.

I've just checked Girona to Doncaster next Sunday afternoon, so perfectly possible to get to after the game and it is coming in at Eur.15 plus tax. BTW, has anyone noticed how the Ryanair 'cheap' flights (1p seats etc.) seem to attract far more 'tax' that other similar flights ?

For the record, I booked my flights just after Christmas this year and got a deal I was happy with. I don't think around £50 per leg for the flights down to Spain is too unreasonable given the distance and given the tax element included in that fare. I'd be very suprised if anyone has done it for significantly less than this weekdays or not.

Is it actually being changed for Sky or Channel Orange (whatever it is called over there) ?

We got a similar deal the year before with Jet2 from Leeds

Of course Ryanair use a quota system, on the Stanstead deal we picked up a 5p flight on the Friday and a £19.90 one on the Monday, if we'd waited until Tuesday we could have returned for 5p too but that was booking in the November, I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to expect all the seats on the plane to be 5p right up until departure.

Fact is I wouldn't consider anything less than a four day trip to Perpignan and if you do then "let the buyer beware", its happened before to Cas fans when they thought their game was to be in Spain so they all booked a package deal there only to find it moved back to France I'd understand it if the Celtic supporters didn't know this but Quins have been around long enough to learn surely ?