Why I Switched from Transat to Air Canada and Why Gumtree Sucks

Wow. Less than a week till I'm going back to London!  I changed airline this trip, and I found a new way to find a place to stay too, so I thought I'd let you in on why.

I fly to London a couple of times a year and for the last few years I've been quite happy flying with Air Transat. It's a discount charter airline. My client pays my travel expenses but I still spend money like it's my own. OK, service on BA is better than on most, but it doesn't make the flight worth twice as much to me! 

The problem with Transat, for me, is that they deal mainly with packaged holiday travelers -- masses of people that can only travel if they are led around in packs.  When I was flying home in September, there were two large groups on my flight, and a dozen or so random travelers like me.  It normally takes about, what, 30 or 40 minutes to load a 737? Transat took almost 2 hours loading this flight and, you guessed it, us random folks were the last to board since we didn't have either the coveted "orange card" or "red card".

The reason I don't fly BA is partly because the fare is always slightly hire but mostly because their points suck. But that's for another blog...

Before I write a novel, I said I'd explain why I didn't use Gumtree to find the place I'm staying in this time.

Three weeks is too long to stay in a hotel. It's expensive. And I like to be able to cook some of my meals at "home" and do laundry and whatnot.  I think I've probably stayed in every B&B with a fridge and microwave in it, within a few blocks of Victoria Station where my client's office was or around Earl's Court where conferences I've attended have been. Then I found Gumtree.co.uk, a popular classified ads type site in the UK where people with big houses find flatmates.  It's a bit of a risk, I guess, but I've met some great people this way -- I'll tell you about them in future blogs! 

Unfortunately, Gumtree is plagued with all kinds of scammers -- people with a flat that's just to good to be true at such a low price.  Too bad, but that's human nature I suppose.  When you start to recognize their patterns you can spot them immediately but I have been sucked in by a couple.  The place is always fantastic sorry. It was their mother's and although she died they just can't bear to sell it. Oh ya, and unfortunately they are unable to let you view it in advance because they aren't actually in London. Then they want to know your bank account info. C'mon -- I wasn't born yesterday!

Anyway, it's tedious weeding through the crap there so I'm glad someone recommended another service.  I found a place in Notting Hill which will be fun. I've stayed in that area before. It's just like the movie. Lovely. But it's also a bit pretentious.

I'm going to leave it there for now and tell you about the new service next time. Meantime, if you've had experiences with Gumtree or other similar services for finding short term flatmate accommodation please tell me/us about it in the comment box below.

Travel Addict

I confess. I'm addicted to travel.  Because I've made it a priority all my life, I've seen a lot of this fascinating world of ours -- and I intend to see a lot more of it before I go! Have you got a travel bug too?!

I’m a Western Canadian who’s traveled Canada from sea to sea to sea and driven all over America as well. My work has taken me to some amazing places in Central America and Europe, and I've taken some fantastic personal trips to England, France, Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, Malta, Morocco and Costa Rica. I like telling stories from my travels and, even more, I love to hear other people's travel tales. I'm writing this blog to meet others with wanderlust. Like you.

I hope my stories inspire you to take a trip or maybe remind you of a great travel adventure of your own.

I’ve got a big trip to London coming up in a few weeks and I’m going to start this blog by writing first about preparations and then about what promises to be yet another great UK experience. I’ll also be writing about my summer in central Europe (Austria and Czech Republic), a recent holiday in Malta, and an eye-opening trip to Marrakech. Since I live in a major tourist destination, I’ll sometimes write about Vancouver experiences as well.

So ya… I’m going to London January 24 and will be there for three weeks. My business is focused there so I’m lucky – I get to go to London a few times a year, usually for a month at a time. London is very familiar, in many ways, but I discover something different every time I go. I’ll tell you more later but for now I’m excited to say that I’ll be staying in Notting Hill this time. I was thinking of staying in Shoreditch since I don’t know East London very well. And I’ve stayed in Notting Hill before. But I found such a great place I decided, hey, I can just go out lots in Shoreditch if I want a little East End experience! Actually, lots of the business I’ll be doing this trip will be in East London too so I should have lots of Cockney stories for you in February!

Finding a place to stay for 3 or 4 weeks – someplace that’s not too expensive and not too hard to get home to from central London – can be quite a challenge sometimes. In my next blog entry I’ll tell you about a new service I found and why I’ll never bother with Gumtree again. Thanks for checking out my new blog. Please come back next week.