A Newcastle-based student has saved £40 on his train fare down to London – by flying to the capital via a Spanish island!

21-year-old Joe Furness was due to meet up with friends in London, but had left buying his ticket to the day before. When he discovered that the train journey from Newcastle to the capital would cost him £78.50, he started searching for flights on the internet.

Joe worked out a route via which he would first fly from Newcastle to the Spanish island of Menorca for £15.99. He would then catch a flight for £10.99 from Menorca to London.

The only snag? The trip via Spain would take him 24 hours as opposed to the 3-hour train journey down the East Coast Line.

This wasn’t, however, a problem for Joe. When he got to Menorca, he hired a car for £7.50 and spent 12 hours enjoying the island.

During his time on Menorca, he downed a cocktail (£4.00) and went to a free festival.

Joe told the Metro newspaper, “I’m always looking at flight websites and when I saw the price of the train I thought ‘why not?’”

“I flew to Menorca with Thomas Cook, I found a sick (i.e. good) beach, I hired a car, I had a cocktail, and I flew to London to meet up with my friends.”

“I slept overnight in the hired car so I didn’t pay for a hotel either.”

“There was a big Spanish festival on so it was really fun.”

photo courtesy of EnGuillem, from Flickr Creative Commons
Joe spent 12 hours on the island of Menorca (photo courtesy of EnGuillem, from Flickr Creative Commons)

Joe said that his friends hadn’t believed him when he told them he was flying in from Spain. It was only when he turned up at Gatwick Airport that they realised he hadn’t been pulling their legs.

Joe’s journey via Spain cost him £38.48 in total, representing a saving of £40.02 on what he would have paid on the train.

Joe said, “I had this fantastic trip and saved £40 in the process so I would definitely do it again.”

(Featured image courtesy of Kat Sniffen, from Flickr Creative Commons)


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