Case study Has anyone tried traveling from London to Dublin every week for a year?

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middleware

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I have a contract coming up in Dublin and I'm based in London.

Flights: London Stanstead --> Dublin :

- this seems to be the cheapest for Flights

on weekly basis

Model No 1:
Monday morning: Stanstead --> Dublin --> to office - Stay overnight in B&B -->
Tuesday morning: Checkout B&B --> to office
Tuesday Evening: Dublin --> Stanstead

Has anyone tried this or what would you reccommend?
Like costs of B&B and travel issues to and from Dublin Airport.

Thank you so much in advance for sharing and advising!
 
Had a mate years ago who worked in London and came home every Friday and went back Monday morning for about a year. He regularly got flights wrong way round or missed one or the other despite being quite well organised. B&B in Dublin is the same price if not dearer than Central London so be warned. If you mess up in any way getting back it will cost you as well on extra nights stayovers. If you can expense stuff it might be worth the hassle but it wouldn't be for me.
 
I did Shannon to Heathrow (and on to Newbury) weekly for about a year some years ago. I was on first flight and left early on Friday to catch afternoon flight back.
Only real issue was that my usual b&b (close to work) could be booked for weeks well out and then I was left using an expensive hotel at relatively short notice. So a long term agreement with a b&b would be my recommendation
 
middleware said:
Has anyone tried this or what would you reccommend?

Thank you so much in advance for sharing and advising!
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Monday morning is one of the worst days for travelling. You are putting yourself under pressure to make a flight and get to the office. Dublin rush hour traffic is chronic. It seems you need to do 1.5 days in the office? Can you confirm? Would flying out Sunday be better. Taking the pressure off on many fronts.

Can you tell us how many days you need to be in the office, can the time be split, does it have to be Mon/Tue. Location of office. etc. No idea hoe much a B&B is. You could do digs/boarding (place in a home where home owner, normally a woman, takes in workers for a certain number of days).

The pressure of those early Monday morning flights and back on Tuesday sounds to me like you are trying too hard to compress it into the one night and will lead to hell for you.
 
A lot depends where in London you are. City is the easiest airport to get to, shortest check in times (40 mins before departure) and cheapest to get to. Stansted may be cheaper flight wise but the Stansted express is not cheap.

Depending on where you are, you could be looking at another 50 euro a week on taxis in Dublin.
 
Not sure of the exact Dublin office location yet, but seems I could now be offered Model 2

Model 2: only 1 day in the office

fly in the morning- any day of the week - fly out the same night

1 Day per week ( no over night stay )

This seems doable... very doable as it reduces costs of B&B

Coach london to stanstead - £8.30 every hour -or so - 45 minutes travel
Stanstead to Dublin - early morning - just need my work bag
Coach from Tottenham Hale - £8:30 to stanstead - 45 minutes journey
Flight to dublin about £30 -£40 quid including the return if just the laptop light bag
taxi from and to Dublin airport - yeah I need to get the office location to see the cost of that!!!
 
In short it is doable. But expect days it falls apart and costs a fortune.

Check the bus time on Google at rush hour. Those times sound short. Stansted is miles out.

How important is punctuality? Flights have weeks where they are SUPER expensive.

The commute is actually straight forward when everything works. It's as easy as Dublin to Cork.

If doing the over and back how important is it to be alert the next day (as it is super tiring taking first and last flights)

Worth booking miles early and accepting you might lose the odd ticket - will perhaps cost less than getting stuck trying to book late and paying top dollar in summer
 
middleware said:
Not sure of the exact Dublin office location
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This will need to factor in.

Airport is on the north side of the city; if your office is in, say, Blackrock, that adds a chunk of commute time.

If you are not being paid expenses, taxis & flight costs will eat into your margins

Could you propose being on site say 3 days every two weeks?
 
You might come across a work colleague who has a room they might let to you for your needs. Internal Slack channels etc can be helpful. Might be worth doing more than the bare min required in the office.
 
The thing that often kills London to Dublin weekday commuting is that extra hr to get from Dublin airport to the office. We don't have a DLR or Underground and you will be stuck in morning rush hour traffic heading into town even if you take a taxi and use bus lanes. It can be as long as the flight over.
 
I've done the day trip often enough the other way to know it's doable but a long day. Do it on a Thursday, otherwise the week is going to seem very long.

Stansted express for the sake of a couple of quid is probably more reliable and you'll be able to work on it.
 
I did Dublin to Aberdeen one day a week, usually Tuesday, every week for about 6 years.
There was no way of getting in and out of Aberdeen the same day and as a single parent being away overnight every week wasn't an option.
I left home at 5.00am for 6.40 flight from Dublin to Edinburgh, hire car to Aberdeen, arrived at 10.30. Left Aberdeen at 4.45, drove back to Edinburg, took 8.30 flight to Dublin. Home for 10.45.
It was hard going and a big part of the reason I dislike Aer Lingus so much.
 
If you live near Dublin Airport and work near a London airport it’s manageable but you have to expect the odd trip to go pear shaped.

I regularly do day trips but I’d say that it’s not the most productive of days. If you can get access to an executive lounge and or pay for fast pass etc it’s doable. The lounges allow for delays to be more work-productive.

No idea what the story is these days for VIP/executive security. Used to be included in first class tickets,
 
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