Whatever became of mystery flights?

[sea oxen]

When I was young, which was a fiendishly long time ago, it was possible to take what was known as a mystery flight. You'd pay a certain amount, turn up to Kingsford-Smith airport, they'd take you somewhere, deposit you, then bring you back a few hours later.

Lufthansa had a scheme which ran from around 2000 -2003 where they'd auction off flights to random destinations. You could bid at terrifying short notice and obtain seats at a rather good price. I used both systems to my advantage.

Does anyone do this any more? There is a certain spirit of adventure about it all.

SO

[the_fish@blueyonder.]

The closest thing I can think of which relates to what you are talking about is the blind booking service offered by Germanwings. You choose a date and a type of destination and go through the booking and it tells you at the end where you're flying to.

Germanwings - Book cheap flights (http://www.germanwings.com/en/Booking/blind-booking.htm)

I've never used this though, but it looks like something i'd like to try when I get more time. :cool:

[PaperTiger]

I think Ryanair has cornered the market. You sometimes end up in the right country, but...

[Rusland 17]

I think Ryanair has cornered the market. You end up in the right country, but...Not always even the right country. Didn't Ryanair use to advertise Bratislava as Vienna? And Malmö as Copenhagen?

[PaperTiger]

Rusland 17: FIFY :)

[RegDep]

Both are better distance-wise than advertising Narita as Tokyo:rolleyes:

Yes, I know: Off-topic :uhoh:

[Anansis]

Skyscanner is pretty good. It can search every flight leaving a particular airport (or country) regardless of destination and rank them in order of price. Used it myself on a number of occasions to book a cheap, random getaway :ok:

www.skyscanner.net (http://www.skyscanner.net)

[sea oxen]

Thank you, the_fish@blueyonder, just what I was after.

SO

[Selfloading]

I did a few from Melbourne years ago, unfortunately the airlines don't seem to do them anymore, except at Easter for charity.

[WMUOSF]

HI SEA OXEN
Ansett Australia operated Mystery Flights for many years.
Passengers bought tickets and had to be at the departure airport at a certain time. They were then sent somewhere with a return later that day.
They were very popular with people who did not travel much and had a loyal following. There were often requests from people not to be sent to XXX as they had been there often. This was often taken care of as the could not request a destination, just somewhere they did not wish to go to again.
It all worked very well and got non flyers on Aircraft cheaply.
For any more info please PM.:D

[WHBM]

For those who do not know, this concept originated on the railways in Britain long ago as a "mystery excursion", in this case a whole special train was provided. They were popular in holiday times from industrial towns at weekends, and from seaside resorts during the week, especially if it was suffering a spell of "British Summer" weather. Passengers attempted to guess route and destination (often hysterically badly) as the train progressed. About half an hour before arrival, the guard came through and told everyone where they were going.

There was a fund of stories associated with them, as you can imagine, such as those from a holiday resort discovering they were being conveyed back to their own home town; while everyone else went round the tourist sights they could go home for a cup of tea.

[sea oxen]

Well, a wealth of information here, special thanks to WMUOSF and Anansis- yes, it was Ansett and I saw Wagga Wagga, Dubbo and Borken Hill I believe. I'm slowly recovering :)

SO

[PaperTiger]

Northwest (US) was doing these up until 1998 on weekends only. Two fares $79 and $139 depending on where you ended up. Don't know when they ceased, certainly none since Sept. 2001 and of course now Delta wouldn't have anything to do with such frivolity.

[Peter47]

I used to enjoy BA Funflyer but that was in the late 80s. £35 later raised to £40 return for a round trip - report to the airport by 0930 on a Saturday morning. I think I got to AMS, CDG, DUS & ORK. This was before per sector taxes & the separate calculation of airport & security charges.

I saw a press release in 2003 from Swiss about 'Taster Flights' but it is not clear whether you could actually select the destination or it really was a mystery trip.

02.12.2003 (http://www.swiss.com/web/EN/about_swiss/media/press_releases/2003/Pages/pr_20031202.aspx)

I suspect the reason that they are no longer sold is the reason that airlines no longer sell standby fares. Yield or more particularly capacity management is just too damn good! There may not be any spare seats on a Saturday morning.

Secondary reasons:

Most people fly - no novelty value - and far fewer aviation enthuisiats these days.

You can arrange your own day trip on easyJet for not much more than I paid in the eighties, once you factor in inflation.

Still, they were good fun in their time.