People from the UK

TheJackoNerd

One of my biggest wishes right now is being able to make it to PAX East 2013. I've never been to a PAX, whether East or Prime, but man I'd do anything to be able to.

The only problem is that I'm from England and flights to Boston are as much as £800-£1,000 on multiple sites I've looked at. Then there's the question of worrying about mobile phone networks in other countries, and worrying about bringing merchandise and purchases, as well as swag, back through the airport (I've heard it can cost a lot to bring extra things back through).

Suggestions? What do you other Brits do? Are there cheaper flights out there? How much does the PAX weekend cost you?

Cheers!

Cloudwalker

I'm from Scotland, and am currently sitting in the hotel lobby after my third PAX. It's not exactly a cheap vacation, but it's doable.

My cost breakdown for this year:
Flights: £500
Hotel (Wednesday to Tuesday): $1200 between two people. About £400 each.
Spending money: I brought $600 dollars, but I didn't use all of it even after buying a bunch of board games and magic cards. You could definitely get by on a lot less.

The flights cost me a lot more this year - I assume because it was around Easter. Last year they only cost me £350. I'd suggest setting up a standing alert on kayak.co.uk for the dates you want to fly - it'll monitor the prices of a bunch of airlines and let you know what the price is doing each week.

So yeah, it's not cheap but I can't stress enough how much it's worth it.

As to your other concerns - using your phone in the US is super expensive, avoid it. There's free wifi in various places around PAX if you need to check email/twitter etc. I've never had trouble bringing merch or swag through customs, but I suppose your mileage may vary.

Landerolin

This was my second PAX East, last year from Scotland, this year from England. Both times I booked through BA.com when they had their sale on, around December time. I stayed for 5 nights (arrived Wednesday, left Monday) and it cost me around £650 iirc, staying at the Park Plaza Hotel/Omni Parker House (15-20 min walk from the BCEC, about $10 taxi but they're on the shuttle routes too!). Spending money is very, very much YMMV, it's very easy to eat and PAX on a budget if you really need to.

kropotkin

May I suggest you pop along to this thread: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/150697/east-international-travellers-guide-to-pax-east-2012#Item_14

This gives all the information you need to know about travelling to PAX if you're coming from abroad.

TheJackoNerd

Thanks a lot for that thread, helped tons! The only thing now is recommendations on cheap/reliable flights, so I'll check out the sites posted above, cheers!

rnicoll

Really surprised you're finding flights that expensive; last year I got BA flights for £500/head. This year I couldn't make it, alas, but I believe costs were looking similar...

If you're looking at flights around now, keep in mind that they'll be cheaper booking in advance. Also, being flexible on your travel days (Wednesdays are a good start) will help, too.

TheJackoNerd

I am selecting the Thursday before PAX East 2013 as an example, so that shouldn't be anything to do with it. Maybe it's the airport I'm selecting to leave from? Southhampton Airport isn't exactly Gatwick or anything. What airports did you guys fly out from?