'˜Coupon kid' Jordan flies an extra 1,000 miles via Berlin - just to save £7

At some point on our travels we have all been forced to pay that little bit extra to get home.
Jordan CoxJordan Cox
Jordan Cox

But not Jordan Cox, also known as the ‘coupon kid’.

The 18-year-old’s latest cost-cutting exercise was “rather extreme” even by his standards - as he travelled from Sheffield to his home in Essex via a flight from East Midlands Airport to Berlin - all to save just £7.72.

Now most of us don’t mind digging deeper into our pockets if it gets us home quicker - but Jordan not only went that extra mile, he went an extra 1,017 miles.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Even by my usual standards, I’ll admit this is a rather extreme way of saving money,” he wrote on his latest MoneySavingExpert.com blog.

“I was teaching a class on couponing in Sheffield and I had booked a cheap train up there from Essex, but coming back home the cheapest one-way rail ticket was £47, so it needed some blue-sky thinking.

“It turned out that flying out from East Midlands Airport to Berlin, spending seven hours exploring the city and then flying to Stansted and getting the bus home was cheaper than a single train journey in England. But that’s not all, I also figured out I could buy a return train ticket to Berlin city centre, enjoy a free tour of a government building and lunch while I was out there and still save money.”

Jordan said he spent a total of £44.07 by going via Berlin, which even included spending £1.50 on a Currywurst sausage for lunch, compared to what he would have spent returning to Essex by train, which would have been £51.79.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He added: “Okay, this isn’t for everyone as it can take a whole day to get to your final destination, but if you’re not in a rush, your focus is saving money and you fancy a little walk around a European city, it’s worth a look. Many of these airports are close to city centres, with cheap buses or trains taking you into the heart of the action, so you get to do a bit of exploring rather than waiting in an airport terminal.”