C: Colin
J: Justin
K: Katy Pullinger

K: Hello and welcome to today’s Travel Show bought to you by BAA. I’m Katy Pullinger. Now are you feeling the cold? Are you feeling the hustle and bustle of Christmas – it’s a little bit insane isn’t it? So if you’re feeling like you’d quite like to leave the shores of the UK like one of 5 million people do every year, then perhaps when you do that you might want to stop and do a little bit of shopping at the airport, and take advantage of all those discounts, because you could be well saving up to at least 15% while you’re there. To talk about this today I’m joined by Colin and Justin – hello to you how are we?

C: Hello

C: Good to see you

J: Very well! I’m glad you’re excited about shopping, so are we

K: You can’t really not get excited about shopping can you – especially when it’s got a discount!

J: We are in a state of fever pitch excitement because if you can buy good stuff that’s all very well, but if you can save some dosh it means a) you save some dosh but you get more stuff as well, so we’ve come together and created all manor of top tips for people to get the very best from shopping

K: Well we shall be going through those top tips in just a second

J: Alright

K: But first if you want to ask a question which I’m sure you do, there’s plenty of shoppers out there just waiting to ask you, then you can submit your questions to us right now, there’s a little box at the bottom of your screen, literally write in your question, where you’re from and your name, press submit and we will try and get through as many as possible, because we’ve already got quite a few in already – oh we do! So let’s talk about these top tips then

C: I mean for us it’s the savings more than anything else, I mean we are frequent fliers, you know from business we’re always flying up and down the country, we’re always flying to Europe, flying to the States as well and we like to make the most of our shopping opportunity and I think if you’re going to shop at the airport I think the most important thing you do is to get there early. You know you have to get there early because of the security nowadays which obviously you can look on the BAA website and you can find out all about what’s happening with security on the particular day you’re going, you want to get there early but don’t sit there with a face like a wet weekend, you know with a newspaper saying “oh it’s 2 hours till the flight” – you know you’re on holiday from the moment you’re in the airport, get out there, indulge yourself. I mean I get the free massage, get the free facials, you know – try every single perfume, really indulge yourself. I love doing that, I spend loads of time in the perfumery department, I get loads of samples, spray them on – oh I quite like that, quite like that, and you know just really indulge yourself

K: And you need to give yourself time to get used to a perfume and then go back and buy it. that’s my favourite part of the airport is doing the shopping, because there’s just so many great offers, like you said the perfumes – but treats that you might want to take to people that you might be visiting

J: Absolutely

K: And of course it is Christmas time – get the discounts on the Christmas shopping

J: Exactly, now we have also done something which we think is incredible –if we could have ourselves morphed times a million and position ourselves in airports all over the place that would be great because then we could give people advice, but the very next best thing to that which is something that Colin and I have been working on, are gift guiders. Now basically a gift guider is a hand-picked army of quality information providers. Basically if you’re in the shopping situation at an airport, you want to know what to buy your friend, you want to know what to buy your family, you approach one of the gift guiders, they’ll be identifiable by a big Colin and Justin badge, I love that – we’re even on badges now! And those gift guiders will talk you through basically what you need to know, the benefits of one particular present, they’ll talk you through the discounts, and they can tell you – I mean one of the things we love is the shop and collect service, and it’s an amazing deal. We have two friends, Debbie and Brian who’ve recently bought a house and Debbie wanted to buy flat screen televisions for all over her new house, Brian wanted a holiday in New York, and we said well you can actually do both of those things, so rather than do without one for the other, go to the airport, have your holiday, go off to New York, but before you go, buy your flat screen tellies, save your dosh and with that dosh you’ve paid for your holiday effectively. You can either pick it up when you get back, ie. shop and collect, or if you go into somewhere like Dixons they’ll send it to your house for you, so you don’t have to take it on holiday you’re not going to try and stuff it in the hold on the airplane, it’s waiting for you when you get back

K: That is brilliant, now that already answers one of our questions that was from Ella because she’d said “what on earth are gift guiders and what have you been training them to do?”

C: Well do you know it’s exactly – but isn’t it nice to have a return to personal service?

K: Yes

C: You know you’re going to hit the high street, from this point forward you’re going to hit any store in the high street and what are you going to find? Everyone else is there you know there’s too many people there, they’re all fighting over everything and you can’t get an assistant –

K: So often –

C: You spend the whole time don’t you –

K: Yes so often even if they do hire extra staff in for Christmas, they don’t know anything

C: Exactly

K: Sorry if you do that but you know –

C: It’s true they bring in a lot of extra staff and maybe they don’t bring in a lot of extra training, because I find I get quite frustrated on the high street because you’re looking for a size, you’re looking for some information and I think if you’re a bloke whose not au fais with shopping and let’s face it there’s a lot of blokes who leave the shopping to their kind of partners, and they look after their wardrobe and suddenly once a year the onus is on them to produce the goods –

K: Yes

C: And they can get lost. And what happens? Well he just buys the same perfume, the same brand every single year and how boring is that? Why don’t you, that’s it if you’re a business man, you’re passing through Heathrow check out one of the Gift Guiders, ask them, tell them what you normally buy and they are informed, equipped enough to say to you well actually if she likes this maybe she would like this, and this would go with that, and is that the type of person - they will take time with you. What are you going to get – you are going to walk away from there with a great present for your partner and valuable Brownie points, because it’s going to look like for once –

J: You’ve taken the time, yes

C: You’ve switched on this Christmas

K: Yes and you’ve got them something different. But also the fact that it’s done, you don’t have to panic and I just want to go back to what we were talking about just a second ago, you were saying perhaps Dixons would deliver or you can leave it with the shop and collect because Tamsin sent us a message to say “what’s the point of buying all this stuff if you can’t take it on the plane because of security” – well that’s the point, you don’t need to take it on the plane

J: Exactly, it’s all – I mean basically you buy it, they wrap it and they pack it and they send it. You go off on your holiday and enjoy yourself, but the thing that I really want to get into people’s minds is – I think I’ve got a genetic gift to shop –

C: The gift for giving

K: The shopping gene

J: I have, I love it

K: The well-known shopping gene

J: I really have, I love it, I’ve got the shopping gene and when I go to the airport I go hours in advance, I’m not going to be rushing out of the cab, jumping in trying to get through security and stuff, I go straight there, I chill out, I go for something to eat in one of the restaurants in the airport and I turn it into the holiday before I’ve even gone on holiday

K: Yes

J: The holiday should begin from the second you get to the airport, and the airport is a glossy place now, do you know it’s a really exciting place, there’s all – you can go somewhere like Thomas Pink and find a fabulous shirt and they’ll iron it for you. You go and have your lunch, they’ll then appear at your restaurant with the shirt for you

K: Oh my goodness

J: So you can put it in, and similarly if you’re coming in from the other end and you’re feeling a bit crumpled after your travel, you just jump into Thomas Pink, they’ll do the shirt for you and then you disappear off looking primed and gorgeous

K: That is amazing but it’s all these extra little tips that people don’t actually realise that you can do

J: I’ll tell you what’s also really good – when you go to an airport you don’t have to go business and you don’t have to go first class to take advantage of some pampering, you can go into Jo Malone and have the most gorgeous –

K: I love Jo Malone

J: I love all that stuff – get the most gorgeous hand massage, or go into Molten Brown and get the most lovely facial. Or you can go to the spa, do you know the spa at terminal 1 is amazing – it is extreme indulgence, it’s called Rejuve, Rejuve and it will basically rejuvenate you, you can have everything done there from a massage

K: I see what they did there!

J: Very very clever use of the English language, I like it when it works out! But yes you pop into Rejuve and you get thoroughly spoilt and you get these incredible tinctures and lotions and potions, it’s the best treatment that you’re going to find, particularly somewhere like an airport

K: There we go, good tips, good tips to remember

J: Top tips

K: Top tips exactly. Now we’ve got a question from JJ, he wants to know “ok, I’m taking the entire clan for a ski break this Christmas. I would much rather let people choose their presents than guess and get it wrong. Can I get the whole family sorted in one terminal, there’s kids, adults and a couple of older members of the clan?”

J: Wow

C: That’s actually a top tip, I mean he’s got it yes – you know don’t leave it to chance, why not take the whole family on a wonderful shopping experience, your holiday starts in the airport –

K: It’s part of the treat

J: Of course it is

K: Make that the whole present experience

C: Don’t think about actually the first day of the holiday being when you arrive

J: Just bring it to the airport

C: What are we going to do as a family, are we going to go shopping to our destination, do it before you get there and save cash as well, I think that’s fantastic

K: Or you could pick out a few – get everyone to pick out a couple of things and then you can surprise them by which one they get

C: Sure

K: If you want to keep the surprise

C: And I think a big kind of top tip for us, I mean especially if you’re buying for a lot of people you know and you don’t want to break the bank – it’s not all about luxury brands here, I mean there’s great selections of books, CDs, DVDs, all your kind of computer games that you want for the kids as well, but a little bit of luxury goes a long way and we’re great believers in buying nice little branded items so you get a small Fortnum & Masons piece or you get something from Harrods, there’s a great kids bank, silver, your first piggy bank – it’s £20 from Harrods but if you gave that to someone who’d maybe had a baby that year wouldn’t you just be made up that your child had its first piggy bank from Harrods, and you know you haven’t spent a lot of money

K: No

C: But it’s put a lot of thought into it

K: So there literally is something for everyone?

C: Oh there is, absolutely

K: So that answers JJ’s question, something for the whole family

J: Oh completely, absolutely

K: And every budget

J: Well exactly Colin talked about the saving bank there, you can buy toys, books, videos, every element from top end glamour to really day-to-day stuff. My big airport buy, without a doubt – champagne. A day without champagne is a day without blinking sunshine

K: What a great day

J: Champagne for my real friends and real pen for my sham friends, we buy all our champagne, particularly at Christmas and New Year, we’re travelling as we always are we take advantage of those tax benefits and champagne 20% cheaper than you might find it elsewhere. Why would you not want to do that? And top secret – there’s no limit on the amount you can buy!

C: Sssssh they’ll be nothing left!

J: Don’t tell anybody we told you this

K: On champagne?

J: No limit. You can go in and buy as much as you – you look like a girl that appreciates champagne –

K: I don’t mind a glass or two

J: I see the effervescence – you look kind of lush – we love it so we buy our champagne all the time and particularly if we’re travelling around at Christmas time, it’s a great way do you know what I mean? What better thing to give somebody than just a little bottle of champagne because it’s the kind of thing you might be less inclined to buy for yourself and I’d like to remind – somebody that’s maybe a pal of yours, maybe somebody you haven’t seen for a long time, here’s a wee bottle of champagne

K: Yes

J: I got you this, enjoy it over Christmas

K: But they often do nice kind of novelty bottles and boxes and packaging and things like that

J: Have you seen the Veuve Clicquot one, oh my goodness –

C: Is that the studded one?

J: No the Veuve Clicquot bottle –

K: The studded one was that?

C: There’s a studded bottle -

K: Amazing!

J: There’s a beautiful Veuve Clicquot bottle and it’s wrapped in Pucci fabric, like really retro really swirly –

C: Emilio Pucci

J: Oh my goodness it’s THE most gorgeous thing

K: Do you know what I think we’re actually going to have a look at that in just a second, we’ve got a clip from your last tips video –

J: It’s great you just –

K: We will see it

J: All you do is you pull down the zip and you savour what lies behind

K: Oh I love it. Well let’s get through another question before we see that. Layla wants to know “boys, here is your challenge” – right here we go – “I know you aren’t Trinny and Susannah but I’m a 30-something housewife about to go on a winter break to Barbados” – ooh you lucky thing “with my husband and kids, where should I go before the flight for some nice clothes to turn me from a scrummy mummy into a” – oh sorry a “scummy mummy into a yummy mummy” – or a scrummy mummy – and my husband is paying!”

C: Yes

J: If you can get somebody to buy it for you all the better. The airport shopping’s brilliant, Armani is my favourite –

K: Nice

J: And they have all this stuff in Armani that you just don’t find in the high street, it’s exclusively at the airport. Or Victoria Secret, what about that for some nice smellies to go with a lovely new outfit?

C: And what I would say is think about it though, if you were on the high street just now are you going to be able to buy something for a trip to Barbados? I don’t think so, it’s all Parka, big coats – the winter collection is fairly ensconced there and it’s all Christmas sets wherever you look but actually by going to a dedicated travel centre like an airport

K: Yes

C: Then you’re always going to be able to buy things that are bang up-to-date

K: Sarongs and bikinis –

J: Oh God yes

C: And it’s not going to be all this stuff that’s been lying around in a bargain bin somewhere reduced, you’re going to get contemporary fashion, bang up-to-date stuff, great designer brands at the airport

J: And again we bring it back to gift guiders – if there’s an element of risk and you’re not sure what you should buy or you – like this person here – there is somebody there to guide you through the labyrinth of choice and there’s somebody to say “don’t worry, ok what’s your budget, how much would you like to spend, I’ll make that shopping decision easy because I’ve got the information to make this perfect”

C: Exactly and I think if you want the full kind of thing, if you’re just going to buy maybe you go to the high street and you buy brands and you get a swimsuit there, you know it could be Accessorize or whatever and you just buy a sarong and a nice swimsuit – indulge yourself with a pair of designer sunglasses –

K: Oh I like that idea

C: Buy them at the airport as well, you know save a fortune and that way you know you’ve got the label, you know it’s on you, you feel fantastic and that’s it you’re in Barbados, you don’t want to feel scummy mummy you want to feel scrummy mummy, so get the labels on

J: The thing with glasses as well is they set the tone, you can have an inexpensive suit and an inexpensive shirt but if you’ve got the gorgeous glasses or a nice watch or maybe a pair of cufflinks, it’s all auto-suggestion

K: Do you know that’s one of the tips that my mum always told me, you can wear cheap clothes but as long as you do it up with at least one or two expensive accessories

J: Yes we call it the identifier

K: Yes now I just want to get Mrs Edward’s question before we have a look at the clip from your video “you mention a lot of very expensive brands but they’re out of my league. Are there any high street brands that you can get bargains – I’m off to Tenerife on December 20th ps. I love your shows” she says

J: Oh bless her, well in that case we love your lady. Do you know we buy a lot of kind of technical stuff in the high street, but if you’re at the airport Dixons again back there, big electrical supplier and you can pick up your little MP3 players for £30 / £40, £50 less than elsewhere

K: Cameras and things

J: Cameras, stuff like that – it is pretty much a walk through every layer of demographic in an airport, it’s something that we enjoy because sometimes we don’t want to spend a lot of cash and sometimes we want to really indulge ourselves, so there’s something in every part of the airport to suit every budget

C: Yes absolutely don’t be scared off by the brands either

K: No

C: Sure there’s WHSmith, and they have a really impressive array of WHSmiths, the travel games –

K: Tie Rack and Accessorize and things like that –

C: Tie Rack and Accessorize, but places like WHSmiths you can get all the little travel games that you normally buy, you know miniature Scrabble, great stocking fillers for Christmas as well. But then even if you were buying for Christmas, I mean get into Hamleys, you think oh Hamleys – there’s things in there for every single budget, for every single pocket and I think the airport gives you an opportunity to just, to go for these stores you know – get in there and explore and it could be stores that maybe, you don’t want to be going down Bond Street, you could bump into Victoria Beckham and you might feel a wee bit scared –

K: You could bump into her at the airport

C: Get in the airport, exactly

K: Well listen we’re halfway through the show and so if you want to submit a question you still have time, remember there’s that little box on your screen, just submit your question with your name and where you’re from, get that in. While you’re doing that we want to actually look at a little bit of a clip of your last video, your summer video where we can see you running riot in the shops

J: Looking fabulous

K: Of course looking fabulous! Here we go, have a look at this

C: This is what I call a family reunion, look at all my familiars, Victor and Ralph, Thierry Mugler, Jean Paul Gaultier, Givenchy, Issy Miyake – I’m home at last!

J: It smells amazing in here, but how about as a wee diversion I give you a little statistic – do you know that every single week in World Duty Free 100,000 bottles of fragrance are sold? 100,000 bottles of weekly!

C: Well do you know what I reckon?

J: What?

C: I think we should make it 100,001!

J: Let’s buy some more bottles!.....Now here’s a classic example, Victoria Secret, a really iconic but somehow simple brand, and there’s only one place in Great Britain that you can buy it – right here in the airport. I think that’s brilliant

J: Do you know what I could so, so live in here

C: What is that? That’s Pucci fabric, that’s Emilio Pucci! Is it a scarf?

J: It’s more of a Pucci – that’s a little fly, a little zip on a bottle of champagne

C: My goodness what is it? Veuve Clicquot Le Grande 1996 –

J: That’s immense I love that

C: Look at the fabric –

J: I have never ever seen that before anywhere else other than here today

C: Listen that is the sexiest gift, think about it, it’s got a designer fabric on its back, it’s curvaceous –

J: I totally love that

C: Right let’s get 6, I want 6

J: Get a bundle and be done with it

C: Package it up, take that

K: Brilliant well I’m loving that champagne bottle I think that’s my favourite thing I’ve ever seen at the airport, it’s really great

J: It’s absolutely gorgeous but pretty much everything – you know we wandered round and we like to think that we’re good shoppers but what we love is when we get a surprise, we wandered through the airport and we really noticed all the things that perhaps we’d miss when we dash and Reiss high street – do you know a high street brand, again huge savings for men’s fashion and stuff as well, but we had fun in the off license section –

K: It does look like fun

J: When we were looking at that champagne

K: But just quickly, when is your next video coming out, when are we going to see your next top tips?

C: Do you know it’s a really dirty job but somebody’s got to do it

K: It is tough

C: We’ll be back I think in the first week in December

K: Brilliant

C: And we’ve got a kind of guide to the shopping at that period of time but if you can’t wait for that –

K: Where is that going to be seen, where will people be able to see that –

C: You’ll see that in airports or you can see it on baa.com/shopping

K: Brilliant

J: And you can also see it on the Heathrow Express

K: Ok

C: Oh yes

J: And you can also see it in taxis

K: Oh brilliant

C: So we’re going to be all over the place

J: It’s an assault – a shopping assault across Britain

C: Exactly but we’ve also put together Christmas collection guides as well, so you know next time you’re in the airport pick up one of these –

K: Oh ok

C: And it really is one of the essential little guides, what to buy for him, what to buy for her – great little ideas for the kids. Bang up-to-date gadgets for the kids as well, and honestly this is like the bluffers guide to good taste –

K: Perfect for anyone who really struggles to think of something

C: Absolutely

K: Joules actually sent us a question “I saw those videos in the airport while waiting for a flight” which is exactly what you were saying “and it looks like you had a lot of fun making them” – well I think it was quite obvious wasn’t it –

J: We had great fun because I mean as Colin said it’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it. We spent a lot of time finding the places we’d miss when we dash, we just got to know the airport even better and the restaurants are great in there, we took advantage of all the free stuff, you know you don’t have to travel business class or first class to get those massages from Jo Malone or from Molton Brown. There’s so much to be had in there and you don’t need to spend a lot of cash

K: Brilliant. We’ve got a question from Gerry “I’ve seen those videos, how many watches and sunglasses do you two own?”

C: That is – how do you pick up on that, Gerry

K: You’ve both got lovely watches on today, I’ve already spotted those!

C: These are our indulge - Gerry I can’t believe you’re so eagle-eyed! We like to indulge in watches and in sunglasses, and it’s for the reasons that we talked about, you know sometimes you know you don’t want to break the bank totally on buying designer designer designer, especially if you’re going on holiday, if you’re lying around putting sun tan oil on you, you’re going to get sand all over the place, you know so we like to buy our signifiers, you know the visible spend, and I mean I think holiday starts when you’re in the airport and when you buy yourself that new pair of glasses

K: Where do you go first, do you have one shop that you just run to?

J: Well we’ve got a real procedure, we get through –

K: Is it a military procedure?

J: Pretty much

C: We kind of split up don’t we?

J: Well we do because if we split up we divide and we conquer twice as much –

K: “You take that aisle, I’ll take that aisle!”

J: Absolutely. We go straight to WHSmiths first of all

K: Ok

J: We do books, we do magazines, we do DVDs, we do all of that and then when we’ve taken care of what we’re going to listen to and read on the flight we then think in terms of food, so we’ll go and chill out, maybe have a glass of champagne in the champagne bar

C: Or have some caviar in the caviar house

J: Or have some caviar which is amazing. You think of – I mean airports have changed so much

K: Yes

J: I mean they’re glossy they’re pneumatic, they’re really kind of wonderfully exciting places where your senses are stimulated and it’s no longer just about arriving, checking-in, buying a pair of knickers and buying a shaver, it’s really much more than that –

K: Getting your power adapter because you forgot it

J: Yes – one of those power adapters however, it’s funny that you should say that, are sold every 3 minutes, every day

K: Well there’s a fact!

J: One power adapter. I tell you what, brimming over with –

K: We’ve got plenty more questions for you as well and its says – this is from Deke, he says “are you two really as exuberant as that when you do your own shopping?” Well that kind of ties in, you do get over-excited, off you go

C: Well you should be, I mean that’s the thing, we’re great hands-on people and that actually is the back bone of why they’ve got gift guiders there, because you actually do get a slightly higher level of service at the airport, there’s a lot of people there to attend to you, the shopper –

K: Just remind us all about them again, how do you spot a gift guider?

C: You spot a gift guider because they’ll have a badge on, with a nice picture of Colin and Justin, and they’ll be well branded –

K: Yes

C: And they’ll be in a very visible area so that they can actually deliver one-to-one personal service and these are people are hand-picked, they’re trained, they know everything there is to know about airport shopping and about the stocks there, you know so if you’ve got any questions, you want to break out of the mould, buy something totally different for someone but still get it right, these are the people to ask

J: I mean it could be something simple as you approach a gift guide and you say “my brother-in-law or my dad loves Antaeus by Chanel” which is a traditional Chanel brand from, I don’t know, 20 years back, and that gift guider will be able to say to you ok, so it’s quite an aromatic smell, it’s quite a heady, masculine smell, let’s think in terms of the other smells that are similar, Bergamote 1940s Hollywood smells like Emate by – what are they called?

C: Yves Saint Laurent

J: Yves Saint Laurent, so they’ll give you that information or you might say my mum loves scarves, are pashminas still a good buy, should we be thinking in terms of something different and the gift guiders will say tell me about your mum’s colouring, tell me about the kind of stuff she normally likes, what’s her job – they’ll get into your mind and –

K: Show them how to wear it a different way

J: Yes exactly

C: It’s like having your own Colin and Justin there because we’re hands-on people, you know we’re never embarrassed in stores, we don’t stand at the door looking around, not asking questions you know, we’re real hands-on people, I want to touch things, I want to see things, I want to look at them in different lights. I think we should all do that and that way we’re much more informed, and actually I think airports are fantastic in that you’re in an airport you know so you’re kind of in a comfort zone if you like because you’re going somewhere you’re familiar with if you’re a business person, or you’re going somewhere pleasurable because maybe you’re going on holiday, you’re relaxed so you don’t feel intimidated –

K: No

C: By the top end stores, and because they’re next door to – Chanel’s there and then there’s I don’t know there’s Hamleys or there’s Reiss or there’s WHSmiths, there’s HMV, you just think do you know what, I’m just going to have a wee happy wander – fantastic

K: And you never know what you’ll find

J: Of course and the key thing to remember is that it’s all free service, you know you’re not paying any extra for that

K: That’s the important thing to know that people aren’t having to pay through the nose for this service

J: Of course, personal shopping is a huge industry in Britain but you pay for personal shoppers, you hire somebody for a day to take you to the high street –

K: And you pay a lot

J: Yes you pay a lot. You go to the airport, you dispense with that fee. They’re there, our Colin and Justin guys will be there to walk you through that kind of minefield of interesting opportunities, and show you the best gifts and the most appropriate gifts

K: And also it takes the panic away –

J: Of course

K: Someone else is going to go right we’ll do this, we’ll do that and it will all be fine

J: Of course

K: Now we’ve only got a few more minutes left so I want to get in a few more questions, Morag wants to know “this all sounds lovely but is it just English airports like Heathrow that offer this or can we expect all these luxuries in Edinburgh or Glasgow?”

J: I mean all the airports have different levels of shopping, in Heathrow there’s just the most amazing, fantastic range of shopping. In Glasgow and Edinburgh there’s still very very good shopping at the airports but obviously the airports are smaller so proportionately the amount of shops is smaller, but you’ll have again fantastic opportunities to save money, key brands will be there, luxury brands and high street brands, but yes smaller airports so you would expect that there would be a slightly smaller amount of opportunity

C: Yes but you can check out the BAA.com/shopping website

K: See what everyone’s got

J: Course you can, and that’s a good thing as well the fact that you can go to the website before you go to the airport, check availability, check that the store’s still there, check whereabouts in the airport they are, and you can map everything out, do you know we say that – get your little army precision, sort yourself out, tell yourself you’re going to arrive at whatever time, preferably not just before you get there so you can get proper advantage of shopping, figure out what’s in stock, learn of any particular discounts so you can go straight to the places you want

C: Go on, say what you normally say

J: What’s that?

C: To plan to fail –

J: Oh yes it’s true, to fail to plan is to plan to fail, that’s another one of my mantras. It’s my only mantra that doesn’t involve mention of champagne

K: Right Davina wants to know, “I hadn’t thought of doing my Christmas shopping at the airport but can you go there without having a flight booked?”

C: You can go there but you can’t shop

K: Oh no!

C: No that’s the thing you do have to be a traveller to take advantage of the tax free savings and that’s really what we’re kind of pushing here. I mean obviously if you’re in the airport to pick up someone then there are shops that are on the public side, you know for non-travellers, but you’re not going to get the same discounts as you’re going to get if you’re flying away

K: Well it’s a good excuse to go away for a little weekend

J: Exactly, of course it is. I have a fantastic story, I can’t remember I’m so excited today I’ve forgotten if I’ve told you this, but two friends of ours, Brian and Debbie – have I told you about Debbie and Brian with their flat screen telly?

C: Yes

K: You did tell us about the flat screen telly!

C: There you are, tell us again, I never get tired of hearing it!

K: Tell us again because it was about the shop & collect and things like that?

J: Yes Debbie and Brian, 2 friends of ours and they wanted to a) go to New York and b) get a flat screen telly or a couple –

K: Before you tell us actually this actually links in with Jamie Williams question, “if Dixons are selling wide screen plasmas, how on earth do you get them on the plane?”

J: Ah very good question, is it Janie or Jane?

K: Jamie, Jamie Williams

J: Well a good question from Jamie, the deal is – like I was about to tell you with Debbie and Brian, they decided to go on holiday and get their plasmas on our advice. They booked their flights, they went to New York. In Dixons at the airport before they travelled they bought a couple of flat screen tellies –

K: A couple?

J: Yes, they’re very very affluent

C: They saved 15% on the price

K: Brilliant

J: And the money they saved on the flight really went towards the cost of their flights

K: Yes

J: Now they didn’t have to buckle them up and put them on their shoulders and put them in the hold –

K: Can you imagine?

J: Excuse me I’ll be getting on the plane in a minute with my 2 42” –

K: Can you put that in your clear plastic bags please?

J: Could you pop it up? Exactly! The deal is they’ll do one of two things for you. You can either do what’s called Shop & Collect, so you buy it and then you pick it up on the return –

K: On the way back

J: End of your journey, or for big purchases like that Dixons will actually send it to you at no extra cost

K: I like that, delivered to you for when you get back

C: You get a home delivery service

J: It’s really good

C: So imagine you touch down, you get back home, and then the next day when you’re thinking is this going to be the boring next day when I’m back, you’re feeling a bit displaced –

K: Something to look forward to

C: Lovely new big TV arrives

K: Oh I always get the post-holiday blues, I hate coming home from a holiday

J: So do I

K: So that’s something really nice to look forward to – it’s an excuse to buy something at the airport!

J: Absolutely!

K: Jo wants to know, “surely if the bargains are that good the queues at the terminals will be just as bad as they are in the high street?” Well you know –

C: Well you never know, I mean shopping is like hunting isn’t it?

K: Yes exactly

C: You’ve got to get there first

K: You can never really avoid queues anywhere really can you, but if you get there early, give yourself time

J: Of course

C: At the same time you haven’t suddenly come in from the high street, you’re not coming in from the pouring rain, soaking wet and you’re standing in a queue with loads of other damp people, you know everyone starts to get a wee bit, everyone gets a bit whiffy and you walk into one store and it’s too warm and you walk into another store and it’s too cold –

K: And you’ve got your winter coat on, loads of bags yes

C: And you take your coat of and you know you don’t have to do that, you can leave some members of the family, you can deposit all your bits and pieces with them and that’s what I always do, we just tend to – it’s like a relay, you know you’re in shop, shop, shop out, you’re in –

K: Tag shopping

C: You don’t have to trudge around with all these bags either

J: Another thing to think about as well is if you wanted to cover the amount of ground that you can do in the airport, for example at Heathrow Terminal 1 it’s huge, it’s a massive massive shopping centre effectively. If you were doing that without airports you’d be jumping from car to bus to worrying about parking –

K: Oh yes

J: From one shopping centre, going across the city to the next, and you’re stressed out. Do you know it’s all there under one roof at the airport, it’s all there to be harvested, and we do this sort of – you know we’re Christmas shopping sometimes in July –

K: Get it all done early!

J: Absolutely, we pick up stuff as we travel and we turn every business trip into a social opportunity, into a shopping opportunity – we kill two birds with one stone

K: There we go. Well Sandra wants to know “do you spoil each other with lots of presents at Christmas?”

C: Well we actually do and we’ve started shopping already, and I hope you don’t mind me saying this but Justin gets lost everywhere, honestly

J: I get lost in the front garden

C: Sometimes – actually in Heathrow I’ve had to do one of those “there’s a lost designer in the airport can he report to –“ one of those announcements because he gets lost, so I’ve actually bought Justin a TomTom navigation system, in Dixons at the airport – saved £60 on the price

K: That’s brilliant

J: We take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves

K: I like that

J: It’s a no-blinkin’ brainer, if you can go to the airport and find these levels of discounts, if you’ve saved £60 on the TomTom, if you’ve saved £40 on a handbag –

C: How many bottles of champagne is that?

J: Yes if you’ve bought yourself a whole stash of champagne for a party there’s so much money to be saved and we’ve said it before, we work hard for our money, I’m sure you work hard for your money, we want our money to work hard for us, and we put our cash to work and the airport is one of the best places to make your cash go further. Simple. Simple as that

K: And perhaps it means that you can treat people to things that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to get them?

C: But then you can get the little touches of luxury that we talked about earlier, you know when you can actually stud that into the thing so that everyone gets a nice little designer bargain and everyone feels a bit special

K: Well we like that

C: And that’s what it’s all about, shopping is about pleasure

J: Do you know I reckon we’d have a lovely day shopping with you at the airport

K: I would love it

J: We need to find a trip together for goodness sake – lunch, champagne, we’ll get all manor of hand massages and facial massages –

K: I love it

J: Deep tissue in the Rejuve – it’s going to be amazing, I can sense it

K: Definitely, it’s a date!

C: It’s almost a shame that you’ve got to fly away somewhere isn’t it?

K: Well it’s just as much of a shame that we’ve actually got to wrap up I’m afraid!

C: No

J: No

K: I want to thank everyone so much for the questions that they’ve submitted

J: Thank you, thank you very much

C: Thank you

K: And thank you two for joining us today

J: Pleasure

K: Thank you to Colin and Justin, and yes if you want to find any more information about this all you need to do is go to the website www.baa.com/shopping, if you want to look at the shopping, but also in regards to security as well for your travel. Again thank you so much

J: Thank you very much

K: And we shall see you at the next webchat, goodbye

J: See you later