Doing business in Manchester? Don't neccessarily head to the airport. Train connections are frequent from London Euston and if you are already in the city, then try heading up to Euston for regular (every 30 mins) connections to Manchester. Journey times are 2hrs 10mins and you can buy a ticket before you board on www.virgintrains.co.uk.

Money saving tip one - don't buy a fully flexible ticket. Instead, go to the ticket counter at Euston and buy a saver single or return for your journey. It's unlikely the train will be full (especially 1st class) and you will save a lot of money on your saver return.

Money saving tip two - if you are travelling for leisure (say to visit family), then you might want to try Virgin's print@home service. Following the airline's lead, you can now print off your tickets at home and ticket prices are currently greatly reduced at around £5 a single vs £30 for a normal ticket. Look for the link at the top left of the page (it's not heavily advertised as it is a trial at the moment).