We always fly with emirates. Okay you have to transit in Dubai, but its a good place to buy your duty free, much cheaper than uk. There is a flight which leaves manchester at 1pm or 2pm, depending on time of year, arrive dubai around midnight local time, flight to bombay departs around 4am which gets you there at 8.30am. Jet, Jet Lite, Indian Airlines all have flights to goa around 12.30. There is a bus from the international terminal to the domestic which runs approx every 45mins.

Check BA - we got a good deal with them in October.

Well, thats a start , thanks Hapi and Fiona, I'll get on to those.

Emirates is the one we use now, as the convenience of flying direct from Glasgow to Dubai is a big plus. It's legroom of 34" is 3" more than B.As miserly 31" which is a big factor if you are tall. Chater flights put their prices up about £40 to £50 for every extra week you stay, so it quickly comes as dear as scheduled.
The down side is that with the exception of using Jet, the vast majority of scheduled flights leave in the middle of the night, and the last flights from Goa get into Mumbai early evening, meaning a long hang about at the airport. We go to a hotel for a few hours but it adds to the cost. An alternative is, if you hav'nt visited Mumbai, is to take an early flight up, and do a days tour of the city which fills in the time to a certain extent. Alan

hi rokerender. just go charter yes a little bit more expensive and the messing about in mumbia. we have done it both ways and for what you save its no worth it ,we picked up 5 weeks charter £580 worked out the same as scheduled no messing about .....toe

Charter may be quicker but if you come from Scotland, Wales or Ireland it loses its attraction. we once flew from Scotland to Gatwick and then forked out £600 for an eight week Flt.Only. We flew with Monarch and to this day I cant believe I was mug enough to pay that kind of money for the Monarch experience. Now I fly with Emirates and actually enjoy the stress free journey, and as a bonus I'm home about 90 mins. after landing in Glasgow Alan

After last November I said I would never fly with Monarch again,so I will look into Emirates and take your advice. We live Chester-le Street, County Durham so its either Gatwick or Manchester. Emirates are now flying from Newcastle so I'll check their flights.Thanks

Coming back emirates have a flight that leaves in the morning, we stay in bombay the night before and arrive at the airport fresh and relaxed. Gets you into manchester around 6.30pm.

Check out sri lankan airlines - they are partners with emirates. They fly from Heathrow to Goa via Colombo which means you miss out bombay!!! I've flown to Goa with Emirates (excellent), Sri Lankan (Good), BA (excellent) and Virgin (never again - though prefer it to charter flight and it does go direct to bombay).
Sri lankan will put you up in a hotel in colombo for FREE if your connecting flight to Goa is more than 8 hrs...nice hotel too!!
GFF xx