Making Sense of Budget Airlines

by Iva Skoch on

Everyone talks about how great (or terrible, depending on who you ask) the budget airlines are but who has the time to figure out who flies where? Only in Europe there were about 200 budget airlines at one point–EasyJet, RyanAir, SkyEurope, GermanWings…–every country now appears to have a few.

I was just searching for some good deals on flights from Prague to Portugal and my friend suggested I try www.whichbudget.com, a site designed to help you determine which airlines fly to a particular destination. It is not limited to Europe, either. They cover 125 countries. Very helpful, I think.

So, I was able to find that Smartwings.net flies cheaply from Prague to Faro, Portugal but they don’t fly the dates I need to fly. Gotta love budget airlines! It seems they are only worth it if you are completely flexible.

(Although last week, I booked a ticket from Prague to Athens on Skyeurope.com for $40 one-way. So I shouldn’t be complaining too much.)

10 tips for smarter flying


Ultra Cheap Airfares May Be A Thing Of The Past in Europe

by Martha Edwards on

Those 1P (or better yet — FREE!) airfares you can find in England aboard Ryanair or some similar budget carrier sure are exciting after the exorbitant prices we’ve been paying ever since Air Travel became an industry. But they’re a bit deceptive, don’t you think? You don’t ever actually pay 1p. For example, I booked a flight for ???20 and when all was said and done, it ended up being ???60. And that’s before any excess baggage surcharges.

The Office of Fair Trading thinks these ultra-low prices are deceptive too, and they’ve ordered airlines to start being more upfront about their pricing. This means they’ll have to start padding their prices with the cost of non-optional fixed extras like fuel surcharges and air passenger taxes. And if they don’t comply, they’ll find themselves in court.

In all honesty, I don’t mind the low-low air fares, even if it is shady marketing. At least it makes me feel like I’m getting a deal, even if It’s only for the few precious moments before I click that dreaded ‘Calculate’ button.

Circle the Globe on Budget Airlines for just $1600

by Neil Woodburn on

With the spread of budget airlines across the globe, it’s becoming much easier and cheaper to connect them all together and circle the globe itself.

Take the example of Telegraph journalist Charles Starmer-Smith. He came up with the crazy idea of circling the globe using only budget airlines in as short amount of time as possible. The result was an eight-day, London-to-London haul that cost a mere £800 –- roughly $1600 dollars. Here is how he did it.

London to Bermuda on Zoom, £199
Bermuda to New York on JetBlue, £94
New York to Los Angeles on Southwest, £93
Los Angeles to Honolulu on Southwest, £90
Honolulu to Melbourne on Jetstar £151
Melbourne to Darwin on Virgin Blue £76
Darwin to Singapore on Tiger Airways £68
Singapore to Hong Kong on Jetstar £74
Hong Kong to London on Oasis Hong Kong £115

Wow, that is a long haul to many amazing places. Imagine spreading that out over a three month holiday! Don’t you just love budget airlines?

One bit of advice for Charles Starmer-Smith, however. Head east instead of west next time and you will add another day to your life just as Phileas Fogg did.

For more insight on his round-the-world travels, click here.

Budget Airlines and their $10 Tickets now in America!

by Neil Woodburn on

Finally!

After years of budget airlines ferrying Europeans around the continent for laughably cheap rates, Americans are about to be treated to the same.

Ultra-low-cost carriers, as they are now being called, charge rates for as little as a penny and then make up for it by selling drinks, food, pillows, blankets, seat upgrades, fees for checked baggage, and more. Tickets can only be booked online, and advertisers are free to plop their logos on everything from the seatback tray to the tail fin.

According to a Chicago Tribune article by Peter Pae, the vanguard of the ultra-low-cost carriers is represented by two new airlines on American soil; Spirit and Skybus.

I spent some time checking out both sites and didn’t find any of the penny tickets, but I did find some sweet deals.

Skybus, for example, currently only flies to one location out of my hometown of Los Angeles: Columbus, Ohio. One-way rates are running about $60-110 dollars in the summer. But, if I want to suck it up and fly there in November, I can do so for just $10 each way (plus taxes, of course).

Spirit, on the other hand, flies to about 20 destinations from Los Angeles, some of which are even in the exotic Caribbean or Central America. Unfortunately, I did not find any $10 tickets, but what I did find was much cheaper than any major airline would charge.

Spirit and Skybus are still very new and will continue to grow and open up new routes.

In the meantime, I might just consider flying to Columbus for $10. Why? Why not!