Okay, they might not be more than flying buses, cutting corners with no assigned seating, in-flight entertainment, or even free food — but transatlantic low cost airlines have now made the European accessible.
When you think transatlantic flight you’re probably thinking London, where most in-bound planes land at either Heathrow or sometimes Gatwick. To continue onto mainland Europe on a no-frills carrier like Ryanair or easyJet, you’ll need to factor in about five hours of schlepping between airports plus the additional expenses as they mostly fly out of two other airports - Luton or Stansted.
But there is another option. Aer Lingus has reworked their prices and now offer inexpensive direct transatlantic flights to Ireland from Chicago or Boston for as little as $149 aerlingus.com. FlyGlobeSpan offer a JFK to Liverpool flight for $99 flyglobespan.com.
But don’t limit yourself to the UK, think outside the box. Europe is the Mecca of no-frills airlines and connections between major cities is inexpensive.
Spain for example - an Air Plus Comet round-trip ticket out of NYC directly to Madrid will cost you $238 airplususa.com. Or if it’s one of Germany big cities you’re heading to fly Condor from the US or Canadian for $292 condor.de. Italy has Eurofly who could bring you in from NYC to Rome for $239 euroflyusa.com.
From these European bases you can hopscotch across the Continent using numerous el cheapo airlines whose tickets are all priced one-way, with no surcharges.
Currently UK based Ryanair and easyJet are the largest no-frills carriers with the widest destination network, with Ryanair coming in the cheapest and offering, for example, flights from Barcelona to London for under $8, or Hamburg to Milan for less than $15. Their cost cutting tactics are not too inconvenient - no food and onboard entertainment for a couple of hours never hurt anyone.
So what’s the catch? Although their fares are shockingly low, travelling on Europe's growing crop of no-frillers demands both negligible expectations and loads of patience.
· There’s no such thing as a free lunch, right? In this case, there’s no lunch at all. So pack your own.
· Low cost equal’s low quality - including the perfunctory customer care of the crew, as taught at all the MacDonalds School’s of customer services around the world.
· Their draconian baggage weight limits and the extortionate fees charged if you go over your 15 or 20kg allowance.
· No-frills seating is generally first-come, first-served. When you check in, you will be issued with a boarding pass. These are numbered in order - the first check-in will receive number one, passenger check-in two will receive the second number etc. This way the first person checked in will be the first person to board the plane and select a seat. Well, that’s how it’s meant to work.
· The hours they tend to fly at are the least popular one’s since they are the cheapest time-slots at the airports.
· The budget brigades fly mostly out of secondary airports outside major cities. So be sure to check out your airport carefully - distance from your location, time to get there, cost. Ryanair's Frankfurt flights, for example, actually land 62 miles away in Hahn.
· The airport’s check-in ritual is tight on time and it’s recommend that you present yourself no less than two hours before departure. Those passengers who arrive after the check-in desk has closed will forfeit their seat and not receive a refund or transfer to a later flight.
· Even though Europe’s budget airlines don't charge a premium for booking a one-way flight, their point-to-point route structure means you’ll need to cart your luggage with you.
· In Europe you may also find that few members of the ground crew speak English.
· If you cancel your flight you can forget about a refund.
· If the no-friller cancels your flight as a result of extraordinary circumstances, they’ll not compensate you any other than providing a re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity. Or, if your flight is delayed for more than one hour you can either transfer to another flight to the same destination or cancel your seat and receive a credit.
· Other than airport taxes, some low-costers tag on additional amounts onto your fare like a credit card fee and a baggage handling fee.
· It seldom goes wrong but when it does it could cost you a small fortune and ruin your vacation, so there is no question about taking out travel insurance.
Low cost airlines are eating into the bloated bellies of the corporate giants who have been overcharging us for decades. It's a brave new world of travelling pioneers out there. So come to Europe and partake in the Continent’s pleasures!
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