Getting the Most Out of Low Cost Airlines

April 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Low Cost AirlinesOne huge difference when travelling in Europe as opposed to the US are all of the options when it comes to low-cost airlines such as RyanAir, EasyJet, Wizz Air, and a whole slew of others.

These just don’t exist in the US — with round-trip tickets for some flights as cheap as $20 or $30! — but you will need to be careful and look before you leap when booking a flight on a low cost airline, as those rock-bottom prices for flights can come with a lot of strings attached.

Below are some simple tips and general considerations for travel on low cost airlines such as RyanAir, which can save you an enormous amount of hassle and money in the long run:

  • Travel light: If you’re a solo traveler or backpacker who hates checking huge suitcases and travels light with just a carry-on bag or backpack, low-cost airlines are a godsend for you. If you’re traveling with a family or a wife that feels naked without a suitcase large enough for even Noah’s needs, you should likely avoid low-cost airlines like the plague.

One reason the airlines offer those low fares is by restricting you to just one small carry-on, which often must weigh 10 kg or less (and 6 kg or less on some). If you check a bag, boom, the ticket price jumps up; if the bag is 20 kg or more, boom, the price jumps up again.

Some airlines such as RyanAir are also very Soup Nazi-esque about enforcing the one carry-on item rule, and they consider basically anything in your hands — a purse, a laptop bag, a shopping bag — as one item, in addition to any typical carry-on roller bag or backpack. If you can’t consolidate it into one bag then boom, they not only charge you for an item of luggage but tack on extra fees for checking it at the gate.

Be sure to account for baggage fees when pricing tickets, as those extra costs can dramatically increase the fare price. In some cases it’s still a better deal to check a bag on a low cost carrier than to fly with a traditional carrier, but be sure to go ahead and pay the extra baggage fee when booking your flight.

Many low cost airlines will tack on additional fees if you booked a flight with no checked luggage but turn up at check-in with a bag to check; ditto for extra fees if you paid to check a bag of 20 kg or less but try to check-in with a bag over 20 kg, as you pay the added amount for checking the larger bag plus an extra fee on top of that.

  • Print Ahead: One annoying thing about RyanAir and many others is that they charge a ridiculous extra fee if you don’t pre-print your boarding pass yourself; I like RyanAir in general but this one always drives me nuts, just on general principles.

You’ve paid for your ticket but if you turn up at the RyanAir desk at the airport and ask to have your boarding pass printed, it costs an extra 40 euros/pounds! Just to print a wee little paper boarding pass, like every other airline manages to do for free. They call this a “Boarding Pass Reissue Fee” and claim that fare costs would be higher if they didn’t do this; various courts have deemed this practice illegal but they’re still at it while their appeals are being heard.

Since it isn’t always convenient or possible to print boarding passes at some hotels you may be staying at, be sure to pre-print all the boarding passes you’ll need for your flights on a low-cost carrier, even printing a duplicate set just to be safe as otherwise it can be insanely expense to get the passes printed at the airport.

  • Drink and Eat Up: You’ll pay exorbitant prices for everything on a low-cost flight, even for just a glass of water. Fair enough, as I’m fine with the fact that the guy guzzling 8 euro beers is keeping the cost of my flight down, just make sure you fill up your own tank at the airport before the flight.
RyanAir and others also forbid you from bringing hot beverages onto the flight, so don’t think you’re being smart by grabbing a coffee before you hop on as they’ll make you finish it or leave it at the boarding gate.

  •  Know Where You’re Landing: This sounds dumb but it’s a major consideration when booking with a low-cost carrier and where many people go astray. Low-cost carriers often fly into smaller airports outside of major metropolitan areas due to the lower fees there, so you’ll need to factor in the extra travel cost and hassle of traveling 30 km (or even more in some cases) to get to your actual destination.
RyanAir flights to Venice are a great example. You find a very low fair to get to Venice using the RyanAir website, jump up and down in excitement, book it, and land in Venice, ready to hop into a gondola. Except, umm, you’re actually landing in Treviso, with is 30 km (about 19 miles) outside of Venice.
It’s not the end of the world as you can take various inexpensive buses that run regularly to Venice (and even buy the bus ticket during your RyanAir flight) and many savvy travelers do just that and still end up saving loads of money, but it’s something you should be aware of when booking the flight, and a tidbit that’s not always readily apparent on the RyanAir site.
Always make sure you do a little research and factor in the added cost of where low-cost airlines actually fly to and how much it will cost to get to the city where you’re traveling to; it may still be a great deal when adding in taxi/bus costs but it’s something that shoudl always be factored in.

  • Know Thy Airlines:  Many low-cost airlines aren’t part of travel networks/agencies like CheapAir, Priceline, or Skyscanner so you’ll often have to manually check their website for fares and prices. They’re also often limited as to where they fly, so you may need to book your trip in two different legs on two different carries.
If we want to travel from Malta to Prague on a low-cost carrier, it’s not possible, as neither RyanAir or EasyJet offer direct flights from Malta to Prague. RyanAir, though, does fly to Eindhoven in Holland, and Wizz Air flies from Eindhoven to Prague, so a little planning and flexibility in travel dates can produce a very cheap flight for us going Malta > Eindhoven > Prague on two different low cost airlines.
It’s rare that the flights match up well, though, so when we do this we’ll often stay a night or two in the middle destination, which does then tack on hotel and food costs. It’s still often cheaper that way than flying on a traditional carrier like Air Malta or Lufthansa direct from Malta to Prague, plus we get to see more of the world.

This approach is also very useful when flying longer distances such as from Europe to the US, as we often save hundreds of dollars on flights by booking a cheap one-way RyanAir flight from Malta to Dublin, then booking with a traditional carrier from Dublin to the US, as the flights from major hubs like Dublin or London or Frankfurt are almost always much cheaper than if searching for flights from Malta to the US.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Travel Tips

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