Flying Within Europe
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| Budget flights can save you time and money, but beware of luggage restrictions and penalties. |
By Rick Steves
For most of my traveling life, I never would have considered flying point-to-point within Europe. It simply wasn't affordable. But today that kind of thinking is so 20th century.
With the deregulation of airlines and the proliferation of extremely competitive discount carriers, suddenly Europe's vagabonds are jet-setters. More new no-frills airlines take off every year, and even some of the well-established carriers are following their lead. Before buying a long-distance train ticket, first visit a few budget airlines' websites (or check with your travel agent) to compare prices. You might be surprised.
Flight vs. Train?
Flying can save both time and money, especially on long journeys. A cheap flight can help a light sleeper avoid spending the night on a rattling train. In fact, the availability of inexpensive flights is changing the way travelers plan their itineraries. A decade ago, it would be folly to squeeze Italy and Norway into a single two-week trip. Today that plan is easy and cheap.
But if you're focusing on a single country or region, and connecting destinations that are closer together, the train is still more practical. Europe's high-speed train network is getting faster and faster, covering even long distances in a snap. From London to Paris, the Eurostar Chunnel train can be faster than flying when you consider the train zips you directly from downtown to downtown (www.ricksteves.com/eurostar). Train and car travel, unlike flights, keep you close to the scenery, to Europe, and to Europeans. Ground transportation is also less likely to be disrupted by bad weather, mechanical problems, or scheduling delays.
Budget Airlines
For the best deals, consider one of Europe's new low-cost airlines. Most operate user-friendly websites with interactive flight maps and straightforward online booking. To get the lowest fares, book long in advance. The cheapest seats sell out fast (aside from occasional surprise sales), leaving the pricier fares for latecomers.
Most budget airlines offer flights between major European cities for about $100, but you can find some remarkable deals if your timing is right. A tour guide on my staff recently booked an easyJet flight from London to Amsterdam for less than $50. Ryanair routinely flies from London to any one of dozens of European cities for about $20. And you might occasionally find it-must-be-a-typo promotional flights for less than €1. Even after adding in taxes and airport fees, these flights are a great value.
While new budget airlines are continually being launched (see below), a handful of them have been around long enough to be considered old-timers, including easyJet and Ryanair. But there are plenty of other options. The best strategy is to select an airline that uses either your starting point or your ending point as a hub. For example, for a trip from Dublin to Oslo, I'd look first at Ryanair, which has a hub in Dublin. Several Britain-based "leisure airlines" specialize in connecting the British Isles to Spain, Portugal, and other popular holiday destinations in southern Europe. If this fits your itinerary, try Monarch.
Not sure where to start? Some websites search routes on multiple (but not necessarily all) cheap airlines: Skyscanner.net is the best, but you can also try Mobissimo, wegolo, and WhichBudget. Because some of these sites focus on budget airlines, they can miss just-as-cheap promotional offers on major carriers; to find the right connection, you may need to search several sites. Other budget-airline information sites — which have destination maps and recent airline news — include flycheapo and attitude Travel.
Europe by Air is another good budget resource (tel. 888-321-4737). They work with 20 different European airlines, offering flights between 170 European cities in 30 countries. Using their "flight pass" system, each coupon for a nonstop flight costs $99 plus tax (which can range from $50 to $90). Note that if you make a connection through one of Europe by Air's many hubs, you pay double — $99 for each flight to and from the hub.
When exploring low-cost airlines, be creative. For example, let's say you need to get from Amsterdam to Rome. After a quick search, you may not find quite the flight you need, but you discover that a low-budget airline flies from Brussels to Rome for $130). It makes good travel sense to take a three-hour train ride from Amsterdam to Brussels ($53 second-class) to catch the two-hour flight to Rome. The train from Amsterdam to Rome would have wasted 18 hours of your valuable vacation time, and cost you $300. The train-plus-flight connection gets you there in a third the time (including transfers) for nearly half the price.
All of these low-cost European airlines offer one-way flights without a cost increase or penalty. Consider linking cheap flights, either with the same or different airlines. But be very careful to leave plenty of time for the connection — since you're on your own if the delay of one flight causes you to miss another flight. This is especially risky if that "other flight" is your transatlantic flight back to the US. If you're using a budget carrier to connect to your US-bound flight, allow time to absorb delays — maybe even an overnight. Advance check-in deadlines are strictly enforced.
It seems these cheap flights are here to stay — and it's not just tourists taking advantage of the low fares. On a recent easyJet flight from Paris to Nice, I was the only American on a plane filled with European business travelers.
What's the Catch?
With cheaper airfares come new pitfalls. These budget tickets are usually nonrefundable and nonchangeable. Many airlines take only online bookings, so it can be hard to track down a person to talk to if problems arise. (Read all the fine print carefully, so you know what you're getting in to.) Flights are often tightly scheduled to squeeze more flying time out of each plane, which can exaggerate the effects of delays. Deadlines are strictly enforced: If they tell you to arrive at the check-in desk an hour before the flight, and you show up 10 minutes late, you've just missed your flight — and have to buy a new ticket for the next flight.
Since they're not making much money on your ticket, budget airlines look for other ways to pad their profits — bombarding you with ads, selling you overpriced food and drinks on board (nothing's included), and gouging you with expensive baggage restrictions. For instance, Ryanair charges a $24 fee for each checked bag (less if you pay when you book your ticket). If your checked bag weighs more than 15 kilograms (about 33 pounds), you'll also pay $14 per extra kilo. To avoid unpleasant surprises, read the baggage policy carefully before you book.
Another potential headache: Budget airlines sometimes use obscure airports. For example, Ryanair's England hub is Stansted Airport, one of the farthest of London's airports from the city center. Ryanair's flights to Frankfurt actually take you to Hahn, 75 miles away. Sometimes you may wind up in a different (though nearby) country: For example, a flight advertised as going to Copenhagen, Denmark, might actually go to Malmö, Sweden, while a flight bound for Vienna, Austria, might land in Bratislava, Slovakia. These are still safe and legal airstrips, but it can take money and time to reach them by public transportation.
Budget Flights on Major Airlines
Faced with all this new competition, some major European airlines (including British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, Alitalia, SAS, KLM, LOT, and Croatia Airlines) are getting into the discount-airfare game. In some cases, they simply sell a few seats on certain flights at a deep discount. In other cases, you must buy your transatlantic flight from the airline in order to take advantage of its intra-Europe budget fares. But it can be worth an extra $100 for an overseas flight in order to save on other flights within Europe. In some cases, you purchase an "air pass" (for $300–400) — a set of three or more flight coupons, each good for one nonstop flight. Be aware that with any air pass, a flight will "cost" two coupons if you need two connecting flights to reach your destination. Check with a travel agent for details.
Budget Airlines Within Europe
These are just a few of the many budget airlines taking to the European skies. To discover more, check out www.skyscanner.net, or simply use Google.com to search for "cheap flights" plus the cities you're interested in.
| Airline | Contact Information | Hub(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus | US tel. 800-474-7424 |
Dublin (and other Irish airports) |
| Air Berlin | US tel. 1-866-266-5588 |
Multiple German cities |
| bmi (and its subsidiary, bmi baby) | US tel. 800-788-0555 |
London (and other British airports) |
| Brussels Airlines | US tel. 516/740-5200 |
Brussels |
| Cimber | Multiple Scandinavian cities, including Copenhagen, Oslo |
|
| easyJet | British tel. 0870-600-0000 |
Multiple cities including London, Berlin, Paris, Liverpool, Geneva, Basel & Milan |
| Germanwings | Multiple German cities |
|
| Lot Polish Airlines | US tel. 212/789-0970 |
Warsaw |
| RyanAir | Irish toll tel. 0818/303-030 |
London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Shannon, Brussels, Frankfurt, Milan, Pisa, Rome, Stockholm, Barcelona |
| SkyEurope | Bratislava, Prague, Vienna |
|
| SmartWings | From the US, dial 011-420-255-700-827 |
Prague |
| Spanair | Spanish tel. 902/131-415 |
Madrid, Barcelona |
| Transavia | Dutch toll tel. 0900-0737 |
Amsterdam, Rotterdam |
| TUIfly | German toll tel. 01805-757-510 |
Multiple German cities |
| Vueling | Barcelona, Madrid |
|
| WizzAir | Polish toll tel. 0703/503-010 |
Budapest, Warsaw, Katowice (near Kraków) |
More airlines pop up all the time. For other options, consider airBaltic (Baltic capitals), Air One (Rome, Milan, and Torino), Baboo (Geneva), Blue1 (Helsinki and Stockholm), Blue Air (Bucharest), clickair (Barcelona), Condor (Germany), Estonian Air (Tallinn), Flybe (southern England), Helvetic.com (Zürich), NIKI (Vienna), Norwegian Air Shuttle, (Oslo and Bergen), Thomson (Britain), VLM (London City Airport), Widerøe (Oslo), and XL Airways (Frankfurt and Paris; site in German and French only). |
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Updated for 2009. For lots more tips, check out our best-selling Europe Through the Back Door travel skills guidebook.