Buying Low Cost Airfare in Europe
Those planning to travel Europe by rail should seriously consider taking advantage of the continent's budget airlines. Although trains have offer the ability to see the countryside, to move around freely, and to eat, drink, and (sometimes) smoke while moving, flying provides a much cheaper alternative for breeching long distances. The growth of the budget airline in Europe has made air travel sometimes even cheaper than bus travel.
What is a Budget Airline?
Budget airlines run on strict budgets. The trend caught on big in Europe, beginning with London-based Easy Jet, but now most major European carriers run a low cost airline that operates under a separate name. The cheaper pricetag comes at the sacrifice of reduced bonus services commonly referred to as "frills." This means no reserved seating, no drinks, and no refunds. Although those accustomed to the Western phenomenon of forming a single-file line will be caught off-guard by the chaotic mad dash involved in boarding a European budget plane, Americans will not miss the lack of frills as increasing operating costs in the United States have translated to retractions of the free pretzals and sodas.
How to Get the Best Price
The price attached to budget airfare operates on a first-come, first-serve basis. To guarantee the best price, buy as far ahead of time as possible. Ryan Air, a British carrier, regularly runs its first few tickets at 0.01 euro, leaving the customer to pay nothing more than the taxes (which can run up to 15 euros or so). Once a flight starts filling up, they can get just as expensive as a conventional carrier.
The day of the flight also makes a difference. Luckily for many travelers, budget airlines do not slavishly follow the conventional pattern of pricing tickets higher for weekend travel. It is often possible to secure cheap flights over the weekend, while a Wednesday departure may skyrocket. Flexibility with dates can offer major savings.
The other major factor in getting a low price on a budget airline is to use one of its frequently run routes. To fully take advantage of this, customers need to get to know the industry a bit. Since all countries have their own airlines, the destination a traveler leaves from or arrives to offers a comparative advantage. For instance, those planning on traveling from within Spain or from Spain to Italy might be able to get a better deal by flying the Spanish carrier Click Air than the better known English carriers. As a rule, however, the English companies dominate the market and can often upstage local carriers in their own markets.
Cheap USA Flights
According to Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, the budget airline might soon set up a new operation to offer travellers low-cost flights between the USA and Europe. Cut-price tickets on routes such as London-New York, Dublin-Baltimore or Frankfurt-Providence could be on sale for as low as $12 within the next two years making for the cheapest USA flights in history.
Ryanair has already made a huge success for itself in Ireland, Britain and around Europe by offering cheap flight prices between many European destinations. American travellers would be astonished to see some of the bargain prices available when Ryanair has its sales and promotions, sometimes with flights for as little as 1p or 99p. Even with the current poor exchange rate, that still means you can sometimes fly from London to Cork or Dublin, or to one of Ryanair's other European destinations such as Barcelona, Rome or Venice, for a fare as low as $2 or sometimes even 2 cents, plus taxes.
Michael O'Leary predicts that by 2009, Ryanair will be carrying 70 million passengers between 23 airports around Europe and cheap USA flights are definitely on their radar. The airline has apparently been approached by a number of airports in the USA with a view to bringing in budget flights and opening up the European-American routes to greater competition. Part of Ryanair's European success has involved using smaller airports, sometimes less convenient for the cities being served - a fact for which they have been criticised although many budget travellers don't mind as long as there's a convenient transport connection with the city.
The Ryanair announcement about possible cheap USA flights comes as another low-cost airline, Zoom, announces that it will soon be starting cheap flights between London Gatwick and New York JFK. The budget flights will begin June 21 with a daily service, and tickets will start at £129 one way, including all taxes and fees. Zoom will have a flexible booking service in the same way that British no-frills operator easyJet does, with ticket prices varying according to demand and how far ahead the passengers book.
Unlike Ryanair, Zoom is offering a 'full-frills' service with a choice of economy or Premium economy seats (for an extra £99), designated seating and a full meals service. There is also no 'must stay a Saturday night' restriction. Passengers can also book one-way tickets, and make reservation changes for a minimal fee.
Zoom is based in Canada and for the last three years has been offering cut-price tickets and regular flights to Canada not only from London Gatwick but from other British airports: Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and Cardiff. The Zoom route map also has flights between London Gatwick and Bermuda. Zoom estimates that it is offering savings of up to 70% on the fares offered by the bigger transatlantic airlines, such as British Airways, Virgin and the main US carriers.
The new Zoom flights will operate from Gatwick's South terminal and Terminal 4 at New York's JFK Airport. Flights will leave London at lunchtime and arrive in New York in the early afternoon. From New York JFK the flights will leave in the early morning, arriving London Gatwick about 6am the next day. At first there will be five direct flights a week, and two more off-peak flights travelling via Bermuda. Travelers can only expect cheaper flights to and from the USA as competition increases.
How to Find Cheap Flights to Russia
Yes, travel to Russia can be expensive. The fees for Russian visas are high, as are plane tickets between the United States and Russia. There are some things that travelers can do to find cheap flights to Russia (although "cheap" is of course a relative term).
Plane tickets from the U.S. to Russia are more than $1,000 for economy class seats, but that price can usually be cut by at least a couple of hundred dollars by shopping around and following a few insider tips to finding cheaper flights.
Comparison Shop for Cheap Flights to Russia
By now, most travelers know that comparison shopping through online flight ticket companies is one of the keys to finding cheap flights. A lesser-known fact: after finding the best price on a plane ticket, travelers should go directly to the airline website instead of buying it through the flight comparison quote site. Most (but not all) airline quote websites charge a fee in addition to the price of the flight.
Airlines that Have Cheap Tickets to Russia
Sometimes, flight comparison websites don't list all airlines. The following airlines often have good deals and travelers to Russia should go directly to these sites to check out prices.
Delta Airlines
Aeroflot Russian Airlines
AirBaltic
Lufthansa
Finding the Right Russian Airport
Domodedovo in Moscow is the busiest airport in Russia, and travelers may find that by flying into that airport instead of Sheremetyevo, the other main Russian airport, they will save some money on their Russian plane tickets. Even if travelers want to visit St. Petersburg as their main destination, they should still fly into Moscow because it's cheaper. Plus, St. Petersburg is just a train ride away from Moscow and train tickets are as low as $15 U.S. dollars per person.
Finding the Right U.S. Airport to Fly to Russia
Atlanta, Georgia is a huge hub and many cheap flights to Russia fly out of there. If a traveler checks on flight comparison sites, they may very well see that the cheapest ones have layovers or stopovers in Atlanta. Travelers should check airline prices from their closest city, to Atlanta, and then to Moscow to see if that's cheaper than simply flying out of their closest city.
LAX in Los Angeles and JFK in New York may also have cheaper flights headed to Russia.
Savvy travelers will know that they need to set up alerts for when deals come through from airlines selling discount flights to Russia. People can set up these kind of alerts through Kayak.com and many other airline comparison websites.
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