In recent years, low-cost airlines (also called low cost or discount) in Europe. Unlike conventional companies, one-way journeys are not much more expensive than return journeys.
These companies undergo the same security and quality controls as the so-called "classic" companies.
Tips for getting good prices
These few tips can help you save some more precious money on your trip.
Book during the clearance sales
Some companies regularly organize sales on available seats. This often takes place during slack periods such as winter and you can do some really great business! You can find free flights and you will only have to pay the airport taxes. For this, it is recommended to subscribe to the newsletter of the companies to know the promotions from the beginning of these. It also happens that companies such as Ryanair sell seats at a loss with a "symbolic" price and without airport taxes. However, these prices do not apply to all flights or all of the company's routes.
Book in advance
The cheapest places are often the first places available (yield management system), so do not hesitate to plan ahead (6 months and more). On the other hand, if your departure is still far away and that there is no really good price, you can wait for a promotion and hope to find your flight cheaper.
Price wars
If several companies share the same routes, it is very likely that they will wage a price war, and this will be to your advantage. So do not hesitate to use a search engine such as Kayak or SkyScanner to enhance your search.
Know the lines
Make sure you know the lines that serve the destination you want in order to be able to compare the services of the companies. With the significant development of low cost airlines, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know who serves which city. In addition, the companies low-cost operate a lot of seasonal flights, i.e. the service is not operated all year round.
Common practices
Airports
Be sure to control the airports where you board and land, as these are not always located in the destination city, but may be nearby (for example, Beauvais is located one hour by bus from Paris (16 €, from Porte Maillot), or Charleroi for Brussels, Bergamo for Milan or Pisa for Florence). There are usually shuttles to reach the city of your destination, but this is an additional cost that can sometimes be significant.
Services on board
Generally, all services on board planes are chargeable. Count around 5 € for a sandwich and 3 € for a hot drink. Some companies still offer cold drinks.
For some time now, checked baggage has become chargeable in some companies. It is cheaper to book online when purchasing your flight, than at the airport.
Reservations
Reservations with these companies are made either by Internet or by phone (with additional charges) and you will not have paper tickets, only a reservation number to print and keep with you. Be careful if you use the services of an intermediary site (commonly called "SkyScraper"), additional costs are often invoiced, it is preferable to book on the company's site directly. In addition, some companies such as Ryanair require that you have your boarding pass with you at the airport; otherwise, the company will charge you a fee.
Change flight
Most companies give you the option of changing flights, at a significant cost (to which is added the difference in ticket prices).
List of companies
- Aer Lingus – a company Irish
- AirBerlin – based in Germany
- Flybaboo – the second Swiss company based in Geneva
- Blu express – a company italian
- EasyJet – dessert theEurope and has domestic flights in France
- GermanWings – flights departing fromGermany
- Iceland Express – towards theIceland
- Ryanair – dessert allEurope
- Vueling – a company spanish
- WizzAir – specialized inEastern Europe
- Norwegian – Norwegian company for Scandinavia and allEurope
- Transavia – a Dutch company (subsidiary of AirFrance-KLM) bound for Western Europe and part of the Maghreb
Price Comparators
- Offers low cost Blog gathering the latest offers from companies low cost and promotions from traditional companies
- Rimibi : Fast and efficient comparison of plane tickets, hotels, car rental
- Low Cost Ticket Flight comparator low cost
- Bourse-des-Vols.com : search engine for low-cost dry flights. Fact sheets on airlines.
- web-libre.org : Airlines which have opted for attractive pricing adapted to any type of budget.
- comparator-vols.net : Practical guide to smart bookings - Presentation, information and opinions on the various tour operators and online flight comparators
- Jetcost.com : Highly efficient real-time flight ticket comparison engine
- Voyageons.fr : 3,000 flights low-costEuropean s presented in an original way
- i-Avion.com : Online flight price comparison tool allowing you to compare the price of flights on several sites simultaneously
- Plane tickets Plane tickets and flight schedules
- openjet.com : Search engine for the cheapest flights between 91 cities
- Sprice : search engine for flights, hotels, stays, vehicle rentals. Availabilities and rates verified.
- skyscanner.fr : Airline ticket comparator allowing you to find flights even without knowing your departure date or destination.
- lowcostairlines.org : list of more than 54 low cost airlines in Europe and around the world
- attitudetravel.com : country by country map of the companies, as well as information
- GoLowCost.fr : flight search engine low cost
- Skyvol.fr Flight search engine low cost
- Flights-Resa.com : Real time flight search engine on the internet to book your plane ticket. Compare over 600 Airlines around the world.
- MyNuage.fr : Comparison of flights, hotels and stays in real time, and travel community]
- eDreams.fr : Comparator of cheap flights, hotels, cheap stays.
- ComparateurDeVoyages.com : Travel price comparison engine (plane tickets, stays, hotels). Immediate comparison result by just clicking on the name of the destination.
- Travel Comparison : Airlines ranking
- liligo.fr : Instant travel price comparison, real-time plane s including all players including companies low cost.
- partonsdiscount.fr : Search engine specializing in travel. It allows you to instantly compare thousands of charter or scheduled flight offers among thousands of negotiated rates and on more than 500 airlines.
