Norwegian Air: US to Europe BUDGET PRICES

They work exactly like introductory cable service - - cheap as hell for the first couple months and jumping to match the competition afterwards.

Norwegian doesn't serve a lot of places, so you'd also have to make your own way to their departure cities, which could be another big chunk of change. You'd also have to worry about missed connections since, if he flights weren't booked as a single event, you'd be screwed if the connecting arrival were late.

If you can still find six hundred bucks round trip tickets to anywhere on the continent, you might want to consider snapping them up.

Ed's right. Introductory prices are just that - introductory. Once the airline has been "introduced," they raise the fares. So no, you won't see them again on Norwegian.

$600 is still an extremely good fare to Europe. I wouldn't complain about it - I'd grab it.

I kept my eyes out, and spotted a $728 fare the end of March from Atlanta to Budapest and Prague to Atlanta. Not far off that $600 above. In this case, they mentioned a one day airfare sale in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and on ClarkHoward.com.

And no, I don't expect to ever see any of those $200ish sale fares like I've had 3-4 times in the past.

U.S.-Europe airfares are controlled by supply and demand within three groups of airline partnerships. And they're getting better all the time at filling up airplanes in peak travel months--at very high prices. There are a few U.S. airports with budget air carriers, however most of us travelers are not close enough to take advantage of the bargain basement prices.

Thank you for the responses! David, what are these bargain, basement flights you wrote about? I would like to return to Europe in September (my friend and I have been traveling Europe for just under a year now) to see some friends. These friends are in Portugal. Are there any cheap air companies operating out of the the East coast in the US to Europe other than Norwegian Air?

Jo-Icelandair recently started serving Denver, CO, offering flights to Reykjavic, from which you can continue on to other destinations in Europe. They suggest that you might even want to stay for a few days in between, and visit Iceland.

I haven't taken one of their flights, but they've been popular here in Colorado. I see they fly out of New York City and Boston, too. They won't be as low as $400 or even $600 round trip, but might be an option to explore.

Icelandair does a good job if you're willing to change in Reykjavik. Narrow-body jets, you have to buy your meals or bring them yourself, but you can save quite a bit over nonstops. They fly from JFK and Boston, into lots of northern European airports via Reykjavik. If you're going to a Schengen country, you get your customs and immigration clearance in Reykjavik, a fast efficient process, so you don't have to deal with that at your destination. And, as the previous poster noted, you can stop over in Iceland for one or more days without additional airfare. They have hotel and tour packages that look attractive.

I live in Florida, which is apparently a hub of sorts for Norwegian Air. I'm going to the UK in September so am on the look out for cheap flights. I can from Fort Lauderdale to Copenhagen for $214 US, so I'm contemplating that flight and using a cheap flight on another low cost carrier to get to the UK. But, as others have mentioned here, I'm a bit worried about missing the connection if Norwegian Air has a late flight. They also go into Orly in Paris for $292 so maybe I'll do that with a trip on the Eurostar.

Pay attention to the baggage weight limits. For Norwegian, they were 20 KG rather than the standard 23 kg. We had to unload some heavy items to get under that 20KG. They were just fine besides that. Also, we experienced "weighing our own baggage" kiosks and machines. Maybe that is the future.