Are Budget Airlines worth it?

Maybe. Maybe not. How much luggage, each?. What sizes and weight?

Go to Google Flights and look at the available flights. Then make a dummy booking for each. Your price options should clearly show the cost of the flight plus luggage allowances depending on which level you need. Compare and contrast. Pick the one that works.

We will each have a normal carry-on and a basic checked luggage. Nothing too heavy.

CJean is correct. You just need to do the math. Every airline is different when it comes to luggage requirements so you need to figure out whether your luggage will pass muster with the airline or whether you will have to pay extra for it. Ryanair and EasyJet are the strictest ones and so you will definitely have to check what you get with them.

But also keep in mind that the type of flight you get will matter. They'll have different levels and depending on which level you want to pay for, you may be able to bring more or less luggage. It really depends but you can only do it on a case-by-case basis so I would follow CJean's suggestion.

There is barely any difference these days, legacy carriers like BA and Lufthansa all now charge more to take luggage on board. If you are sensitive to price just find the carriers that operate the route and crunch the numbers.

As noted, just do the math and choose the best combination of route and price. Each airline has different rules for carry-ons and checked bags. Pay to check if your bag exceeds the airline’s size/weight limits when you buy your ticket. You can start the booking process and add in everything you need to see the total price before you enter your credit card info for purchase.

I just flew Aegean this week and thought they were fine. I paid extra to check a bag and choose a seat. I’ve also flown a number of other low-cost carriers (Easyjet, Jet2, Transavia, etc.) without issue but I always pay for any extras that I need and follow the rules for carry on.

We will each have a normal carry-on

European airlines are generally stricter on carry-on size than the major American airlines. Read the rules carefully.

What is normal "carry on"? In most budget airlines it is 40×30×20 cm to fit under the seat. Not sure about overhead one, too expensive for me anyway.

I'm not the kind of person who jets all over Europe, so I would never use a budget airline (or any other, really), but I know, or have heard, a few things.

First, I think budget airlines, maybe particularly Ryanair, are proficient at offering low appearing fares, and then adding all sorts of unexpected add-ons, like ticketing fees, and also having strict limits on weight, and add large fees if you're overweight or oversized. They want to get the same money somehow, usually by trickery.

Also, make sure you know where the airport really is. It's not as bad as it used to me, but Paris is still Beauvais, way north of Paris, with no way to get there other than a Ryanair bus. Same with Munich; it's at Memmingen, way on the other side of Bavaria, no where near MUC.

Finally, I've read that Ryanair considers themselves as a "point-to-point" airline. That is, their tickets are for individual leg, and they are only responsible for getting you to the next destination. So, for instance, if you wanted to fly from Munich to Rome, you'd have to fly thru Dublin, and if your flight to Dublin arrived to late for you to catch your flight to Rome, too bad, but they did get you to Dublin, as contracted. They feel they fulfilled there obligation. The fact that you missed your Ryanair flight to Rome is not their concern, whereas, if an airline like Lufthansa tickets you for a two leg flight, and you the first leg is late and you miss your connecting flight, they'll put you on a later one.

All of these difficulties, I've heard people complaining about. I don't know if they've corrected any, but caveat emptor, "let the buyer beware". Or, as Ronald Reagan said, "Trust but verify". Make sure you know exactly what you are getting before you commit.

I have heard that the new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt airport is supposed to be for budget airlines like Ryanair, but I haven't seen that reflected on Ryanair's website. As far as I know, they still refer to Hahn airport, 124 miles and 1½ hours from Frankfurt, closer to Luxembourg, as "Frankfurt".

Yes, the budget airlines are definitely worth it in some cases, and sometimes the best option to get between locations. A good example is the Athens to Rome trip, which would be time consuming if using other forms of travel. Sometimes air travel is the best option to maximize travel time and minimize travel time between cities.

When using budget airlines its very important to read their terms of service carefully, such as luggage sizes or weights, as exceeding them can be very expensive. I've found that RyanAir is among the most strict with the rules. My preferred budget airline is easyJet as they've always provided good service. I've found that the process is much easier with purchase of some of their options such as Speedy Boarding or whatever. Some of their options provide larger luggage limits and other perks. Booking and printing boarding passes is usually online, and printing boarding passes at the gate comes with a steep charge.

" but Paris is still Beauvais, way north of Paris, with no way to get there other than a Ryanair bus"

It is NOT a Ryanair bus.

I did not know the train from Beauvais station no longer serves Paris. Or does it?

Beauvais Airport also has a good local bus service to Beauvais Town and railway station, for trains to Paris and elsewhere. Cheaper than the direct bus option. In fact cheaper than the RER from CDG, due to no airport premium pricing.

Beauvais is also supposed to be quite an interesting town in it's own right.

I for one would gladly use Paris Beauvais airport.

Stansted Airport, London is very useful for East Anglia and the North of England via trains to Peterborough. Also the train is 45 minutes to Liverpool Street as fast as the Elizabeth line from Heathrow. Change at Tottenham Hale for the Victoria Line tube to other central London destinations.

At Oslo, Torp airport is very useful for the South of the country, for those who don't think Norway starts and ends with Oslo, Bergen and Norway in a Nutshell.

It isn't just tourists the airlines are serving, but the locals.

I am no cheer leader at all for budget airlines, or even short haul flying in Europe, but even I can see the usefulness of the secondary airports.

A few points to add:

-Aegean is not a low cost carrier, it's the flag carrier for Greece (so in the same category as e.g. British Airways, Air France, etc).
-Yes, even with extra add-ons, low cost carriers tend to be less expensive, and I personally use them all the time.
-You will always get a free bag that fits under the seat in front of you. If you have a bigger bag that needs to go overhead, that's a charge, and if you want to check a bag that's a different charge.
-When you start pricing things out, some airlines will try to get you to buy "bundles" so you're not just getting an overhead bag but also speedy boarding etc. However, you can usually buy the add-ons you want a la carte which will work out cheaper if e.g. you don't care about speedy boarding.
-In my experience, easyJet is definitely the best of the main low cost carriers, followed by RyanAir and last by Wizz.
-RyanAir used to fly mostly to airports that are in a slightly different city (e.g. Bratislava for Vienna, Girona for Barcelona) but in recent years they've added more flights to the actual major city airports.
-Something to keep in mind is these intra-Europe flights tend to be short. Even going from London to Paphos (Cyprus), one of the longest flights you would do within Europe, is less than four hours. So even though these airlines may not have all the amenities of flag carriers you're not going to be on the plane for very long.
-Flag carriers have been charging extra for things like checked bags for a long time now, and now even charge for things like food which they didn't use to do.

For me personally, I just use Skyscanner and choose whichever option is least expensive for the time I want to travel.

I have noticed that purchasing the Classic Economy Fare on Lufthansa or Swiss and doing multi City is the best way to go. I dod the math and its only $60 more to do so and I get offers to bid for upgrades something I factor into the fun. I don't pay the full fare upgrades and I save up for it.

On websites you can select luggage included and I do so. I am not going to play their Basic Economy game. Even on Vueling Optima was $40 More.

My Brother could have gotten my Mom regular Economy on French Bee for $30 more instead he paid for breakfast and no luggage. This is too cheap for me. I will suck up the extra $30 and skip Starbucks for a week!

Thoughts?

One other thing if you forget to choose the luggage included option it will cost you more than the shavings. Basic Economy Is the way airlines can gouge you. They hope you will forget about it and pay $100 at the airport. I have seen fights happen over it and I roll my eyes.

I think the “I flew them and I didn’t like them because …” criticism is useful.

I love the discounts because they have helped to open the world to common goat farmers. Maybe that’s what some resent? So, they can resent me. That’s fine. I don’t have the convenience of the net worth required to do anything other than the most economical; first in money, then in time. I would rather spend my meager $$$ at the destination making for a better holiday. But each to their own.

This explains it so well. The good, the bad and the discount: https://simpleflying.com/how-ryanair-built-most-profitable-airline-flying-uncomfortable-possible/

In fact, most of which you can determine is true if you do a trail run of a purchase on their website.

• Ryanair and Wizzair have better on time and cancelation stats than many of the big boys like Lufthansa.
• The primary market for Ryan and Wizz is Europeans on short duration trips and so the tickets are tailored to attract their market segment. That means you get a seat with an under-seat bag. It’s cheap and easy for the primary market segment.
  
• The underseat bag (usually a backpack) size is 12 x 15 x 8 which is fine for a lot of us for a weekend trip.
• The price you see on page one is the price you pay at the end if all you want is a seat on the flight. I have bought that ticket a few times.
• There are no tricks or deception in the purchasing process. If you doubt, run through a trial exercise on their website and see that they will tell you every step of the way the choices and what things cost. I like it because I am not wealthy enough to pay for bundled extras on the big boy airlines that I don’t need or want or use.
• Yes, its basic transportation. The seats are small and a bit cramped. But I am 6 foot tall and I survive just fine for 60 to 120 minutes and pocket a 100€ in savings in the process.
• No, they don’t try and make money at the gate by weighing and measuring your luggage. I have flown Wizz and or Ryan at least 9 times in the last 16 months and I have never seen anything get weighed or measured at the gate (and a bunch were oversized). I have seen it this year happen with Lufthansa and American.

Ryan and Wizz fly routes that the big boys can’t and still be profitable. One recent trip I checked my choice was Lufthansa with one change and 4 hours for 170€ or Ryan direct in 90 minutes for 20€. Exact same baggage limitation on both. It’s a no brainer. Add with a checked bag and Ryan was still significantly less expensive. So, yes, do the math. Run the numbers for each carrier. Be sure to go far enough to include the seat costs.

Here is a comparison I happened to have on my computer from some trip research a while back.

Budapest to Rome FCO:
Wizzair nonstop 1:50 flight time.
Page 1 First price shown (pay for the seat, no carry on, no checked luggage, personal item only) 55.55€
Page 2 Price with bundled WizzSmart Upgrade (for free seat, and carryon bag) 91.80€
Page 3 Mostly trip insurance. I clicked continue.
Page 4 First asked for a name, then reminding me that my ticket doesn’t have a checked bag and asking if I want one. I put my name confirmed I didn’t want a checked bag and that I did not need traveling assistance in and hit continue.
Page 5 Seat selection. Row 14 on the aisle. No charge.
Page 6 More insurance, car rental, fast track, transfers, etc. I only had to click no to insurance and continue.
Page 7 They try and sell membership in a discount club. I clicked continue.
Page 8 Billing page. Final price was 91.80€ because of the one single bundled upgrade that got the carryon and the free seat. Now I realize most Americans check a bag, so that would add another 30€ and increas the price to 121.80€

Budapest to Rome FCO:
Lufthansa 6:50 including at 2:30 layover in Frankfurt. No direct flights available to FCO except Wizzair
Page 1 First price was Economy Basic 154.42€
Upgrade to Economy Light to get the carryon bag and new price is 164.88€
Page 2 Seat selection. Well, they were 20€ for about the same seat as the Wizzair flight, so I ended the process as the price is already 184.88€ or twice the Wizzair cost.

Now to be fair, depending on your courage for lay-over times and preference on flight departure times you could shave an hour off the flight time and as much as 30€ off the cost.

David; a toothbrush is about 6 cubic cm and the maximum size for the Ryanair underseat bag is 24,000 cubic cm, so you should be able to carry 4,000 toothbrushes without the packaging and maybe 2,000 with packaging.

Depends. I asked AI and it said “ if you are a family of four traveling with full checked luggage, budget airlines will almost always "nickel and dime" you to the point where they cost the same as, or more than, a full-service carrier. While low-cost airlines advertise enticingly low base fares, adding four checked bags and paying for mandatory family seating completely erases those savings.”

But it depends on the route. Sometimes “bundle and save” works best and sometimes unbundle works best. Many discount airlines make it onerous to do true price comparison. It is part of their business model to always claim to be the cheapest while secretly extracting every last nickel out of your traveling soul. Some people love the challenge of finding the cheapest solution to a problem — like how to save the most money getting 4 people from point A to point B. Others l just want a decent experience and a transparent price.

Some discount airlines can’t compete and leave markets. Ryanair recently cancelled tons of flights in Germany because they failed. Kinda similar to Walmart — who entered Germany thinking they could win big time only to lose their shirt. Discount airlines generally improve competition which is good for consumers.

I use discount airlines from time to time— especially if they have the route I want — directs and if their 2ndary airports work for me. I generally avoid Ryanair because unlike the US discounter Southwest airline they like to insult their customers. It’s part of their brand! I’m not a fan CEOs that like to insult their customers. But hey, that same CEO insulted Elon Musk too so he’s back on my good side!

Good luck!

Not to get too off track, and I know I have raised this before, but no one here refers to RyanAir as Ryan. It just sounds so awkward every time I read it, like if someone were to refer to Lufthansa as Luft or Iberia as Iber or or Air France as France. Whenever I read it it sounds like a person named Ryan is being discussed (and people here have a lot of opinions on him!).

One point I had wanted to address above was the point to point issue. Low cost carriers do NOT sell connecting tickets. If you choose to purchase two separate tickets to get you to your intended destination, that is entirely on you- and they are not responsible if you miss that second flight due to the first being late. It's not deceptive at all as they do not sell these type of tickets.

There is no such thing as mandatory family seating. It is always a matter of choice whether to pay for seating of choice, or play the lottery of being assigned it at check in.

Europe is in the process of cracking down on a few of the policies some (?) budget airlines (most definitely including RyanAir) have been using to add fees to basic ticket costs. I think there is or will soon be no special fee for keeping a family seated together, for example. But earlier respondents are correct: You need to check the details for each potential flight.

One thing I will add is that there are a lot of flights on both traditional and budget airlines that leave very early in the morning (6 AM departure means getting to the airport by 4 AM, thus leaving your hotel at who-knows-what-time) or arrive very late at night. Lower ticket costs of those flights can present significant savings, especially when you're buying 4 tickets. However, you should look carefully at the airports being used and be sure you have a way to get to and from them in the middle of the night. With four people traveling, a long-distance taxi wouldn't be as excessively costly as it would be for me, as a solo traveler, but it could still eat sharply into what initially looks like your savings. And how miserable do you want to be with middle-of-the-night airport runs while you're on vacation?

I have a philosophical problem with some of RyanAir's former policies (they may have all been legislated away by the European authorities at this point), and I've managed to avoid that airline so far. However, if RyanAir had the only non-stop flight and it operated at a decent time of day, I'd be taking it. Personally, I wouldn't depend on anecdotal reports about the strictness of luggage sizing and weighing on different airlines to factor that into my decision. On any given day, you might hit a strict checker on a legacy carrier or a lax checker on a budget carrier. It costs a lot more to pay for luggage at the airport than to do it online in advance, so it's very risky to assume you'll be able to get away with a bag that exceeds the airline's published size and/or weight limits. I would price the cost of each ticket on the basis of paying for the size/weight of luggage I was planning to travel with.

Edited to add: In recent years I've had to use a lot of boarding stairs--rather than jetways--when flying. Those with mobility challenges and those with heavy/awkward carry-on bags can struggle with those. I don't know whether you're more likely to encounter stairs when flying budget airlines, but I suspect you are. I think RyanAir relies on them heavily.

"Some discount airlines can’t compete and leave markets. Ryanair recently cancelled tons of flights in Germany because they failed."

Failed what?

Meh, people like to rave and rant about nothing.

Look, budget vs a national/large airline comes down to doing the math, considering what level of service you demand, and if the schedule works for you (time, day, route)

The people who hate budget airlines likely have never flown one, or did, went cheap, and expected Emirates Business Class from the likes of Ryanair, and got burnt.

Regardless of the airline, in Europe, for the most part, even on the main airlines, your luggage allowances are going to be less, and they are stricter on enforcement, than your experience in the US. If the plan is to take anything into the cabin, make sure it is well under the limits, both size and weight. An do not rely on size and weight of a pristinely pack bag at home, you will pick up things along the way, the bag will "bulge" a bit when you stuff things in, so be realistic.

From there, it is a math calculation, cost of the ticket, can you meet the requirements for things like online check-in and an e-ticket (like having phone service in Europe) Just plan on checking a bag, so cost that out. Need some other service offered? Like an assigned seat?, priority boarding? You want a drink in flight?, add all that into the cost. Do the same for several airlines if you wish. Do not go cheap, that is how people get burned and then blame the airline for their stupidity. If the weight limit is 10 kilo, and your bag clocks in at 11 kilo typically, check the bag and pay for the larger option.

Then look at schedule. I like to fly out mid morning (Don't pick the 6 AM flight then wonder how the heck you are going to find a taxi to get to the airport and wind up paying 70 euro for a car service when a slightly later flight gets you there for 5 euro by public transport) and get there mid-afternoon. There will be horribly early flights that leave before dawn and get you there at midnight, just resist the urge. I also prefer a direct flight within Europe, something you may find easier to get with a budget over flag carrier using a hub system. However, some budgets fly out of smaller airports (this can be a good thing) and avoid the main airports due to costs, have seasonal schedules, or do not fly that route everyday. So finding the right fit for you often dictates what your final decision is, despite maybe a higher cost.

As for difference between airlines, performance, service, etc....mostly just a matter of opinion and the sour taste of a bad experience ten years ago. The truth is, all of the airlines operating today likely will get you to where you are going with no problem, the odds are heavily in your favor. Can bad things happen, you bet, and somewhat frequently, but your risk is about the same on any airline from the standpoint of your one or two sample size for your trip. Take 20 flights, you likely will have a bad experience at least once.

Ryanair failed to profitably fly in numerous German cities. Free market capitalism! Sometimes you win and sometimes you leave a market because you fail. The market will adjust with stronger players!

Happy travels

I know it’s obvious to say but some routes are only flown by budget airlines. Volaris here I come!

Let me see, did Ryanair fail to compete in the market or did the German government fail to create an environment were its citizens would have cheaper access to travel by air? One source says "Germany: Noted as one of the most expensive countries to depart from in the EU due to sharply increased government taxes, airport fees, and reduced seat capacity compared to pre-pandemic levels." Its a shame that lower income people dont have the same access in Germany as they do in Poland.

I can' speak to every detail, but if I sell a product with a target price, and costs make that impossible to maintain that price, I can decide to raise the price, or get out of that market, move to one where the formula works. It is not a matter of failure, it is a matter of deciding where to compete and sell a product.

For Berlin, you can bet the existing airlines have raised their prices to match the costs, that is how business works.

Budget airlines have maybe the luxury that they have no mandate to serve a market, they don't have to serve Berlin, they can go down to Leipzig, over to Hannover, or wherever, if the price is right, people will follow. Lufthansa likely has a mandate to continue to use Berlin as a hub, they will suffer the cost, and pass it on.

FWIW, Ryanair will still have flights in and out of Berlin, they have decided not to base aircraft there, some 7 aircraft, and will have, as a result fewer destinations and flights, reducing volume by 50%, probably sucks for Berliners.

Just woke up, this is getting too heavy for me. Many seem to be into something good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy1JMX4wuXA&t=3s

Happy flights

Ron

The high cost of aviation fuel since February has put a lot of pressure on budget airlines, leading to sudden flight cancellations and ultimately triggering the collapse of Spirit Airlines. For this reason, I would rather pay more for a legacy airline to be safe for now.

Note:
EasyJet, along with the broader European budget aviation sector, is facing a severe profit squeeze and financial pressure, driven by soaring aviation fuel prices.

I’ve flown on Ryanair and Easyjet and it was worth it to me to save money.

A lot of regional routes only have low cost carriers as an option. I can’t fly from Bristol on BA and it’s never going to be worth the time and expense of getting to Heathrow just to have a different logo on my plane. I did fly BA short haul earlier this year and the difference between them and EasyJet was minimal. The boarding process was slightly more pleasant but that’s about it.

Mindfulness, research it and you might agree that the odds that Lufthansa cancels your flight is 3x greater than Ryanair.