Save money on Europe flights by using a low-cost carrier for the final leg
This summer is seeing brutally high airfares to Europe, especially to second or third tier destinations such as Prague, Hamburg, or Naples. From most US cities you’ll be looking at a fare of over $1,500 round trip, and you’ll almost certainly have to change planes at least once, if not twice, on the way as well.
One possible money-saving tip for Europe when fares are high is to look into using two different airlines for the journey, with a major international carrier getting you to a major European hub, and then finding a cheap ticket on a low-cost carrier for the final leg.
Using a budget airline in Europe
One thing that is unique about virtually every budget airline is that they don’t have partnerships or codeshare agreements with other airlines, so their flight don’t turn up in searches unless you are going from one of their cities to another of their cities.
Here’s an example of how you can save money with this strategy:
- Kansas City to Prague: US$1,388 changing in Cincinnati and New York
- Kansas City to London: US$1,108 changing in Minneapolis
- London to Prague: US$154 on EasyJet
The data above shows the cheapest possible flights for a one-week trip in July, 2011. The savings here is only about $130, but at times you can save much more. The best situation is when there is a fare sale to London or another common hub for low-cost airlines, which doesn’t affect secondary destinations that are also served by these budget airlines.
Things to watch out for using this trick
In the example above the inbound flight is into London Heathrow, and the onward flight is out of London Stansted. There are fairly cheap buses between these airports, but that can be a hassle so it might not be worth it unless you are saving quite a bit of money. In some hub cities the budget airline uses the same airport as the major carriers, but in many cases they will be from different airports that are in the same city.
Another possible difficulty is that if your first flight is late and you can’t make it on your ongoing flight, you are on the hook for any fees you might encounter. In reality, flights over the Atlantic are very rarely delayed during summer, and are often arriving early, but still it’s a small risk.
Also, if you happen to miss a flight on a carrier like EasyJet they might just put you on the next flight that has an open seat, so it helps to use busy airlines rather than ones that only fly once per day. Still, the risks of this happening are actually very low, and if you are saving several hundred dollars per person you might find them to be worthwhile.