We’re heading over to Paris at the end of the year to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Most of our time is booked up with typical holiday plans—getting together with friends, blow out dinners (on the cheap, of course) and relishing winter in Paris. But we do have four or five days that are wide open » Read more
Airlines: Budget Travel Guide
Last week, we looked at multi-sector hops across Arctic Norway and beach landings on Barra in our review of unusual European scheduled flights. Now we follow up with comments on some of the really small aircraft used on regular island flights around Scotland and Ireland. Shetland Several of the smaller islands in the Shetland archipelago » Read more
Can you remember the days when booking a plane ticket was fun? That happy anticipation of a journey in the making, the prospect of stopovers in distant cities, the growing realization that for just a few dollars more it might even be possible to detour via Manchuria or Manchester. Cast back to the days of » Read more
Ten years ago, European budget airlines were widely celebrated as a positive symbol of then-contemporary Europe. The new budget airlines sold tickets online, easing the transaction process. Airlines flew cheaply to destinations both familiar and novel. The low fares and simplicity of travel ushered into effect by Europe’s budget air revolution were largely commended. Budget » Read more
Allegiant Airlines is one of North American aviation’s most under-reported success stories. The airline flies to a select number of popular vacation hubs from several relatively remote and seriously underserved destinations across the United States. Allegiant’s model is genius. It is the only vacation destination player at most of its traffic-starved airports. For residents of » Read more
Airlines—especially flagship carriers—have the awesome opportunity to create compelling brands that connect, in ways both obvious and creative, with their home cultures. Turkish Airlines, which I just had the pleasure of flying for the very first time, does a very good job of connecting its service as an airline to the brand of Turkey. Last » Read more
Pack your neck pillows, blankets and bring your ear plugs, Cheapos, because Ryanair is coming to the United States! Our friends at the Budget Travel blog tipped us off that Ryanair just announced it will begin offering flights from Dublin and London Stansted to the U.S. starting at about $13 each way, taxes not included. U.S. cities » Read more
It’s undeniable that an increase in flying is contributing to the degradation of the environment. In Europe, news reports about the effects of low-cost airlines on the environment are a regular occurrence. We’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that low-cost flights in Europe are undeniably contributing to global warming. But what can you do about it, » Read more
(tap, tap) Is this thing on? Ladies and gents, we’re thrilled to announce the newest addition to EuroCheapo: CheapoSearch Flights, our great, big search engine for researching budget airlines in Europe. We’re big fans of European budget airlines, in all their quirky, bargain-ticket glory. How else could you fly from London to Rome for £10? We felt, however, that there » Read more
Alas, after two weeks of traveling to Berlin, Brussels, and Bruges, these three Cheapos at Work had to fly home on Monday. Pete and Mere flew from Paris, and I returned from Brussels. Before I get into my “you won’t believe what Continental served us for breakfast” stomach-turner, I must apologize for not blogging during my » Read more
Which European airport guarantees the worst experience? Which has the longest security lines, the craziest gate transfers, or the most disorganized baggage claim? We chuckled our way through Elisabeth Rosenthal’s piece in last Friday’s International Herald Tribune in which she gives results of her own unscientific poll. The results: 1) London Heathrow “Hands down the worst” cited by “100 percent » Read more
It’s been a fine day, though our massive Ukrainian lunch was loaded with MSG, and we’ve spent the afternoon nursing headaches and queasiness with water, coffee, and aspirin. We’re exhausted. Sue us. We did just come across some exciting, if press release-driven information, though. Plucky UK low-cost carrier Jet2 celebrated their 10 millionth passenger today. » Read more
They might not be giving away free flights à la Ryanair, but Slovak low-cost carrier SkyEurope is at least trying to keep up in the cheap fares department. Through July 29, SkyEurope is offering €39 all-inclusive one-way fares. No word on which routes are included in the sale. We performed our industry-feared fare check and » Read more
A fellow Cheapo wrote us recently with this question: “I’ve heard about these cheap flights (like $10 to fly from London to Florence!) that you can get around Europe. Your site seems really enthusiastic about these airlines, but a friend told me that you can only book them from Europe and you have to be » Read more
