Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(10kg) and it has to it the airline's size dimensions. If your bag is over the weight limit, you'll
be forced to make it it the requirements (i.e., ditch stuff to lighten your load) or pay to check
the bag.
You also need to pay attention to the airport location because many budget carriers fly to
smaller regional airports located outside major cities. For example, Ryanair claims it flies into
Paris but it actually lands at Beauvais Airport (BVA)—which is located about 50 miles (80km)
from Paris. You'll then have to pay an extra $20 to take a 1.5-hour bus ride to get into the city.
Ryanair is notorious for this practice. However, this isn't always the case with every budget
carrier so you'll have to do a little homework before booking.
Discount airlines are also very strict about check-in times so pay special attention to their
policies. Don't expect any leeway. I once arrived at the check-in desk three minutes late and
they refused to let me check-in. The flight wasn't schedule to depart for an hour but I was still
turned away. My only option was to pay $100 for another ticket on the next plane.
While rare, some travelers will try to string together multiple flights to reach their destina-
tion. For example, you're trying to fly from Dublin to Budapest but there are no direct routes.
So you book one flight from Dublin to Paris and then book another flight that leaves a few
hours later from Paris to Budapest. However, if your first flight is late or delayed and you miss
the next flight, the airline doesn't have any obligation to book you on a different one—even
if you're flying the same airline. You're basically out of luck. Additionally, if you have checked
luggage, you'll have to recheck it on the next flight.
BEST BOOKING WEBSITES
There are hundreds of airfare search engines—a few are excellent but most are mediocre at
best. Here are my personal favorites so, between these recommended sites, you'll be able to
find the best deal possible. Not only do these sites find the best prices, but they're also easy to
use and have helpful extra features to assist in your search.
As you search, it's important to know that most super cheap tickets are often either nonre-
fundable or have steep ticket change fees—which may cost more than the original ticket.
SkyScanner.com is always my first stop when searching for tickets within Europe. It excels
at finding a lot of the smaller European budget airlines that other sites sometimes miss. It also
allows you to search by country and not just cities (for example, search for flights from Paris
to Germany). This is a nice feature if you don't have a specific destination in mind.
Kayak.com is another trusty option that has always performed well. I use Kayak as a bench-
mark against other search engines.
Momondo.com , Hipmunk.com , and Dohop.com are three fairly new flight search engines
but they all do an excellent job at finding both budget and normal flights throughout Europe.
Momondo has some really cool analytic tools to help you choose the cheapest time to fly.
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