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October 8, 2017

Budget Airlines - Is it worth it?

So, I was reading a travel blog looking for advise on Cheap flights and person writing the post, their number one suggestion was take real early morning flight. Now lets see a 6 AM flight might save one a few $$, someone will need to be at the airport 2 hours Early and time to get to the airport so basically one will need to get up at 3 AM. Great for some, there is no way I am getting up at 3 AM on my Vacation.

Few years back 2014 I took a budget airline, flight from Venice to Prague, the flight was at around 7 AM.The airport the flight was taking off from was Venice Treviso, and not the main Venice Marco Polo Main airport. The ticket was US$ 70 and cheap enough. And there I was searching the internet on how to get to Venice Treviso at 5 AM, tried different forms and guess what, no good answers, a cab/taxi cost from Venice to Treviso at 2 Am would have been over 100 USD.  So I booked a room at a hotel across from Venice Treviso for the night before my Flight. Now with the added hotel cost the flight didn't seem all that cheap.

Now in Venice the day before my flight to Prague it stated raining.There I was waiting in the rain with my backpack for over an hour for a bus to take me to Treviso. The bus stop was a sign by the road and not covered. Did I need this added stress in my life on my vacation, no, never again.

From Prague I took trains to Vienna and on wards to Budapest. Trains are the best way to travel in Europe anyways. In Germany though I used a lot of ride-share and that worked out really good.

Now not all budget airlines are the same, in New Zealand I took Jetstat from Auckland to Queenstown, great experience. I have taken budget airline in South America and Africa, no issues  what so ever.










March 2016 in Reykjavik I was waiting at night for my tour bus to take me to see Northern lights in my hotel and saw 2 girls from Boston were standing outside my hotel in the cold, I went out and started talking to them and they were waiting for the same bus, got talking to them, they told me they were staying at a cheap airbnb nearby and could not afford hotels or many tours. Of course they flew from the USA on a budget airlines. Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are the 3 most expensive countries I have been to. Don't fall for stopover BS, do some research and see if it is worth it.

There are low cost airlines offering cheap fares to Iceland, at the most you;ll get a water to drink on these flights, even a small earphone to listen to music or watch something is going to cost you, bring your own.

In Reykjavik a small coffee, I am talking small as in a third the size of a medium coffee at a Starbucks in America, the cost in Iceland is US$ 4, a bowl of soup at a very average place can cost US$ 15, Credit cards are accepted everywhere, Credit cards make you over spend. The reason for all this is so that you budget and plan your trip and enjoy it making the best of it. Don;t fall for the low cost air ticket or free stopover.

Now fast-forward December 2016 I flew from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi, I paid over $200 for one way and it was a POS budget airline, the flight took over 4 hours (normal times) in those those 4+ hours they didn't even offer a glass of water. I asked the flight attendant for water and they wanted money, i didnt have any local currency  and no small bills in the dollars, so I offered credit card. Sure enough they didnt take credit card for that small amount. What a shitty airline that wont give water in a 4+ hour flight.

Final thoughts - In My Opinion, always check the arrival and departure Airports and flight timings, see if it works out for you, and in my case avoid any budget airlines for flight over 2 hours. End of the day, vacation and travels are meant to be a fun enjoyable experience and not added stress of a budget airlines.

Your thoughts?

1 comment :

  1. Thanks for saving me the stress. I had planned to travel with Budget Airless next month and this is a journey of about 5 - 6 hours. I wouldn't want to have a terrible experience. Will look elsewhere. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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