CarolineF

I am looking for reputable cheap air flights within Europe. I have seen flybe and easyjet with great prices but how reputable are they?

unclegus

yes they are reliable companies but you must be aware of their terms and conditions,they also have very strict rules regarding hold and carry on luggage.Ryanair is alos a very popular low cost carrier and has even stricter rules regarding luggage.
Jet2 is a company I use a lot,good prices and decent enough luggage allowance for both checked and carry on luggage.
Please make sure you understand that all these companies charge for checked luggage and that the carry on luggage rules and strictly enforced regarding size of bag, weight of bag and number of bags(IE only one carryon bag and one only,no purse,no lap-top bag etc.

hetismij2

You need to check all the costs involved with cheap airlines. It can sometimes be cheaper to use a legacy airline, since they are much clearer when it comes to costs.
Ryanair in particular adds on all sorts of spurious charges to what initially seems like a good deal.
They ignore EU law, and get away with it too. Do not expwthem to give you your legal rights in the event of delay or cancellation.
Also check carefully where the airport is that they fly to. Often they are a long way from the city you are aiming for, sometimes with poor transport options into the city in question.

hetismij2

That should be do not expect them.

Man_in_seat_61

What about cheap trains?

You haven't said where you're going, but for example:

- Paris-Amsterdam 3h09 from €35 at www.thalys.com

- Paris-Venice by Thello sleeper train from €35, www.thello.com

- Paris-Nice from €25 at www.capitainetrains.com

- Amsterdam to Prague by direct sleeper train from €59 www.bahn.de/en and so on

Man_in_seat_61

That shld be www.capitainetrain.com

uruabam

>They ignore EU law, and get away with it too. Do not expwthem to give you your legal rights in the event of delay or cancellation.<

Don't know about that. Having experienced Ryanair on the recent air traffic control strikes, they handed out leaflets to all with details of their obligations under EU law and gave out appropriate vouchers exactly when they should have. I also received email after my return with further apologies for any inconvenience. A damn site more than I got from Emirates after similar delay in October.

MaloBalo

I can't think of any airline with a really bad reputation. The only thing to think about most of the low-budget carriers is their ruleset. They say, a rule is a rule is a rule.

They're cheap for a reason: Less space inside the carrier, mostly no included servics onboard (you can obviously purchase all kind of stuff), different ways of boarding (priority e.g.), extra seat-reservation and very strict rules as to luggage and a bit of a pain in the a.. when it comes to the booking procedure itself.

Other than that their business somewhat relies on ppl's inattentiveness, charging extra for every little mistake you make. That being said, I've used them all and never paid a dime more, while I've seen others pay twice my ticket price.

On a side note, when flying Easyjet two years ago, your hand luggage was not limited by weight. I don't know if that changed though.

Micheline

Some of these airlines impose a big extra charge if you have not printed your boarding pass. Not always easy to do on vacation.

unclegus

MaloBalo,Easyjet dmn't have a weight limit for carry on but have recently introduced a new smaller size carryon to guarantee that you will be able to board with it,they still allow the larger carryons but say that due to limited space these may have to be checked at the gate but no charge will be made.
I am flying with them at the end of August so will see what its like for myself then,been many years since I flew Easyjet.

stevewith

I also don't know why you aren't considering trains, but without knowing your itinerary, it is really hard to know how to answer your questions. There are some routes that are more prone to experiencing delays or flight cancellation, if that is your concern.

sparkchaser

I wouldn't call Ryan Air reputable because they have a horrible reputation.

As far as discount carriers go, be sure to read all the fine print and realize that the low cost comes with a price and that cost might be that you can't check anything without paying a ridiculously expensive fee or that the airport they service is in the middle of nowhere. Adjust your expectations accordingly and you'll be fine.

Christina

What does it mean by "reputable." If it means an airline that usually flies where it says it will and presents fares honestly, I imagine most are. I haven't heard of any that are not. Ryanair is really cheap and has a lot of policies of extra fees, but I have never heard that they cancel flights a lot, and the extra fees are disclosed. As for where the airport is, that isn't a part of reputation, that's why they can have lower fares and it certainly isn't a secret where you are flying to.

Someone says they ignore EU law, if that is true, are they prosecuted? I would presume so. I've never flown them, but I have flown Easyjet and like them a lot. I also just flew HOP airline, a new budget airline in France that competes with Easyjet (it is a subsidiary of Air France, I believe), and it was fine, similar to Easyjet.

I have never heard anyone claim Easyjet wasn't "reputable."

bendigo

Caroline,

Have had a quick look at your other post.

I would ABSOLUTELY use eurostar for travel from London to Paris - city centre to city centre in around two hours makes for very efficient travel - much better than flights and transfers.

We travelled for just over 3 weeks last Nov / Dec, with a week in London then just over two weeks for Paris / Venice / Florence (including Pisa) / Rome / home to Australia.

There were five of us - self, wife and three kids - D's 20 & 18 and S 16.

We caught an overnight train (Thello) from Paris to Venice - it was fantastic - centre of Paris to Grand Canal while resting and sleeping - not a moment wasted! YThe train travelled via Switzerland , but no idea if there would be opportunities to leave / reboard in Switzerland, or even where it travelled (man in seat 61 is the authority - check the website or ask).

We found high speed trains really efficient for Venice-Florence and Florence - Rome, and took a trip out to Pisa from Florence on a regional train.

We had an action packed trip, but don't regret covering a lot of ground in a very short time. We were up and about in good time, and kept going all day, but certainly felt like we had a decent look around at each location.

Yes - could have spent a lot more time in many of them, but this was our first trip, and likely only chance we will ever have to do it as a family, so we decided to cover as much ground as reasonably possible.

Trains were great - I'd looked at discount airlines for the Paris - Venice sector, but decided that the overnight train would be efficient, and was an added experience for the trip.

yodababe

We have been looking at 'regular' airline prices vs. 'budget' airlines (Ryan Air). For us to fly from Nuremberg, Germany to Malaga, Spain is cheaper on Air France than Ryan. Air Berlin isn't half bad either. Lufthansa has an immense regional fleet, and British Airways runs specials all the time. So you really don't have to sacrifice quality and that lovely 23 kilo luggage allowance to get a cheap flight. Good luck!

lor41886

Just my experience: I've used Vueling and Alitalia (not sure if Alitalia really counts, but my tickets from Rome to Prague were under $80). Vueling's website said it would weigh your hand luggage and it could weigh no more than 10KG. This never happened, and I was able to take both my rolling suitcase and purse on board with me. Like others have mentioned, space is limited, and while I had a 22 inch suitcase (which does fit the size requirements) compared to European travelers, mine was much larger. I constantly stressed about it fitting in the overhead bin and having enough space. When using Alitalia, they did weigh our hand luggage, and the weight could not exceed 8KG. Ours clearly did, so we had to check. I'm not sure if I totally lucked out, but I did not have to pay to check these overweight bags. We did buy one of those portable luggage scales so that we could continue to check the weight of our luggage for the remainder of our trip.

Good luck!

travelgourmet

For the most part, the larger low cost carriers (remember that the low cost refers to their costs, not yours) are reputable enough. Yes, read the fine print, but they aren't going to take your money and run and will usually get you where you wanted to go around the time you signed up for.

Specifically with regards to flybe and EasyJet... I actually think EasyJet is pretty decent and a pretty professional outfit. I've never flown flybe, but they seem a decent enough regional carrier.

As for Ryanair. I flew them a couple of times and it wasn't a bad experience. Not great, but efficient and I would fly them again if they had the best combination of schedule and price.

<i>So you really don't have to sacrifice quality and that lovely 23 kilo luggage allowance to get a cheap flight.</i>

Air France, KLM, Iberia, and BA (at least) do not provide any checked luggage allowance on some of their cheapest fares.

CarolineF

Man_in_seat_61, I love your website! It has been a great help already. I was ONLY thinking trains till I ran across easyjet which for some places I wanted to go seemed even cheaper. Bendigo thank you for your posting. People have really been discouraging about doing a "highlights" trip but like you said, this is our only chance as a family, or part thereof, and may be our only time so we want to see what has long been important to us. If we get a chance to go back, we can go back to places we would have liked to spend more time in.
Man_in_seat_61, we would like to begin our "trip" in London. By this time, we will have visited relatives in Britain as well as some sites in London. We then want to travel to Paris, some place in Switzerland (possibly Austria) and Rome, hopefully also including Florence and perhaps Piza. In Switzerland, it is mountains and some hiking - not cities that I am interested in. Accomodation prices seem ridiculously expensive. What would you recommend as an itinerary with trains (possibly a flight mixed in to save time)? We would then fly home to Canada from the last place. Like I said, your website is amazing and has given me lots of helpful advise so I would appreciate your wisdom here. We would have a total of 2 weeks at most on this leg of our trip. Thanks. Oh, and out of curiosity, do you usually try to sit in seat 61 of any train or how did that come about?

nygvic0326

BOOKMARKING

Southam

Within Europe, RyanAir is the biggest airline by passenger numbers among all the carriers. easyJet is number two. A company does not get to be so big through unreliable service. Because of their deals, the customers put up with being herded around.
The budget airlines give you exactly what they promise, nothing more but also nothing less, so read their rules and regulations very carefully. They are also "reputable" in that they apply those rules and regulations strictly. With RyanAir, check where their airports are located; it takes a vivid imagination to consider Beauvais as a Paris airport. In return, the passenger gets very cheap transportation.
If comfort is your main worry, take Seat61's advice and go by train. For any trip up to a limit of four to six hours, I prefer the train too.