029 - Advice for using budget airlines
Never taken a budget airline flight? Or did it once and didn’t enjoy it? In this episode, the Indie Travel Podcast gives several pieces of budget airline advice to give some pre-flight tips and points of difference between budget and traditional airlines.
In brief, when travelling by budget airline consider when you book and the hidden costs inherent in the system. These include taxes, baggage costs, credit card fees and booking extras like a dedicated seat. Also pay close attention to baggage allowances throughout your entire journey. Different carriers have different guidelines and all of them charge the earth for excess baggage fees. This is especially important if you’re connecting with another flight.
On arrival at the airport you should have your confirmation number handy even though you will seldom be asked for it. Of course, your passport or similar ID is essential! Your boarding card won’t have a seat number, but some airlines have different boarding groups depending on how early you check in. We recommend relaxing and boarding later rather than joining the scrum.
In the end you get what you pay for — budget airlines are heavily mediated spaces with audio and visual advertising making up the profit margins: expect to be advertised at. A lot.
Want to know more? Click the play button above to hear these ideas fleshed out then click here to subscribe in iTunes for free independent travel advice, reviews and interviews from the Indie Travel Podcast.
Links:
Download transcript (pdf, 262kb).
Recommended price comparison site: Sky Scanner.
Other recommendations:
Bezurk
Air Ninja - only shows routes, not prices or availability
(If you have another favourite, let us know and we’ll add it.)
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30% off Lonely Planet Guidebooks2 Responses to “029 - Advice for using budget airlines”
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September 12th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Nice meditation on the budget airlines - the expression for them in Hungarian is literally “wooden bench” airlines. For people who’ve never flown with them, you really provide some valuable info. Well done!
November 8th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
We just found out about bezurk and air ninja thanks to the loose wire blog.