FRANCE A LA CARTE ____Low-cost airlines

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Lowcost airline tips

 

Flying with Ryanair, Jet2, easyJet and the others

 

The key to lowcost/no frills travel is planning ahead. It's no good saying "Oh I just have to go skiing in Font Romeu in late February" and then becoming a hostage to steep Ryaniar prices to Perpignan over that period. The better approach would be to say "I'd love to go skiing in the Pyrenees in February: let's have a look at the flights".

 

You then check the dates and prices of flights to a range of different airports: in this case Biarritz, Pau, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Perpignan and Gerona. And Lo and Behold! you find that they're selling £5 tickets to Pau in early Feb. This allows you to book a holiday in St Lary, Barèges or Bagnères for half the price of the original idea in Ft Romeu.

 

The £5 ticket costs, of course, a lot more by the time you're finished on the lowcost website. Airport charges and taxes add on a compulsory £30 or so (depends on the airport). Then you have additional charges for baggage, credit card payment, on-line boarding cards, and, if you want, insurance. Some of these costs are unavoidable (credit cards) and some take eagle-eyed observation talents to spot the box to tick (or untick) to avoid (Jet2.com's insurance policy).

 

The key here is to:

1) travel lightly - if possible with only regulation-sized hand luggage. Luggage bound for the hold usually costs extra ... and if it's over a ceiling (15kgs) you'll be hit for 6 or 8 euros a kilo for excess!

 

2) Don't change your flight or the names of the people travelling. Better to book more tickets or dates than you need than to change them at the last minute. This is how the lowcost airlines make a lot of money. A simple change of name on a Ryanair booking which takes 2 minutes on their hotline costs a flat fee of €100. If this happens to you check that it's not cheaper to buy another ticket in the new person's name and just bin the old ticket.

 

3) Be on time. Another money-making scheme is to strictly enforce ludicrous boarding times. For instance, Ryanair insist on closing their boading gates 40 minutes before take-off - even in tiny airports where their flight is the only flight of the day! You get ridiculous scenes of the passengers sitting in the departure 'lounge' just a few feet from the empty departure hall where a couple of employees are chatting at the check-in preventing 'latecomers' from joining them. The aim, of course, is to get you to book on the following day's flight at a premium price.

 

4) Don't complain: it's not worth writing or complaining to staff that you weren't refunded or helped when you missed your flight, had an accident on the way to the airport, caught foot&mouth disease just before boarding: they don't want to know and you'll just waste your time.

 

5) Lowcost doesn't just mean 'no-frills': big companies like British Airways, Aer Lingus, even Lufthansa are getting in on the lowcost act. Always check with the big boys before concluding a deal with Ryanair and such like: you may have found a flight from Stansted to Carcassonne for £45 to link up with a rafting weekend in the Aude ... but a few minutes with BA could throw up a £55 flight from Gatwick to Toulouse ... with all the frills intact (15 minute boarding delay, cancellation policy, on-board food & drink, overpaid pilots etc).

 

So, to summarize:

 

BOOK your flight first - then pick your holiday

 

DON'T change your dates or passengers

 

TRAVEL light

 

CHECK with the mainstream airlines too