Costs of Buying Budget Air Tickets

[dddx]

I was just wondering, is it cheaper to book budget plane tickets (easyJet, Ryanair) online, or is it cheaper to have a friend in London buy it at a counter?

[jennifer]

I think it is pretty much the same price. There are some great Net deals. You can easily proceed that way!

[dddx]

Thank you jennifer! By net deals do you mean direct from easyjet.com and ryanair.com? Or are there any better 3rd part sites I am unaware of?

[pointofnoreturn]

It is the same.... but more info:

Book ASAP if you're planning to utilize budget flights. The rule is, "The earlier you book your flight, the cheaper it will be."

I prefer easyJet over RyanAir but both are fine, in my opinion. There's lots of other carriers to consider.

Check out www.whichbudget.com or www.skyskanner.net

[WillTravel]

There's an extra charge for purchasing in person.

[pointofnoreturn]

WT is correct. I think the last week, I've been extremely forgetful so apologies. So yeah, stick to buying your tickets online. At the same time, you'll have an email containing all the information you need (includ. confirmation number) to get on your flight.

[herrbert]

For your travel you can also have a look at flights carried out by Air Berlin. (at least they will fly Paris - Berlin, and Berlin - Rome), Also Condor carries out flights between Berlin and Rome.

For these companies it is cheaper to sell their tickets thru the internet, so normaly buying the tickets online is cheaper. Also companies like RyanAir, and usualy understaffed at the airport, so buying you tickets and check-in at a counter, results in (long) queues.

[WillTravel]

For Paris - Berlin, you can get special train ticket prices from Deutsche Bahn sometimes, like 39 Euros. I think it would be about a 7-hour train trip, so plane is probably still faster even with getting to/from the airport.

[dddx]

Thanks for the replies guys! Deutsche Bahn sounds like a good option - cheap and an overnight journey sounds good for saving time. Grr... now if only I can figure how to select more than 5 passengers to check availability on their website...

[Eagle]

dddx, as the others have suggested, it's a really good idea to book flights with budget airlines ASAP! They seem to use a "sliding scale" which means that as each flight books up, the prices "slide up" also.

One other point to mention is that the budget airlines have increasingly strict baggage limits, and speaking from experience with RyanAir they are ruthless when it comes to applying these! If you're even a few ounces over the limit, you'll get nicked with an "overweight charge". The process for paying the overweight charge is a bit cumbersome and annoying - one has to queue in a separate line to pay the charge and then queue in the original line again to check-in. As I recall, I had to pay extra for checking luggage as well. I've heard that EasyJet is also tightening up their baggage limits, probably in response to increasing fuel costs.

cheap and an overnight journey sounds good for saving time

Regarding the "overnight train journey", be sure to select a train that has no changes or you won't get much sleep! Note that if your group wants to reserve a Couchette, there will be an extra charge for this.

Good luck with your planning!