Originally Posted by
JTE458
We are booked into AMS and out of LHR for 10 days late April. We are looking to find a 3rd destination for the middle of the trip and had figured to just book a train to Belgium somewhere and then on to London, but I started checking airfares and you can fly to nearly any major EU city for less then $100 and then to London for the same. Some of the fares were "small" airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet but even British Airways or KLM have flights for like $50.
How are these incredible low fares possible? How do they make money?
I think among the factors that bring revenue from these cheap tickets are:
- there might be limited number of the very cheap (promotional) fares, if you want the last remaining seats those may cost more. Also the tickets for the busiest travel days (holidays etc.) may cost little more than on those days with less demand.
- the cheapest fares are not refundable and allow no changes or carry high change fees: if you can't take the flight you have booked, hope you have a travel insurance coverage or otherwise your money is usually lost. Name changes can cost the same as new flights etc. I recall reading about a case where a guy with a forthcoming Ryanair flight and misspelled name on the ticket decided to change his official name to be able to take that flight...
- the base ticket price includes just the bare minimum: seat somewhere on the plane and perhaps some hand luggage (LCCs are often strict on the size and weight of hand luggage, exceed the limit and your bag will be checked and that will cost extra)
- reserving specific seat costs extra, exit seats and possible other seats with extra legroom may also carry some premium.
- checked luggage costs extra
- want something to eat and drink while onboard? You most likely will have to pay something for everything on offer (some legacy airlines may still give something small for free, but then their cheapest fares are usually more expensive)
- the planes used on intra-Europe flights tend to be configured with dense seating to maximize capacity. The legacy carriers, which are offering also more expensive business class fares in addition to the economy fares, usually have short haul single-aisle airplanes with whole plane furnished as a single class cabin and then designate part of the cabin as business class where the usual 3-by-3 becomes 2-by-2 with middle seats blocked.
- LCCs prefer that you do everything online by yourself, the phone service can be via premium-rate telephone number and if you want to use the check-in desk at the airport then you may face some service charges.
- LCCs are selling tickets primarily with the point to point model: if you want a return ticket, you basicly buy two one-way tickets with no special discount.
- LCCs tend to pick airports with cheaper fees when available, eg. in London area LCCs are using mostly LTN, STN and LGW rather than LHR.