Is Ryanair/Easyjet worth for us-based travellers?
 

We are Texas based, flying to Europe for the Spring. We would like to fly into London or Dublin, then use an LCC to see a few other countries and return from FRA.

We will each have one standard size suitcase (say 25KG) and a roll aboard as carry one (say 10KG).

While the fares seem very good, it appears that with handling fees, check in fees and luggage fees, these carriers are not a deal for overseas travellers with more than a small bag. Am I reading this right? Even Aer Lingus charges 18 Euros per checked bag.

If I add it all up, I am better off with LH or BA, or what am I missing?

no you have it about right, if you check a back with Ryan air you also have to pay for airport check in. Plus as an American you won't have a Visa Electron card so you'll have to pay that fee too. Unless you get a 1p ticket, it is probably going to cost the same as flying BA. Which odly enough charges credit card processing fees for UK residents, but allows them to use a Debit card w/o fee, but doesn't charge the fee for Americans.

I flew EasyJet summer of 07, and it was a lot cheaper, but that was back when they allowed 1 checked bag for free. I am still looking for a bank that will issue a Visa Electron card to Americans. I have found a few non-bank PayPal like services that will issue them, but they charge a lot of fees.

...also remember that when Ryanair flies to 'Frankfurt' that's 100km away from the city as is 'Paris', Oslo', 'Dusseldorf'... and when they say 15kg baggage they don't mean 16kg:(

25 kg will exceed the baggage allowance on ALL European flights - standard allowance with the legacy carriers, in Economy, is 20 kg for international flights and 15 kg for internal ones.

The only exception to this are connecting flights to/from North American flights, but only if the connecting flight is in the same booking as the North American flight.

Ryanair will let you check up to 15 kg for a small-ish fee, anything above that will cost an arm and a leg.

Most legacy carriers still allow you to check up to 20 kg for free (and will often turn a blind eye if you're slightly over the allowance, though 25 kg would be pushing your luck a bit too much).

So - if you're travelling with baggage it can often be cheaper to use a legacy carrier! Also, as someone else has already pointed out, Ryanair flights don't always go to where they claim they go to... Ryanair's "Frankfurt" is a former military base in the middle of nowhere, "Hamburg" is the beautiful city of Lübeck, "Oslo" is Sandefjord, "Brussels" is Charleroi.

While I agree with what has been said, in the last couple of years we have travelled on EasyJet, FlyBe, and SkyEurope. In all cases, flights were comfortable, on time and generally no hassle at all.

We made sure we understood the rules (especially with regard to baggage) and we'd borrow their luggage scales at the counter to shuffle stuff around until all bags were at or below 20 kg. They (FlyBe) actually waved off an extra kg on one of the bags.

However I still would avoid Ryanair if at all possible.

is it possible to get some sort of one world explorer ticket from the US?
I dont use Ryanair and Easyjet because they dont fly to where I want to go, you usually have to take a train or coach to the actual place you thought you were going eg Brussels/Charleroi (I know they dont now but that was the last flight I took)

they are a fair bit off the standard of SOuthwest, Easyjet is nearer but still a really "economy" company

Like this Visit Europe one?
http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...s/visit-europe

(It's not that good value - for UK originating flights, booking on BA website directly seems cheaper for many of the flights, as they currently have the sale on, until 27 January)

I don't generally bother with low cost carriers unless there is a really good reason for it, such as more suitable schedule or flights to where legacy carriers do not go to. I have never flown on Ryanair and I never will (this is one promise I made to myself - I'd go a long way round to avoid them), although I find easyJet reasonably OK.

European LCCs
 

I don't think you can put all LCCs in the same basket. I find Easyjet runs a reasonably serious operation and you get far fewer complaints than you do with Ryanair. The real problem with LCCs is when things go wrong, you are largely left on your own.
It's also important to know what you are getting and what you are paying for. As others have said, they tend to "nickel and dime" you, so read the terms and conditions very carefully.
Some of the LCCs are fine - Easyjet and Air Berlin spring to mind, but you will need to take time to make sure you're getting the deal you want. If you aren't prepared to do that and are worried about what happens when things go wrong, go for a regular carrier. These days, they are often not that much more expensive.

Norwegian (DY) are pretty good, too (and they have assigned seating, and you can snag the exit row for no extra charge if you check-in early enough!).
AFAIK, they are the only airline with a 2-bag (2x20kg) allowance within Europe. You pay a reasonable admin fee (50 kroner?) for each bag you check, but this can save you loads of money over other LCCs and even FSCs if you're carrying a lot with you.

With that kind of baggage, forget Ryanair. In addition to the standard baggage fee, they will charge you an excess baggage fee of £15 per kg above 15kg.

Easyjet is feasible: their checked baggage allowance is 20kg and, importantly, their carry-on allowance is limited by size but not weight. By juggling things a bit, you might be able to keep within the allowance.

BA will allow you one bag with a maximum weight of 23kg of checked baggage on domestic and European flights. Not sure whether they would bother to charge if you are at 25kg. If they do, they will charge a flat fee of £25.

Most other legacy carriers will allow, as Aviatrix said, 20kg. Policy on excess baggage varies from one to the other.

Another thing to bear in mind is that not all European carriers have reasonable one-way fares. UK airlines (BA and BD) do and a number of European airlines also have such fares to and from the UK but quite a few are still pricing on the antiquated model of a minimum stay/sat. night stay (AF and KL spring to mind here).

If you are going to hop around in Europe, it may well be worth your while considering buying a pass of some sort (afaik, all three main alliances have Europe pass-type products if you fly with one airline in the alliance across the pond). Do your home work and compare to the cost of flights on your planned itinerary and see which works best for you.

No sure if OP plans to spend a few days in London anyway but if not one should mention that getting from LHR to STN significantly reduce any possible fare savings too.

On LCCs the SIZE of hand luggage is significantly smaller than for legacy airlines (two thirds or even smaller) - and you won't get "one bag plus a personal item".

I like the EasyJet carryon rule as to weight. As long as one person can heft it into the overhead by himself, then it is fine.

I tend to travel light, so I have never paid a luggage fee with LCC's.

Ryanair is the worst to deal with, but I would not put others like EasyJet, Germanwings, SkyEurope, Wizz, or Aegean, in the same category.

You DO need to look at where the airports are. EasyJet has a lot of flights out of Gatwick, London's best airport, for example, and you can still find TATL flights into Gatwick, in spite of some of the morons in the ailine business who have shifted flights to ''the hell that is Heathrow'' as one UK magazine aptly descirbed it. For Paris, many LCC's use Orly which is at least as convenient to the city as CDG, but watch out for those which use Beauvais, which is a looong way from the city. SkyEurope uses the main Vienna airport as one of its larger bases. In Bucharest, many LCC's use Baenesa, which is actually closer to the city than Otopeni, but is still a real pit of an airport in spite of a recent renovation.

Is Paris in your plan? If so Eurostar is an option from London. It is possible now to get a o/w fare for about £51 (which is about the same cost as doing it by easyJet). Traveling by Eurostar is as about as painfree a way to travel between London and the continent as I can think of. You can even get the Piccadilly line direct from Heathrow to St Pancras :) Plus you arrive in the heart of the city at Paris Nord. Instead of having to schlep in from Orly or CDG.

A mate is coming over from the US in the spring and is flying into London before taking the Eurostar to Paris. Then easyJeting it around before flying back to London.

I would echo others in saying avoid Ryanair unless it really is the only option for you. Most other European LCC's are on the cheap and cheerful side of budget but you do not feel like you are on a flying Greyhound bus. Which in my opinion is exactly what RyanAir is. Depending on your timescale and level of comfort needed look into the cost of traveling by night train. A seat can be as little as 29€ and a sleeper about the same cost as a hotel room . The website www.seat61.com is full of good tips about rail travel. Take a peak also at the Deutsche bahn website and look at City Night Line/ Nachtzug.

One final thing I would say is look at what you are planning to pack and reduce it. Figure out if you really need it. There are plenty of laundromats to be found in big cities so you really only need a very basic capsule wardrobe. In an emergency you can always just do a hand wash in your bathroom sink.

Thanks for all your great input. We'll reduce weight to 20KG per person.

Sounds like Ryanair is really not worth it.

Easyjet or Air Berlin maybe. We are flying into LHR and have no choice in airports. So any transfer within London to LGW, STN, LCY, etc will cost roughly 20 pounds it seems which eats up some of the savings, plus the hassle after the TATL flight. And we don't want to do London as it is really not that cheap and we have been there several times.


BD could be an option, but I might just end up with a legacy carrier. BA and LH stand out with pretty good fares, and in the end, $10 don't make a difference, especially if I suspect I might get screwed somewhere for a sitting down fee or seatbelt charge or air intake surcharge.

Am I right in assuming that every flight out London with luggage as described will cost at least 40 pounds once I paid all fees and surcharges on a LCC?