Flights in Europe

SunnySky06 · April 2012

What websites do all of you use when booking flights in Europe? We're thinking we'd like to take planes instead of trains later this month. Also, my husband said something about only being allowed a carry on and not checked baggage when on flights there anyone know about this? Thanks.

laptopprancer · April 2012

ryanair

easyjet

lasirene · April 2012

We were in Switzerland/France/Italy for 20 days last summer. We decided to fly instead of take trains because we had our toddler with us and it was honestly the best experience! We flew Easy Jet and I only have good things to say about them!! Most of the bad reviews that I read on the airline were on flights that originated in or went back to the UK, but this was not our case. Their website is really user friendly and their staffs (in Switz., France, and Italy) were all impeccable!! They do charge for luggage, but I feel like it evens out if you get a good price on the flights. It was WAY cheaper for us to fly than it would have been to take the train.

alithebride · April 2012

many low fare carriers have very stringent luggage restrictions and huge fees.

from where to where are you planning on flying? i've only flown domestically in italy or from italy through paris to jfk so my knowledge is somewhat limited. on alitalia domestic in italy the weight limit is less than us to italy flights.

not all are the same though. check your carriers instructions and baggage rules carefully.

AKuzReve · April 2012

Easyjet

They charge for baggage but the flights are so cheap that it's still cost efficient.

TravelingJen · April 2012

Rick Steves has a great list here of many of the budget airlines within Europe. http://www.skyscanner.net/ is also a great resource to look up flights within Europe.

I myself have flown several of the budget airlines within Europe including easyJet, Norwegian, RyanAir, and SmartWings. Depending on where you are traveling within Europe, it sometimes makes more sense to take the train due to the amount of time you spend in transit to the airport, at the airport, and then transit from the airport to your new destination. In my experience with these airlines, you are only able to bring one carry-on item for free. Any additional pieces cost extra so be careful of this.

What cities will you be traveling between and how much time do you have in each city?

SunnySky06 · April 2012

Thanks, I'll start looking the flights up. We're going from Rome to Venice, Venice to Paris. We have 3-4 days in each Rome and Paris and I think 2 days in Venice.

PittPurple · April 2012

With so little time before your trip, I'd be surprised if you can find any reasonable flights - low cost carriers are very, very weighted towards booking early although sometimes RyanAir will lower prices closer to the date.

I second www.skyscanner.net - it will show you all the options and let you play with the dates. I always just travel carry-on only (just be sure to check exactly what the rules are - it's much smaller than the US requirements) so I avoid the baggage fees. Besides lots of annoying announcements and usually having to queue up to find a seat when you board, it's no better or worse than any other airline. I've had far worse experiences flying on BA.

TravelingJen · April 2012

SunnySky06:
Thanks, I'll start looking the flights up. We're going from Rome to Venice, Venice to Paris. We have 3-4 days in each Rome and Paris and I think 2 days in Venice.

I would take the train between Rome to Venice. The train only takes about 3.5 hours and you depart and arrive directly in the city center. To put it in perspective:

Transportation from the center of Rome to the airport (45 mins-1 hour)
Check-in, security, wait at your gate, board the plane (1 hour)
Plane ride (1 hour)
Water bus from Venice's airport to the center of Venice (45 mins)

This will easily take you at least 4 hours, but likely more. We flew from Venice to Rome last September and in hindsight it would have been a lot easier and less time consuming to take the train and not deal with all of the stress.

Flying from Venice to Paris though will be far faster than taking the train (11-12 hours).

stever · April 2012

AKuzReve:
Easyjet
They charge for baggage but the flights are so cheap that it's still cost efficient.

Knitty · April 2012

skyscanner is where I start. You can take checked bags, they're just smaller (20kg, not 32kg), and you're charged for them.

And make sure you check on the airport. Some of them are so far from the city they claim to serve that you'd be better off taking a train. Paris Beauvais comes to mind here.

anna7602 · April 2012

I LOATHE Ryan Air. Just wanted to put that out there. Their customer service is atrocious and they treat passengers like dirt. I'd rather ride a grayhound bus across Europe (and I mean all the way to Moscow if necessary) than ever use Ryan Air again.

Anyway, to answer your question. I am living in Paris right now and have been booking flights around Europe through Bravofly. I tried a couple of other sites, but this one seems to be the one that most consistently has lower prices AND still has the flight available by the time you click "purchase." Also, they don't charge a bunch of strange fees. One site I looked at tried to tack a 50 Euro charge on to allow me to pay for a flight with a credit card instead of through a wire transfer from my checking account (and they specified the checking account had to be based in Europe, not the US). No, thank you.

You could also try going directly to Easy Jet or Vueling, if you know they cover the routes you want. These are much better than Ryan Air, not just because they actually treat you like a human being, but because they also fly into normal airports like Orly and Charles de Gaulle instead of routing you into a city through the airport that is a 2-hour car ride away.

The budget carriers do tend to charge high fees to check luggage, so in most cases, it's better to only have a carry-on. Note that many specify ONE carry-on, so your purse/laptop have to be able to fit into your carry-on sized suit case. Your purse DOES count as a carry-on.

wise_rita · April 2012

TravelingJen:
SunnySky06:
Thanks, I'll start looking the flights up. We're going from Rome to Venice, Venice to Paris. We have 3-4 days in each Rome and Paris and I think 2 days in Venice.

I would take the train between Rome to Venice. The train only takes about 3.5 hours and you depart and arrive directly in the city center. To put it in perspective:

Transportation from the center of Rome to the airport (45 mins-1 hour)

Check-in, security, wait at your gate, board the plane (1 hour)

Plane ride (1 hour)

Water bus from Venice's airport to the center of Venice (45 mins)
This will easily take you at least 4 hours, but likely more. We flew from Venice to Rome last September and in hindsight it would have been a lot easier and less time consuming to take the train and not deal with all of the stress.

Flying from Venice to Paris though will be far faster than taking the train (11-12 hours).

RyanAir (and the like) flights are so cheap because the airports are in BFE, and take lots of time and money to get to.

Don't write trains off just yet.

SunnySky06 · April 2012

wise_rita:
TravelingJen:
SunnySky06:
Thanks, I'll start looking the flights up. We're going from Rome to Venice, Venice to Paris. We have 3-4 days in each Rome and Paris and I think 2 days in Venice.

I would take the train between Rome to Venice. The train only takes about 3.5 hours and you depart and arrive directly in the city center. To put it in perspective:

Transportation from the center of Rome to the airport (45 mins-1 hour)

Check-in, security, wait at your gate, board the plane (1 hour)

Plane ride (1 hour)

Water bus from Venice's airport to the center of Venice (45 mins)
This will easily take you at least 4 hours, but likely more. We flew from Venice to Rome last September and in hindsight it would have been a lot easier and less time consuming to take the train and not deal with all of the stress.

Flying from Venice to Paris though will be far faster than taking the train (11-12 hours).
RyanAir (and the like) flights are so cheap because the airports are in BFE, and take lots of time and money to get to.
Don't write trains off just yet.

Thank you so much! We haven't written trains off, just wanted to check out options. A train to Venice definitely sounds better than flying.

alithebride · April 2012

TravelingJen:

SunnySky06:
Thanks, I'll start looking the flights up. We're going from Rome to Venice, Venice to Paris. We have 3-4 days in each Rome and Paris and I think 2 days in Venice.

I would take the train between Rome to Venice. The train only takes about 3.5 hours and you depart and arrive directly in the city center. To put it in perspective:

Transportation from the center of Rome to the airport (45 mins-1 hour)

Check-in, security, wait at your gate, board the plane (1 hour)

Plane ride (1 hour)

Water bus from Venice's airport to the center of Venice (45 mins)
This will easily take you at least 4 hours, but likely more. We flew from Venice to Rome last September and in hindsight it would have been a lot easier and less time consuming to take the train and not deal with all of the stress.

Flying from Venice to Paris though will be far faster than taking the train (11-12 hours).

i disagree with this. everytime i've been through rome (8 times in the past 3 ears) it's taken about 3x as long as it should. i'd budget 3 hours for this. which totally puts another vote for the train also the leonardo express from termini to FCO is only about 20 minutes so that's the transportation from rome center to airport.

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