We always get a little giddy here at EuroCheapo every time a new budget airline enters the transatlantic market. Along with booking an affordable place to stay, securing a low-cost flight to Europe is key to keeping your vacation expenses in check.

So we’re excited to see a brand-new player bringing cheap flights between the US and Europe. Primera Air will be kicking off its transatlantic service in April with non-stop flights from New York to London with more routes rolling out later in 2018 to Paris and Birmingham.

Primera is an Icelandic-owned and Latvia-based company that already operates a number of routes across Europe. Now they’re ready to expand their service with a brand-new fleet of planes, the Airbus A321neo. Launching with a similar concept like Norwegian and WOW Air,  Primera will be offering several tiers of tickets from super cheap with no frills to more expensive with a number of perks.

Flying the cheapo skies: A guide to flying Wow Air | Tips for making your flight on Norwegian comfier

Introductory fares on Primera Air

Right now, Primera is only offering service from three destinations: Boston (BOS), New York – Newark (EWR), and Washington, DC (Dulles Airport). They have been advertising rock-bottom fares of $99 each way, and although a lot of those tickets have sold out, we are still able to find incredible deals including several tickets under $200. For example, a flight from Newark to London in late April is only $179.

Primera breaks their tickets down into Light (the cheapest option with no perks), Comfort (includes seat reservation, a checked bag, and meals), or Flex (all of the Comfort perks but the fare is refundable).  If you choose a “Light” ticket, you can add on extras one at a time. For example, a seat reservation starts at $39.99 and a checked bag costs $44.99. They also offer a Premium Cabin, but the prices are way out of cheapo budget for us to even consider this option.

The transatlantic experience on Primera

I’ll be flying Primera in a few months from Paris back to New York City. I was able to find a €169 ($207) one-way flight direct from Paris (CDG) to Newark (EWR) in early June, an amazing deal for this time of year. Combined with a one-way ticket from Norwegian at $170, the final cost for a round-trip ticket to Paris was just $378. That’s a very nice price for a trip to Paris over Memorial Day weekend and during the French Open.

We’re looking forward to flying on Primera Air, and we’ll be reporting back about our experience. Right now you can read about transatlantic flights on the Primera website, but until we climb aboard, it’s hard to predict what the flights will be like. As we’ve learned (sometimes the hard way), these budget airlines can be fantastic deals, but the devil is always in the details.

Have you bought a ticket on Primera Air? Let us know how your experience in the comments below!

The post Primera Air launches new discount flights to Europe from $99 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

With that in mind, we did a little research for getting to Eastern Europe for as cheap as possible. Many times Ryanair might fly into a different country than your final destination in these alternatives. But don’t let that stop you. It may seem out of the way, but in these cases, the ground transportation makes them all very accessible. Here are a few examples of Ryanair-inspired routings to points further eastward if you’re going to:

St. Petersburg, Russia

Alternative: Lapeenranta, Finland
From Dusseldorf Weeze, Barcelona Girona or Milan Bergamo, you can fly to this smaller airport in Finland.

Ground transport
From Lapeenranta, catch the train or bus to St. Petersburg.

Lvov, Ukraine

Alternative 1: Rzeszow, Poland
From Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Eastern Midlands, Barcelona Girona, Glasgow, Luton, London Stansted, Manchester, Oslo Rygge or Trapani you can fly direct to Rzeszow.

Alternative 2: Lublin, Poland
You can fly to Lublin from Dublin, Liverpool or London Stansted.

Ground transport
From either destination you can catch a train or bus to Lvov.

Moldova or the Black Sea

Alternative: Constanta, Romania
You can fly here from Milan Bergamo or Pisa.

Ground transport
Travelers can take a bus, train or even a ferry northward or southward to their final destination.

Locations in the Balkans

Alternative 1: Osijek, Croatia
From London Stansted you can reach this small Croatian city. Then you can easily connect onwards to points in southern Hungary, Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Alternative 2: Podgorica, Montenegro
You can fly from Brussels Charleroi or London Stansted and then connect via bus to Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia or even southern Croatia.

Budget Airline Tips

Do you have any shortcuts you use when flying budget airlines? Let us know! And for more information on cheap airline travel, we have a plenty of handy articles including an introduction to low-cost carriers, a budget airline FAQ and the pros and cons of flying cheap.

The post Flying for less to Eastern Europe: Using Ryanair’s obscure destinations to your advantage appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Today, increasing awareness of climate change has meant that budget air travel in Europe is often targeted as an environmental disaster. On the consumer side, passengers are overwhelmed by a huge number of fees and charges—for checking a bag, for checking in at the airport, for preferred seating, for using a particular credit card—all of which continue to creep upwards.

The stories told about low-cost carriers tend to focus on the distance of secondary airports from the cities they purport to serve, the rudeness of staff, the inflexibility of various charges and the difficulty in obtaining refunds for canceled flights.

People continue to fly budget airlines in great numbers, of course, but they’re not enjoying themselves. How could things be improved? How could a budget airline actually build a fan base?

Here are five suggestions for improving budget airlines in Europe:

1. Offer transparency in marketing and pricing.

An airport named after a city 100 km away does nobody any favors. Acknowledge location and market around it. Eliminate last-minute charges for the use of a particular credit card. While you’re at it, get rid of perks like early boarding that make embarkation so regimented and unpleasant.

2. Provide a carbon offset opt-out option.

Under this proposal, passengers would be able to click a box to remove the carbon offset option from their flights and save a euro or two. Some would do this. Many would not. Here’s a better and more radical idea: get tons of press by announcing that all flights will be carbon offset in their entirety.

3. Develop a simple, well-scrubbed aesthetic.

Budget airlines shouldn’t be grubby. They should be enveloped in simplicity, ease, and lightness. Colors should be gentle and music should be soft. Flight attendants should have nice uniforms that reflect the airline’s aesthetic. (They should also look rested, competent and pleased to be at work.) License a pleasant 30-minute electronic score for boarding.

4. Offer tasty snacks for purchase.

If ancillary income is the key, offer something worthwhile—tasty treats with some real relationship to the departure or destination city. Also, keep mark-ups in check. On-board mark-ups need not be extortionate.

5. Brand around location.

Souvenir items sold in flight shouldn’t be anonymous. Why stock the duty-free cart with items that can be found in any international airport when cute objets of local relevance make better gifts? Fill the in-flight magazine with the insights of interesting people who populate the route map’s destination cities.

Your recommendations

Can you think of other ways that budget carriers could improve their service? Do you agree or disagree with these points? Tell us about it in the comments section.

The post Flight Memo: 5 ways to improve European budget airlines appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.