One of the ways I was able to save money on our airfare when my mom and I traveled to Iceland, was booking our travel with a low-cost airline. I use low-cost airlines frequently to book domestic travel, thats how I get to Atlanta every few months for under $100. Although I’ve used low-cost airlines for domestic travel, I never thought about utilizing them for international travel until did my research for the Iceland trip.
The total cost of our trip (flight and apartment rental) was less than $2000. The cost was largely due to me choosing to book our travel accommodations using the low-cost airline WOW Airlines.
WOW could be considered the Spirit Airlines of Europe, just with less foolishness and a better reputation. Like many low-cost airlines, to keep costs down they don’t offer WiFi on flights and you have to pay for your beverages and snacks on the plane. I honestly didn’t care about any of that because it was a 5 hour overnight flight and we were asleep before the plane even took off. As far as snacks go, I bring my own snacks when I travel anyway because I’m frugal and airports are haters when it comes to vegan food!
Another thing that WOW Airlines does is charge for seats and checked bags ($50). If your luggage is overweight they charge you for each kilogram your bag is over the weight limit. My mother (insert eye roll here) had to pay an extra $160 because she over packed… severely! But that’s a whole other story!!! Anywho… even after I pre-paid for our checked bags and seats our plane tickets came to $500 a piece (not including overage fees).
I loved my experience with WOW Airlines and recently I booked a trip with them to Amsterdam for next year! Total cost for two tickets: $398
There are many other low-cost airlines to consider when traveling:
Southwest Airlines*
Frontier Airlines*
Sun Country Airlines
Virgin America*
Allegiant Airlines
JetBlue*
Oh yea…and Spirit Airlines** (insert eye roll here)
A complete list of low-cost airlines can be found here
*Indicates an airline that I have used personally and recommend. **Indicates an airline that tried their whole entire life with me and are lucky I didn’t rename the company Jennifer Airlines but that’s a whole different story.
The next time you want to take a trip, save your coins an checkout low-cost airlines first. They have yet to let me down!
