Guest Author - Jill Browne

There are a number of airlines offering regularly scheduled flights at low prices. In the USA, Southwest Airlines is one that has been around long enough to establish a solid track record. The Canadian Airline, WestJet, copied the SouthWest model and has competed quite successfully with the dominant carrier, Air Canada. Air Canada developed some discount offerings in response to the competition.

These two participate in the same markets as the major carriers and have themselves become major players. They do compete on price, and the economy measures they take are visible to passengers, however, for the most part their approach to "no frills" is still as comfortable and convenient as the competition in their price range.

Then along came the deep discounter, Ryanair in the UK. With prices in the range of about 20 dollars and less to fly within Europe, travellers have a whole new range of options.

Ryanair's model has been copied by many airlines in the world. One of the elements of the strategy is to fly out of regional airports rather than the main national and international hubs. This is a cost saving to the airline because the airport fees can be much lower.

So, when is a discount airfare a deal and when is it a hardship?

A Spanish doctor who loves to ski and to travel for fun once gave a very funny presentation of the lengths he had gone to to try and save money on a weekend getaway.

"First, you see the advertised fare, and it's 50 percent less than what you can get elsewhere. Of course you take it!"

Then he began his increasingly sad story of how that discount fare cost him money and time on his precious weekend.

"The airport was 30 kilometres from anywhere. I left my car there on the way out, and the parking was cheaper than at the main airport, although there was no building to park in, so my car got dirty from the dust in the wind.

"The airport where we arrived was also 30 kilometres from anywhere. There was no train into the city. There was some kind of bus service but it only came twice a day and you had to pre-book it. I hadn't made arrangements to rent a car there, so all the rental cars were gone by the time I realized my situation.

"I ended up taking a taxi into the city, which pretty much wiped out the savings on the flight. But that's not all.

"The luggage allowance was minimal. I bought some books while I was away. On the way back, my luggage was too heavy and there was a fine for that.
"And don't get me started about the food. There was nothing free on the plane at all, and everything cost about twice what I would have paid on the ground. I gave up and bought myself a couple of expensive drinks to forget the whole thing."

So, that's the negative side of discount flying. Of course, with some research and planning, it's possible to avoid most of the expensive problems. Ground transportation is one thing that can add costs. The time it takes to travel to the regional airport will vary with each traveller, of course. For people living north of London, the Luton Airport can be much more convenient than Heathrow Airport is, so many people prefer to use Luton (or Gatwick, for those in the south) instead of the very busy Heathrow.

I like regional airports because they tend to be less hectic, and also they bring back some of the feeling of flying. Often there are no jetways connecting the planes with the terminal, so you end up walking beside the planes on the tarmac to board and deboard. For those two or three minutes outdoors you can pretend to be a World War One Flying Ace, or Charles Lindbergh, or the pilot of your own craft. Or even the owner of the airline!

It's worthwhile checking into the details of the actual flight, right down to what happens at the airport. In Australia, I have flown on both Virgin's discount service and on JetStar, which is the Qantas discount brand. I personally prefer Virgin.

The main reason was that with Virgin a passenger could check in over the internet and print up boarding passes at home, whereas with JetStar the seats were not assigned. Having an assigned seat, no matter where it is in the plane, makes boarding a more comfortable experience. The JetStar flights without the assigned seating always had long line-ups starting about half an hour (or more) before the departure time. There was an atmosphere of tension as people worried about whether they would get to sit together, whether they would get the seat they wanted, and so on. All quite unnecessary.

And I agree with the doctor from Spain about the luggage restrictions. Pack light for a discount flight. They weigh everything and they will charge you extra or even (in an extreme case) refuse to let you take excess baggage. Both the weight and the size of baggage are limited, so always check the rules for your ticket quite carefully.

Bottom line: Plan ahead, know what the rules are, and enjoy the savings.