Lowcosters

Lowcosters (discounters, a low-cost carrier, a low-cost airline, no-frills carrier, a discount carrier, a budget carrier) — all these names refer to budget airlines that offer cheap tickets with a minimum set of additional services. When you buy a ticket from a low-cost carrier, you should pay close attention to the choice of services and the conditions of the price rate offered by a particular airline carrier. In this article we will consider how profitable it is to fly by low-cost airplanes, what directions exist, what the pitfalls of such flights are and how to avoid them.

How much does it cost?

What are the disadvantages of using lowcosters?

If we answer briefly this question, you should not use lowcosters if you want comfort and services as in usual airlines. With a high probability you will have to pay some additional sums of money for the following services:

• Luggage is never included in the ticket price of lowcosters. In usual airlines, baggage is usually limited to 20-25 kg, while in discount carriers the maximum weight of one piece of luggage can be reduced to 15 kg.
• Hand luggage: in most cases it is included in the ticket price (5-10 kg of hand luggage), but there are some companies that charge extra fee for its transportation (Ryanair, Spirit, etc.). Companies pay close attention not only to the weight, but also to the size of hand luggage, not allowing passengers who do not fulfil these requirements to get on a plane without additional payment, which can reach the full cost of the air ticket.
• Food and drink: in addition to the fact that they are never included in the cost of a cheap fare, they simply cannot be available on board, there is not even water or tea.
• Choosing a seat in the cabin: it is one more paid option of all lowcosters. It is not so relevant when you fly alone, but certainly it will be in demand when two or more people travel together.
• Hidden services: they can be imposed on you as obligatory when you buy a ticket. The interface of many sites is organised in such a way that a user cannot notice that an additional set of services at the airport or insurance might be included in the cost of account.
• Service: some extra charge is added to the purchase of each new service.
• Registration: if online check-in is always free, Ryanair charges an additional fee of 54 USD (61 USD if departing from the UK!) for check-in at the airport, and American Spirit Airlines — 10 USD. And Ryanair closes its online registration 4 hours before departure.
• Printing of boarding pass: if a passenger does not have a printed boarding card, he or she might pay quite big amount of money to print such a ticket.
• Payment by debit card: often the payment of tickets by such a card can be charged with an additional fee of several percent.
• Child before two years: traveling with a small child on the lap can also become a reason of additional charge for the flight. Moreover, an additional fee may be charged for stroller transportation.

Sharp competition makes usual airlines reduce prices, especially for those directions where lowcosters dominate, so in some cases ticket prices from usual airlines may be lower than those of budget carriers. Especially it is true about long-distance and medium-haul flights, as well as flights with changes. However, this is not a rule at all, so it's always necessary to compare airfare.

Lowcosters and additional online and airport services

Other pitfalls of lowcosters

What can be more common than flight cancellation or delay? This is rather frequent phenomenon, but the lowcosters’ price rates do not usually provide for the coverage of passenger’s incurred expenses or they are rather reluctant to do it. The fact is that not many budget companies care about their image because, first of all, their target audience is low-income customers with small requests. If the passenger's requests are higher, then he or she should study carefully the expenses coverage policy of a particular airline in case of unpredictable situations at the airport.

In case of plane changing at airports, some of the lowcosters do not transport luggage from one flight to another one even despite the fact that the flight is made by one airline carrier. A passenger will most likely have to get his or her baggage at baggage reclaim and check the luggage in once again. But if you travel abroad, you will have to get through passport control. It will take all your time of changing to complete all these steps and stages, and sometimes you might need a transit visa which you have to get in advance. All these points bring additional troubles and are time demanding. The baggage will not certainly be transported if a passenger bought separate tickets for different airlines, but this rule is true not only for lowcosters.

Paris airport Vatry is located about 140 kilometers from the French capital near the city of Reims, airport Oslo-Torp is near one of the picturesque Norwegian fjords and Frankfurt-Hahn is situated in the rural remote areas of Rhine Germany. The fact is that in the pursuit of low airport fees many lowcosters literally drive themselves into godforsaken places. In order not to find yourself a couple of hours away from your destination, you should check the location of the airport carefully — when you buy your tickets on the site, you will not be given any explanations about the distance of the airport to the city center. It is also true about changes: It always takes a lot of time to change planes or airports, for example, in Istanbul, to transfer from Ataturk Airport to the airport Sabiha Gökçen (where the main lowcosters are situated) you will need to cross the Bosporus.

What are the advantages of using lowcosters?

Despite the fact that the answer seems to be evident, the lowcosters have begun to get additional benefits in recent years. More and more airline carriers are introducing a flexible system of price rates for air transportation. The number of economy class price rates can reach today 4 levels, where the lowest level of services is becoming close or similar to a standard lowcoster, although the price remains to be higher.

At the same time, the lowcosters are developing their own price rate system, where the most comfortable price rate according to the available set of services is approaching the level (and prices) of a comfortable economy class. In pursuit of fashion and profit, today a number of major airlines are creating affiliated cheap companies which become the "junior members" in the flights made by the main company. Very often the directions of flights of such lowcosters do not coincide with the directions of the main company. For example, such companies include Eurowings , Vueling or Jetstar Airways .

What can help to find a cheap ticket?

Indeed, the price rates for lowcost flights can be extremely low, but they are not always available. To track the cheapest tickets, you need to take into consideration several points:

• To monitor sales suggested by airlines on their pages at social networks or subscribe to the mailing of the lowcoster that flies in the needed direction;
• To subscribe to price notifications on online search engines;
• Do not expect that sales are organised at fixed dates;
• To track new directions of airlines — at first these ticket prices will be much lower than tickets to any other city in the country;
• On sales you can buy tickets for a year ahead.