budget air travel - things to be wary of

Budget airlines can save you lots of money and help you find those cheap international flights. However, you don't save money for nothing and it does come with its disadvantages.

Here are a few things you should consider when considering using budget air travel.

Use of secondary airports

To save money, budget airlines fly in/out of secondary airports. Because of this, your savings may be spent simply by the added cost of commuting to/from the city centre to the airport.  The inconvenience involved may mean that it isn't worth the saving or the extra time involved.  

Transfer restrictions

Unless you are paying roughly similar prices to normal airline carriers, there will be tight restrictions on your ability to change or transfer your ticket.  The terms and conditions may place restricitons on your ability to change the name on the ticket, change dates, change the time of the flight or change routes.  This is something to be careful of if you need flexible travel arrangements.

Check in closing times

Check in usually closes 45 minutes before scheduled departure time but you should check with the individual carrier.  Make sure you’re not late as this time limit will be enforced more strictly than normal carriers.

Baggage allowances

Budget air travel operators usually have lighter baggage allowances than normal airlines. They are also far stricter when enforcing limits. Any slight excess, and you'll face being required to pay the extra charges.

Delays

Budget airlines have tight back to back schedules. If one flight is late, then all flights afterwards on the same day will be late.  This is especially annoying when you are tired and are taking the last flight of the day. But hey, you're still saving money and normal airlines have delays as well. 

What can be even more frustrating though is the lack of information provided by the budget airlines.  One particular Jetstar Melbourne to Bangkok flight that I travelled on was delayed by 2 hours. It was only 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time that Jetstar decided to inform us of the delay. In the meantime, all the passengers were becoming anxious as we were aware that no plane was waiting at our departure gate. When the announcement was made, we were only told there was a delay, not an estimation of when we could board the airplane. This experience is not exclusive to Jetstar. AirAsia and other other budget air travel operators are the same – delays must be a requirement of a budget airline! So be wary that you might be late and if there is someone picking you up at your destination, make sure they are patient as well.

Cancelled flights

There has been various stories about passengers being left stranded at the airport when their evening flight was cancelled. To top it all off, the airline didn't even have the decency to provide food or accommodation.  This is terribly substandard and no one should be left in that situation.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about flights being cancelled. It occurs for all flights, not just budget airlines. But you can try to mitigate your risk. The longer your trip and the more travel you are doing, the greater benefit you will obtain from travel insurance.

When you're leaving home and starting your trip, travel insurance doesn't matter quite as much because you can always just head home. But when you're in a foreign city, travel insurance will provide you with that night's accommodation and an allowance for food and other essentials.  It should also provide you with lost wages if the delayed flight means your arrive back to work late.  You should never be left stranded, but you can mitigate the risk.

Quality of the aircraft

Sometimes the aircraft which you are sitting in can be old and rather unfriendly looking.  Some Easyjet planes look like they are a military cargo plane with seats. But you are saving some money so what do you expect?

Unallocated seating

Some airlines do not allocate seats which means that it becomes a mad rush to queue and have your ticket checked before walking out to the plane.  For some reason, everyone wants to sit at the front of the plane even though when you arrive at your destination, everyone ends up waiting at the baggage claim anyway.  It's justified lining up if you have a family or you want 2 or 3 seats in a row, but some people can be very unreasonable. Every time an attendant looks like they are making an announcement, people are rushing to be the first in line.  I've even seen the situation where people are lining up and the airline attendant was required to make a specific announcement requesting people to sit back down.

Walking on the tarmac

Airports charge budget air travel operators more if they park at a terminal.  So for you to save money, you may need to put up with stepping outside the comfort of the terminal and making the small walk on to the tarmac. It can be a problem if the weather isn't the best.

Even though there are many things to consider when considering budget air travel, the cheaper cost may mean it is all worth it. The money you save on your flight will allow you to spend more elsewhere.

Read about:

• why travel via budget air travel
• why budget airlines profit and are so successful

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