Cheap Travel on Easy Jet

You want to get away during the winter. You don't necessarily want to go to a ski resort, but you want to travel in Europe in the Fall and Winter. First of all, good job! You should be able to find much better fares than people who can only travel in the summer (HIGH price season). You also may get some of the best weather, actually. That's right! Instead of hitting Athens in the middle of July and temperatures pushing up even into the 100's, you might catch it during a week of beautiful fall or winter weather that will neither freeze or cook you.

Speaking of Athens, let's look at some CHEAP TRAVEL to Athens! I wanted to look at Easy Jet in particular, maybe in honor of a friend of mine who is flying Easy Jet today. Though they don't have as many flights during the winter season, they have quite a few more than some of their competitors and keep many of their destinations going year-round. If you are coming from the US, you can just use London as a gateway city and then hook up with some of the discount airlines that are available in Europe. Easy Jet flies to Athens out of Gatwick.

Let's assume you are in a hurry. I wouldn't recommend buying tickets on Easy Jet too late because the cheap tickets may be sold out. Cheap travel is often all about timing. In a quick cursory look today, there are flights from London to Athens every day and usually there are two! So to grab some dates, let's try later in November. The site is friendly for moving days backward or forward, so you can find the cheapest dates that work for you.

In this case, Thursday, November 17 has a flight available for EUR 55.91 leaving at 1:55 p.m. and arriving at 7:30 p.m. So no early morning or late night required. Nice. Return trip to London (four days just seems like a nice weekend jaunt) on Monday, Nov. 21 is only 97 EUR and looks like the cheapest right now (it says last seat at that price!).

So simple math would say the ticket is 152.90 EUR and I do keep checking to make sure the price isn't in British pounds because this price seems too good to be true! Oh wait, do you want to take a bag? Let's say "Yes." OK. Add 34 Euro's! Wow, I better bring some pretty nice stuff with me in that bag. 20 kilograms allowed (44 pounds) and the site is bragging that if I pay the 34 EUR now it's half price for the bag! 68 EUR at the airport? Hmmmm. I'm up to 186.90 now! Still under 200, so I'm feeling ok. So we go on through the hotel and rental car page (rent a car from Gatwick?). And I click to purchase. What?!? Why does it now say 202.90?!? Hmm. Small print, get out the reading glasses. Because I am paying with my credit card the price is now almost 203 EUR instead of 187. It's only 197 if I pay with a debit card. The quoted price is only if I have a Visa "electron" card, which I apparently don't have (and would venture to guess most normal travelers don't!). So we got tagged for another 15 EUR or 10 EUR if we put it on our debit card. Maybe this doesn't bother you. I would just as soon they charge the fee up front. I suppose if I had a Visa Electron card I would feel smug and happy about this rule.

Still, from one end of Europe to the other (granted it's the West side to the South side), I think that 203 EUR for a London Athens round-trip flight qualifies as Cheap Travel in Europe. Don't you?

Cheap Travel to Europe Means Timing

This title may seem obvious to some, but the truth of it could save you a lot of money. Perhaps you have read that you need patience in order to get Cheap travel to Europe. This is true--sometimes! But then again, sometimes waiting and "being patient" is the worst thing you can do if you want to get cheap travel to Europe.

So am I talking out of both sides of my mouth? Is the case of getting cheap airline tickets to Europe the same as that of winning the lottery? No. I don't believe it is. For starters, there are way better chances of you getting cheap travel to Europe than of you winning (big) at the lottery! Trust me. Part of the reason that the chances are better is that you can educate yourself about the prices of tickets and you can wait or hurry to get the cheapest tickets.

What you need to know to find cheap travel to Europe:

Basically you just need to decide what cities you want to fly in and out of and then you need to find out what the best prices are. If you read some of my other posts you will see some prices but of course those are subject to change with time, fuel prices, taxes etc. So don't rely solely on my prices. Especially with other cities. You want to find the best airline prices for your city pairs, not mine. What does it mean to do some research? I think the quickest way to find Cheap travel to Europe is to ask a travel agent. You may not think that I like using them because I am always looking for travel deals to Europe on my own. But if you have absolutely no idea of what a good price even is, ask a professional. If they can give you the best prices, go through them to get them. If not, get your tickets form other sources, such as the internet. Your travel agent or your own research online can help you to set your target price(s). Once you have those, look around. If you find them, buy! If you don't, wait. You can have your travel agent look for a while or even set email alerts on price drops to your destinations. Be ready to buy when the pieces fall into place and you find sufficiently cheap travel to Europe.

When to stop waiting:

If your travel times are NOT flexible, then you have to look well ahead of time and be thinking about that. You definitely don't want to wait past the three week before the trip stage anyway. That is when most ticket discounts will end completely and you'll be looking at full price tickets within that time period. If your travel time is flexible, just keep an eye out and watch for when the price is right and then just jump in.

Getting Cheap travel to Europe is not a science but being aware of what your target is and grabbing it when it's available is the key! Of course a little luck never hurt anybody either! So good luck and happy hunting!