Lower cost airlines – The Newbies!

Photo courtesy of: Dmitriy Pichugin

If you’re a price shopper when it comes to jet setting, you’ve probably seen them pop up in your searches. Airlines with names like WOW, flights from countries you never knew HAD their own airline, and some that you remember flying in the past, but haven’t considered recently. There’s finally some GOOD competition for the big guys and the winners in this contest is YOU!

WOW!

Think this is a silly name for an airline? You won’t when you see the awesome prices…as a matter of fact, you’ll find yourself saying those 3 letters without even thinking about it. This Iceland based line has offered $99 flights from the US to Europe. I checked today, and found flights from Boston to Frankfort, Copenhagen and Berlin for only $165. At these prices you can forget just driving to the same old vacation spot you always do and FINALLY see the world.

Norwegian

Another airline that has recently entered the US to Europe market, I find Norwegian to have some amazing sales on non-stops from from New York, LA, or San Francisco. Norwegian flies in and out of quite a few airports here in the US. I just found a flight from Boston to Guadaloupe for only $49!! Use the “what’s your budget” feature and you may find yourself jetting to an exotic locale that you hadn’t even considered.

Southwest

I’ve watched SWA’s prices creep up over the years from low-cost to average, but today’s announcement by CEO Gary Kelly makes me hopeful that we’ll be seeing those prices DROP. They are looking to compete with Frontier (who most recently have been offering $19 flights). I just hope that they don’t go the way of Frontier & Spirit who bulk up the price by having passengers pay for their carry-on luggage.

Virgin America

WATCH the SALES and be FLEXIBLE. I love flying Virgin, as the amenities and services are my favorites on this domestic version of a wonderful international airline. While regular prices may not seem so special, their sale prices are out of this world.

Allegiant

Yes, this is WestJet reimagined, with access for more of us than a few years ago, this low cost airline flies into some fun vacation destinations, most notably – Las Vegas, for very little. I’m holding off flying them until I see that they’ve taken care of safety issues (they’re currently being monitored by the FAA). My fingers are crossed for the future and once those bolts are screwed in tight, I may just HOP on this bus.