Flights between European cities - help please
 

We will be visiting Florence (4 days) then onto Paris (4 days) before returing to the US. What are discount airlines that service European cities (one way flights on AirFrance for instance are quite prohibitive). The only airline I have been able to find is RyanAir- does anyone know of others that have reasonable one-way fares? Thanks-

Have you looked at:

www.whichbudget.com

The Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) like Ryanair are usually good value - buy you have to book well in advance and best to travel midweek. The other UK LCC's include Easyjet, (http://www.easyjet.com/)and BMIbaby (www.http://www.bmibaby.com/bmibaby.

There's a good website which compares flight between the UK and Europe - (not all carriers though) which is useful - at www.skyscanner.net

Don't forget to check out scheduled airlines also - KLM offer very good special offers - eg they fly London Heathrow to Amsterdam for £69 return. BMI also offer good prices between London HRW and a good selection of European destinations.

The advantage with scheduled airlines (like BMI and KLM) is that you get a numbered seat, and they usually take off and land from the main airports - not obscure ones like Ryanair.

Often if you are based in a main city the cost of travelling to/from a secondary airport makes the scheduled airline competitive compared to the Low Cost Carrier.

The other bit of advice would be to remain very aware of the luggage restrictions, particularly on checked luggage, which all the airlines flying within Europe impose.

Typically, the checked luggage amount is 20 Kg (44 lbs.) per person and in Ryanair's case I think it is 15 Kg.

Many thanks- great links and lots of cheap flights to choose from.

If flying from Florence, be sure to check out flights from Pisa, because that's the more common budget airport.