The worldwide revolution in budget air carriers is intriguing for a budget traveler.
After decades of wrestling with train timetables and planning overnight trips to avoid wasting precious daylight in transit, travelers can now fly between cities on their itineraries without emptying their bank accounts.
But the cynical--count me among these folks--always wonder if there is a catch. Is service sacrificed? Will I arrive late? How will I be treated at the discount airline counter?
There is no way to quantify the overall experience one might have on the dozens of budget carriers now crisscrossing the globe. It's fair to say your encounters might be awful, tremendous, or anything in between.
My latest experience was with the discount carrier easyJet. Based in the United Kingdom, at this writing it offers more than 200 routes among 65 airports.
The airline's Web site claims 95% of its tickets are sold via the Internet. They say this makes distribution efficient and less expensive than many of its competitors.
So let's start with price. I purchased four tickets for a flight from the Latvian capital of Riga to the German capital of Berlin. Two adults, a teenager and a pre-teen made that trip for an astounding total of $111 USD, taxes and fees included. At under $30 a person, this ranked among the best bargains of our trip.
The second flight with easyJet was from Paris to London. This trip was not as much of a bargain, but still very reasonable at a total of $260 USD for four passengers.
It was on that flight that we observed easyJet's customer service policies put to the test. Click "next" to read how they fared.
