Europe DIRT CHEAP with discount carriers

Tickets to Europe are currently being offered at rock bottom prices from discount carrier Wow Air, with flights to Europe starting at $70 one-way from San Francisco, Miami, and Boston.

Dan’s Deals has example dates for the $69.99 routes or you can click the image above to check for more dates and prices.

I flew Wow Air one-way to London (connecting in Iceland on the way) in August 2015 and had a great experience.  As a low-cost carrier, there are additional fees for everything from checked bags to seat selection. I used my Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa to pay for my ticket and got those fees reimbursed with the $300 annual travel credit.  I paid for extra legroom seating and chose seats 2D and 2E based on what I’d read in this article and the seats were spacious and comfortable.  Furthermore, en route to Iceland, the pilot came on to alert everyone that the Northern Lights were making an appearance from the opposite side of the plane. The flight attendants were kind enough to let us take a peak from the front galley window.  It was a great show!

Return flights from Europe are more expensive — though I find discount tickets like these a great way to position so you can take advantage of award chart sweet spots.  For example, I flew WOW Air from Boston to London for $99 to spend a little time in Europe before catching a second cheap flight to Cairo, Egypt.  From there, I used 45K American Airlines miles to fly Etihad First Class from Egypt to Tokyo (that price has since increased to 50K miles).  While it wasn’t apartments class, it was comfortable and a good value for ~14 hours of total Etihad First Class flight time:

Once in Europe, Volotea is running a sale with seats available from 5 Euros each way.  Again, this is an ultra low cost carrier that will tack on many fees, but if you travel light and make use of the right card benefits, these discount carriers can be cheaper than a train ticket.

If you’re planning to be in Europe for a while, another cheap fare sale today is London to Luxembourg for £56 roundtrip. As reported by Secret Flying, availability is good in July and August.  The latest $70-to-London flights I see in the WOW Air sale above are on June 6th and the earliest on this London-to-Luxembourg fare appears to be July 1st — but if you’re looking to spend the summer in Europe, this may help you along your way.

As always, be aware of the restrictions on discount carriers and that baggage allowances may be lower on intra-Europe flights than on domestic US flights.

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.