How To Book Cheap Flights To Europe From India
A budget traveler’s guide to scoring cheap tickets
Europe is a bucket-list destination for so many of us. We all have grown up watching the valleys of Switzerland in plenty of Bollywood movies. Owing to popular social media websites, Europe is ever more popular. But fuel prices have gone up and so have ticket prices. Here is a helpful guide to scoring some economical tickets for your next Europe adventure.
Keep the destination open-ended
Instead of picking a specific country to travel to, one can check the country to which the flight prices are the cheapest on their travel dates and book accordingly. Ideally, it is advisable to be flexible with both travel dates and destination, but I would assume most people would plan their holidays around specific dates, hence the ask for keeping the destination open-ended. For instance, in the recent past, flights to Paris have been cheaper from major cities in India. Once in Paris, one can avail the service of companies like Flixbus to hop on to multiple popular destinations like Zurich, Amsterdam, Germany, etc. One can also find cheap train tickets at times or the increasingly popular ride-sharing services like Bla Bla Car to travel to one of their more desired destinations. For instance, Vienna to Bratislava( capital of Slovakia ) by Bla Bla car takes some 5–6 euros, which can be 10–16 euros by bus/train. So sometime, one can land up great deals in such manner as well.Flexibility around layover airports
Often times flying to the middle-east countries from India comes at a lower cost, and they also offer cheaper gateways to many countries in Europe. Let me present a popular choice for this route. One of my preferred layovers is in Abu Dhabi, which allows entry to many European cities using the low-cost carrier, Wizz Air. Wizz Air, as mentioned is a low-cost carrier, with non-reclining seats, payments for necessities like water, and even a kilogram worth of luggage, but given the journey time is usually under six hours, it works to save some money. I have never experienced a problem with the flight being late, but a rule of thumb would be to check the recent arrival time for the flight you are booking online, to get an idea for booking your connecting flight. Here are some screenshots for a flight on 6th June, less than a month away from today :
This fixes the ticket price at roughly 25k INR, including luggage. Without check-in luggage, this price drops further to around 19k. The same destination would be around 52k in a Qatar Airways flight for a date so close to the present day. This makes sudden travel economical as well. Other similar airports to consider for layovers would be Jeddah, Doha, Istanbul, etc. Thus, one should check the cost of flying to these airports from India and an onward journey to Europe separately.
Additional tip: One can buy a wizz air discount club membership to save 10 euro on tickets and 5 euro on luggage fares. This breaks even if one is flying a few times to or within Europe in a year.
3. Booking luggage from the airline, instead of third-party providers
The Etihad Airways option mentioned in the above image is without luggage. One can book luggage options directly from the airline, instead of a third-party aggregator, as the airline might have better options sometimes. I remember not having any luggage option on MakeMyTrip, the popular flight aggregator website in India, but having affordable options at a minimal extra price on the airline website.
4. Keeping an eye out for promotional discounts on some popular airlines
Some popular airlines like Oman Air often have promotional discounts on their flights, inclusive of luggage, which can prove to be better choices than the ones mentioned above. Oman Air, the national carrier of Oman, usually has a layover in Muscat, for which Indians do not require a visa and they provide multiple meals during the flight. Here is one such promotional discount for the month of October to Paris:
Similarly, airlines like Saudia for flying into Spain and Vistara for flying into Paris are great options if booked slightly in advance. Indigo also has started operating flights to several destinations across Europe, and I am assuming they might prove to be an economical option as well. So it is always advisable to check these options around the dates of your trip.
5. Using credit card reward points
Credit card reward points or the air-miles program offered by many credit card companies can be a life saver for getting cheap flights. To illustrate, a trip from India to Paris and back from Sofia to India costed me 26,424.57( including a 20kg checked-in luggage and a 10 kg backpack allowance) in INR, which otherwise would have been around 55k INR for the same route.
6. Booking return flights via the same carrier
Sometimes, booking flights for a return journey via the same carrier, instead of two separate one-way journeys is cheaper, although it would mean you would need to ensure your itinerary is adjusted to return back to the same city, as your arrival.
6. Options around spending layovers at airports
SleepingInAirports is an amazing website that has detailed guides to explain how can one sleep at airports. Additionally, one can also use seat guru to discover the best seats, according to their preferences on the flight.
To conclude, I shall leave a mind map, crafted by the famous outofofficedaku on Twitter, which can help people make a judgment on the route to take to Europe. I hope this quick guide can help some folks save money on their next European adventure.
