Where Are All the Cheap Flights Gone?

Thargor

Hi, remember when you used to be able to get to Prague for a tenner and that kind of thing just using Skyscanner, I never seem to see deals like that anymore. Ive been away from it for a couple of years due to work but I have a lot of free time coming up now and want to get back into bargain hunting. I often found a random cheap flight to Budapest or Prauge to be way more fun than sitting down and planning an actual holiday.

Looking at Skyscanner now its hundreds of Euro to get anywhere from DUB, are people using any different sites these days or is it just the way things are now?

tayto lover

Yes indeed. Any cheap flight deals going lads? European city breaks would be nice.

Thargor

Forgot to add to the OP, I have no problem with last minute offers, 24 hour notifications, flying out at xx am or whatever...

bajer101

I'm heading to Leeds for a music festival the first weekend of September, and I was pleasantly surprised to pick up two return flights with Ryanair for me and my daughter for the grand total of €30.

BrokenMan

Try Ryanairs farefinder. There's a few destinations for around 20 - 30 euro

Thargor

Boring UK destinations, Id rather hang around at home than go there again. Oslo and back for €40 is interesting though, thanks. couple of days hiking there might be fun.

Eponymous

Part of the reason is because where Ryanair (and other budget airlines) used to fly to obscure out-of-the-way airports (yes, I'm looking at you Beauvais - Paris my hole) in return for discounted landing fees or even be paid to fly to some destinations, the EU put a stop to that under competition law.

It's a killer alright, flying back from Krakow for under a fiver is a particular highlight.

Agricola

Thargor wrote: »

Boring UK destinations, Id rather hang around at home than go there again. Oslo and back for €40 is interesting though, thanks. couple of days hiking there might be fun.

Only problem with Oslo is it might be inexpensive to get there and back but the bit in between is anything but!

I did a few days in Krakow in 2010 then decided to get some sun with a €20 flight to Pisa. Good times!

dogcat

Find flights to all destinations from Ireland for the cheapest month here: http://www.skyscanner.ie/transport/flights-from/ie/cheapest-flights-from-ireland.html?adults=2&children=0&infants=0&cabinclass=economy&rtn=1&preferdirects=false&outboundaltsenabled=false&inboundaltsenabled=false

However, not all is true. If you get a cheap flight to London you can sometimes get a cheap flight to places such as Slovenia. If you take a Ryanair flight to Oslo then transfer airports you can get many a great cheap deal to Eastern Europe (it's like €40 from Norway). Even Paris Beauvais has good deals if you wait.

diarmuid05

If anyone wants to PM me i'm working on a new website that makes it a bit easier to find cheap/bargain holidays, it still in beta but ye guys can have a look if ye want...

bajer101

bajer101 wrote: »

I'm heading to Leeds for a music festival the first weekend of September, and I was pleasantly surprised to pick up two return flights with Ryanair for me and my daughter for the grand total of €30.

I regularly travel to Leeds, a lot of time it's 19.99 return.

bajer101

bubblypop wrote: »

I regularly travel to Leeds, a lot of time it's 19.99 return.

I'm not arguing with you. I was just very happy to get two return tickets for a total of €30! That is incredible value. The OP queried where all the cheap flights had gone, but some of them are still there. You can still do a return flight to some airports for €20.

bajer101

bajer101 wrote: »

I'm not arguing with you. I was just very happy to get two return tickets for a total of €30! That is incredible value. The OP queried where all the cheap flights had gone, but some of them are still there. You can still do a return flight to some airports for €20.

I was agreeing with you!!
There is great value still out there, you just need to be flexible.

AndyBoBandy

cheapest I'd ever heard of was my mother flying to Liverpool with Ryanair for €0.49 all in. (free taxes/fee's)

now they were the Ryanair specials, when they paid your taxes/fees for you!!
I did a couple of return trips from Nantes to Dublin and back for about €20-€30 back in 2009 (I made the trip weekly for almost 1 year). you don't see those much anymore.

diarmuid05

I agree flexibility is the key....

But there are plenty of bargains available


Sample of return flights in august from dublin - which is peak season


Manchester 4 Nights €24.36
Glasgow 2 Nights €24.36
Bristol 2 Nights €36.56
Edinburgh 2 Nights €36.56
Leeds 4 Nights €38.36
Brussels 2 Nights €39.98
East Midlands 4 Nights €41.63
Brussels 2 Nights €42.98
Birmingham 4 Nights €43.36
Newcastle 3 Nights €43.87
Copenhagen 3 Nights €45.64
London 4 Nights €48.75
London 4 Nights €48.75
London 4 Nights €53.75
Liverpool 2 Nights €55.63
Oslo 4 Nights €64.92
Paris 4 Nights €67.49
Cologne 2 Nights €69.98
Nice 2 Nights €97.98

JCX BXC

Don't know about Dublin, but from Shannon there is sometimes good deals to Berlin and Beauvais (which is nearish Paris).

munchkin_utd

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

cheapest I'd ever heard of was my mother flying to Liverpool with Ryanair for €0.49 all in. (free taxes/fee's)

now they were the Ryanair specials, when they paid your taxes/fees for you!!
I did a couple of return trips from Nantes to Dublin and back for about €20-€30 back in 2009 (I made the trip weekly for almost 1 year). you don't see those much anymore.

Ryanair were loosing heaps of money with the insanely cheap fares but that was fine as that was their "advertising budget".

Now with the regular cheap fares, Ryanair looses less money on the promotional fare possibly approaching break even, at least covering the landing fees.

Its also to be noted that Ryanair used to use those insanely cheap fares to drum up word of mouth publicity among the public. Now they are spending real money on real advertising so you can expect that the insane cheap fares will not return any time soon, as they are not their main form of promotion any more.

pajor

Cheapest flight I ever got was Cork-Dublin with Ryanair not long after they started it. Was interesting to try it for going up and down from Dublin in a day. Paid the grand total of €10.02

dogcat

pajor wrote: »

Cheapest flight I ever got was Cork-Dublin with Ryanair not long after they started it. Was interesting to try it for going up and down from Dublin in a day. Paid the grand total of €10.02

It'd be fantastic if Ryanair did this sort of stuff, would be cheaper than Bus Eireann or IrishRail even! + you could see the scenery of our wonderful countryside from above.

cooker3

I think the best bet to comprehensively investigate cheap flights is to use a combination of Ita Matrix and Google Flights
Now Google bought ITA a few years back so use the same engine but ITA is still better, more adaptable while Google Flights is a bit more intuitive.

Skyscanner is the most adaptable in terms of dates and such like but the issue with it is it links to a lot of companies that I'd rather not book with as they have questionable track records so maybe just use it to get a little idea but I think anything good on it will be listed on Google Flights anyway.

VG31

I never use Skyscanner since I came across Google Flights. I find Google Flights is very user friendly and does not link to dubious booking sites like Skyscanner.

Thargor

Google Flights is horrible, doesn't pick up a fraction of the deals Skyscanner does, only lets you filter down to €100 minimum, everything is marked as unknown price. There are basically zero cheap flights on there, it just cant be trusted. For example Skyscanner will get me to Oslo Rygge for €40 and multiple UK destinations for €20-30, theres nothing like that on Google Flights, its practically broken at least as far as bargain hunting goes, 95% of cheap flights just do not exist as far as its concerned...

diarmuid05

Lads what's the criteria for a flight being a bargain?

For example, is a flight still a bargain if hotels are charging 80 quid a night


Also do you take into account the price of stuff....

Pints in some eastern European cities are €1 each - most Irish people would be in profit after a few hours relative to a night out at home

Thargor

For me getting there is all that's important as I just like to walk and hike in a location with the odd museum or whatever thrown in usually free, I dont care about hotels/room service/fine dining, Ill usually just pick the cheapest place I can find on Trivago or AirBNB.

keithclancy

Thargor wrote: »

Google Flights is horrible, doesn't pick up a fraction of the deals Skyscanner does, only lets you filter down to €100 minimum, everything is marked as unknown price. There are basically zero cheap flights on there, it just cant be trusted. For example Skyscanner will get me to Oslo Rygge for €40 and multiple UK destinations for €20-30, theres nothing like that on Google Flights, its practically broken at least as far as bargain hunting goes, 95% of cheap flights just do not exist as far as its concerned...

Kayak also does Ryanair and combines carriers as well.

grimm2005

Unfortunately the days of those super cheap flights is pretty much over but if you're very flexible and travel outside peak season (anytime outside of school holidays) you can still get what I'd consider some great bargains. Some of my trips from last year I picked up: Barcelona at the beginning of summer: €60 return (and to the main airport), Budapest: €65, Prague: €65, Lisbon: €90, in to Krakow and out of Warsaw: about €80, Edinburgh: €30. Bratislava can also be picked up for not much and is only about a 90minute trip from the airport to Vienna by bus. Amsterdam can be got for about €90.

Also recently picked up Berlin flights in September for €100.

So you can get flights well under €100 mark, just gotta be very flexible. Add in a decent hostel and stay in a shared room and you have your a 4 day trip for under €200. Good luck!

Meathlass

Like you OP, I have a bit of free time coming up and checked all destinations from Dublin/Cork/Shannon to somewhere interesting. Was delighted to pick up €40 return flights to Copenhagen yesterday, flying in midweek in early september.

I know the city might will be pricy but even just to walk around for free etc will be great. Really looking forward to it now.