Our trip to Portugal and Poland from Norway was my first experience traveling with budget airlines in Europe. I had heard a lot about how affordable they made travel within Europe, and certainly found that to be the case. I had a great experience!

Essentials to traveling with budget airlines, in the cheapest way possible.

• Step one: take the cheapest flight offered, no matter the airline.

Changing airlines throughout your trip is part of the deal. Websites like Skyscanner will automatically build itineraries that combine the best-priced flights.

• Step two: travel with only a backpack.

Step one makes step two mandatory. Not only is it not feasible to have to retrieve (which requires leaving security) and recheck your suitcase during a layover to your next airline, but it is also prohibitively expensive to check bags. High checked baggage fees are one way budget airlines generate revenue. This also includes high fees for carry-on luggage that goes in the overhead bin. Only travel with what can fit in the seatback in front of you.

• Step three: make sure there is ample time built into your itinerary.

Step one also makes step three mandatory. You may need to leave security to reach your next airline (this is referred to as self-transfer), so ensure you have sufficient time during your layover to re-clear security if switching airlines.

In Milan, we had to leave security and take a bus to a different terminal before joining the back of a long security line to reach our departing gate. It took at least an hour.

Pros of traveling budget airlines

• It’s cheap and makes travel way more accessible on a budget!
• The airplanes are the same as any airline, so no need to worry about having a cheap airplane. We only flew on Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s (same plane, different manufacturer). Our cheapest flight was from Gdańsk, Poland, to Bergen, Norway (€ 24 each, no joke), and was on a brand-new A320. This brings up another way these carriers save money: each airline typically flies only one model, such as Southwest in the US, to keep maintenance costs down.
• You get to experience the simplicity of traveling light, which is exceptionally liberating and makes you more flexible for your entire trip.
• They also always board through the front and rear of the plane to speed things up, which is a bonus in my mind.

Cons of traveling budget airlines

• Well, they have to make their money somehow, so you do get more bombarded with advertising and offers. See below for our experience with each airline in this regard.
• You may feel a bit like cattle in a feedlot at times. Another way that they generate revenue is through fast turnover times- the airplane is not on the ground long. We often had our tickets scanned and then stood in a large holding area along with the entire volume of passengers waiting to board. You cannot sit and can wait up to twenty minutes or more. As soon as the last passenger was off, our feedlot door was opened.
• There is no first class or business class, so if that is your thing, these are not for you. They do, however, offer priority boarding (for an extra fee).
• Another way they save money is by spending less on their airport services. We never had jetways, so you had to walk outside to get on the plane, and often the gates are located in the far reaches of the airport with fewer services in general.

Our experience with each budget airline

We had five legs during our trip and managed to utilize four different airlines.

Our first leg was from Bergen, Norway to Copenhagen, Denmark, and we flew Norwegain Air. Norwegain Air is not a budget airline, but that leg was fortunately still quite affordable.

Ryanair: Our next leg was from Copenhagen to Porto with Irish-owned Ryanair. Ryanair is a budget airline, and it turned out to have the cheapest feel of all.

I marveled at the fact that there were no seat pockets, which is why the safety info was posted directly on the seatback. And I did not miss the advertisements at eye level. The seats were also very thin, presumably to fit more people onto the plane.

As with all these carriers, all drinks require a purchase, but they did have a nice selection of food and drink to choose from.

The seats also did not recline, which I found to be common. But what struck me the most was that they did not dim the lights in the cabin when night fell. That part was awful, but still worth the price of a cheap flight to Portugal.

Ryanair was the only budget airline I experienced that did not have seat pockets. They also had the thinnest and cheapest-feeling seats. And during our second night flight with Wizz Air, the lights were dimmed.

easyJet: We flew British-owned easyJet from Porto to Milan and had quite a pleasant experience. The only giveaway that it was a budget airline, after the boarding process, was the advertisements posted directly on the seats and the advertisements announced over the intercom during the flight. They were selling all sorts of things, even perfume! But it was few and far enough between that I did not find it to be annoying.

The seats were thin and did not recline, but they were more comfortable than Ryanair and had a seat pouch for our phones and water bottles!

Side note: I would actually argue that seats should not recline on shorter flights. It is awful for the person behind you, and it really is not that much more comfortable, is it?

Wizz Air: We flew Hungarian-owned Wizz Air twice, both from Milan to Gdánsk and from Gdánsk to Bergen.

I found Wizz Air to be the most pleasant of all. Minus the boarding process, I could not even tell a big difference between non-budget airlines. There was no advertising over the intercom, and though the seats did not recline, they were not noticeably different.

As mentioned above, on our last leg, we even flew on a brand new plane, which might have skewed my view a bit because, to be honest, another aspect of budget airlines is that they are a bit more grimy. After all, how much maintenance cleaning can be done when the airplanes are on the ground for the shortest time possible? Turns out, not much.

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If you are wondering what all of this cost, we paid around $350 per person for five flights over three different days. That averages out to about $70 per person/per flight. And THAT is impossible to beat.