Original question by @HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml

I don’t fly that often, and when I do, I pick the cheapest airline possible. Maybe I’m just lucky but I’ve personally never had budget airlines screw me over all that much. The delays and getting upcharged for everything is expected, but I’ve never actually been in a situation where a flight got cancelled and they just left me to sleep in the terminal overnight or anything like that, so I never really considered paying more for one of the “normal” airlines.

I’m curious as to what economy is like on a non-budget airline. They can be over double the cost of a budget airline ticket so do you actually get double the service? Anyone who has a lot of experience flying both want to weigh in on how they compare?

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksMEnglish
    7·
    1 day ago

    Depends what you’re after, really. If you want absolutely no extras, economy at budget airline is probably fine.

    I’ve flown enough to prefer the “normal” airlines for what is included: yes, I need to bring a carry-on. And yes, I have checked luggage in addition to that. Sometimes several. And some of them are often heavy as fuck. No extra charge at a normal airline.

    At a budget airline, anything beyond getting you and only you from A to B is an extra, and extra services carry a cost. And I absolutely detest the paperwork involved in filing an expense claim.

    Also, when I’m flying, I’m either flying to work and want to arrive well rested, or I’m finally on my way home and can finally unwind. For these reasons I prefer to chill in a lounge during my connection, and/or upgrade to business class on the longer flights. Budget airlines usually don’t have any of those as an option.

    As far as I can recall, I haven’t been left to fend for myself by a budget airline delay cancelation, at least not to a significant degree. But whenever something unexpected happens with the normal airline happens it seems they always have a good routine in place to make sure everything is taken care of, including rebooking, sorting out any connection complications, overnight stay at a proper hotel. Previous time this happened I got to pick any flight the following day that worked with my schedule, as opposed to being shoved into an early and really inconvenient one.