Explain the discount airline process. It doesn’t seem cheaper when you end up paying for carryons and checked bags?

[Anonymous]

I’ve had friends recommend Play Airlines for Paris and London. Rates are like $87/pp. when I add in carry on’s and checked bags for our family of five, we end up over $3k.

What’s the way to work the discounts with airlines like this? Not to bring much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had friends recommend Play Airlines for Paris and London. Rates are like $87/pp. when I add in carry on’s and checked bags for our family of five, we end up over $3k.

What’s the way to work the discounts with airlines like this? Not to bring much?

Can you fly 5 people to Paris for $3k on Air France or United? Not in the summer you can’t.

[Anonymous]

I fly frontier sometimes because they have direct flights to Denver from DCA. If I could get away with just bringing a small backpack, it’s super cheap.

[Anonymous]

I fly Allegiant to see my parents in Florida because in the summer we can throw what we need in backpacks (no charge) and do laundry at their house. They have all the beach toys and towels there, so we just need a few changes of clothes, a couple swim suits and basic toiletries. If we go in the winter, I usually pay to check one bag for our 3 person family because the clothes are a bit bulkier. Plus its much easier to fly into St. Pete airport instead of Tampa.

We're really fortunate that my parents bought a duplex. They live on one side, and airbnb the other. So we're together but not TOGETHER, and we can just borrow what we need (shampoo, hairdryer, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Yes, you save by paying only for what you need. If you need 15 piece of luggage you pay for that.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I haven't been able to make discount carriers work for family travel.

I think the discounts come in when: you don't have bags to check, you have flexibility of travel time, and you don't care where you sit.

I think it could work, if you used one city as a base, and can leave a lot of gear, and then you travel with a small carryon for a short visit to another country.
When I travel with kids, none of that is true (excepted maybe the carry-on baggage only). So we don't even try to make that work anymore.

[Anonymous]

The idea is to bring as little as possible, don't care where you sit, bring a tablet with movies loaded, have very low expectations, pray and cross your fingers. I am told old for that now but would have done when I was young and broke.

[Anonymous]

In 2023, I flew to London for 4 days for $200 return on Norse Air when they were still offering direct flights from DC. I was staying with friends and just took 2 changes of clothes in a small bag, used their toiletries and bought a few things in the supermarket. I was travelling alone and didn’t care where I sat. It was in November so not peak time. It was too good to last.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, minimal stuff, don’t care where you sit. Once you start adding luggage / carry on, reserving seats, getting priority boarding it adds up quickly. Still 3K for 5, is 600 return ticket per person. That’s still pretty cheap depending on season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had friends recommend Play Airlines for Paris and London. Rates are like $87/pp. when I add in carry on’s and checked bags for our family of five, we end up over $3k.

What’s the way to work the discounts with airlines like this? Not to bring much?

It still works out cheaper, but honestly, these airlines aren’t really for you if you’re traveling as a family with carry-ons and checked bags. At least you’re not going to see the insane savings that they advertise.

I’ve done many transatlantic flights on WOW, Norse Atlantic, and French Bee, and the way to realize the savings is (1) to travel alone (or at least, not care at all where you’re seated/whether you’re seated with traveling companions - so not ideal for families with young children), (2) definitely no checked luggage, (3) ideally no carry-on (I have a roomy weekender bag that counts as a free personal item), but you could pay the $150 extra RT for it if you needed to and still come out ahead. I pay the base fare and that’s literally it.

That said, I generally do transatlantic trips on low-cost carriers as long weekends, travel alone or with one other person (no kids), pack lightly in general (the max I ever bring on a long trip is a carry-on), and don’t care where I sit. So I’m the ideal demographic to extract value from these kinds of airlines.

Also, if you are considering Play for a peak summer family trip, consider that these airlines typically don’t have inter-airline agreements where they can rebook you on a different airline if their flight is delayed or canceled, and typically don’t offer the same flight every day like a full-service carrier. This can be a problem if you have a layover and the first flight is delayed, or if the flight gets canceled for some reason. So if the final price difference works out to a few hundred dollars per ticket vs. a full-service airline, it might be better for you to spend the extra and go with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had friends recommend Play Airlines for Paris and London. Rates are like $87/pp. when I add in carry on’s and checked bags for our family of five, we end up over $3k.

What’s the way to work the discounts with airlines like this? Not to bring much?

How many bags are you checking and carrying on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had friends recommend Play Airlines for Paris and London. Rates are like $87/pp. when I add in carry on’s and checked bags for our family of five, we end up over $3k.

What’s the way to work the discounts with airlines like this? Not to bring much?

It's like counting cards at a casino. You have to be careful to be at the house. It works for low demand travelers like young adult singles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had friends recommend Play Airlines for Paris and London. Rates are like $87/pp. when I add in carry on’s and checked bags for our family of five, we end up over $3k.

What’s the way to work the discounts with airlines like this? Not to bring much?

It still works out cheaper, but honestly, these airlines aren’t really for you if you’re traveling as a family with carry-ons and checked bags. At least you’re not going to see the insane savings that they advertise.

I’ve done many transatlantic flights on WOW, Norse Atlantic, and French Bee, and the way to realize the savings is (1) to travel alone (or at least, not care at all where you’re seated/whether you’re seated with traveling companions - so not ideal for families with young children), (2) definitely no checked luggage, (3) ideally no carry-on (I have a roomy weekender bag that counts as a free personal item), but you could pay the $150 extra RT for it if you needed to and still come out ahead. I pay the base fare and that’s literally it.

That said, I generally do transatlantic trips on low-cost carriers as long weekends, travel alone or with one other person (no kids), pack lightly in general (the max I ever bring on a long trip is a carry-on), and don’t care where I sit. So I’m the ideal demographic to extract value from these kinds of airlines.

Also, if you are considering Play for a peak summer family trip, consider that these airlines typically don’t have inter-airline agreements where they can rebook you on a different airline if their flight is delayed or canceled, and typically don’t offer the same flight every day like a full-service carrier. This can be a problem if you have a layover and the first flight is delayed, or if the flight gets canceled for some reason. So if the final price difference works out to a few hundred dollars per ticket vs. a full-service airline, it might be better for you to spend the extra and go with that.

Also, Play already dropped their Dulles flight for 2025, and has said they will be further cutting US airports over the course of 2025. Significant chance a BWI summer booking could be cancelled in the next month or two.

https://crankyflier.com/2024/10/24/play-airlines-plans-to-play-in-the-sand-instead-of-the-states/

[Anonymous]

And that is why they are cheap!!! You have a set of parameters that you prob can't meet. So you buy the "cheap" ticket but the business does not suffer for your "cheap" seat because they make their money on what they know you will need for that seat.

OR - you fly knowing you'll be kinda miserable or have to compromise on a number of fronts to keep things actually cheap.

Ultimately, it's business. The airlines are a business. It's not to cater to your needs. You can take your business anywhere you want but the saying, if it's too good to be true...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had friends recommend Play Airlines for Paris and London. Rates are like $87/pp. when I add in carry on’s and checked bags for our family of five, we end up over $3k.

What’s the way to work the discounts with airlines like this? Not to bring much?

Can you fly 5 people to Paris for $3k on Air France or United? Not in the summer you can’t.

We have before on BA. We aren’t peak season travelers though. Which is why I’m figuring the savings is the same as the regular price we pay on airlines like BA, etc.. rather than a large savings with the lower level ticket of $87pp.

Op here.