Air Europa?

[Scuba]

I started looking at flights for our summer 2024 trip to Europe. I’ve never flown Air Europa before, and online reviews are pretty bad. However their pricing is about half of other airlines such as Delta, United, SwissAir and Air France.

The online complaints I see are mostly about crappy food, not getting free headphones, rude personnel, and cramped space. While none of that sounds fun, for the relatively short duration of a flight from Miami to Europe, it seems like saving at least $1,200 will be worth it. I guess I can’t get my head around the BTD approach for flights when they are such a short part of a six to eight week trip.

Has anyone flown Air Europa and are they as horrible as the reviews suggest?

 

[DrRoy]

No, but try to check their on time and lost luggage performance. Avoiding bad luck here might be worth the higher fare.

 

[Aerides]

For newer budget airlines, I'd also check info on their fleet - age, etc.

 

[ivinsfan]

Well Scuba, IMO it's not the length of the flight that is the issue. The issue to me is what happens when Sh#$ goes wrong. There is a reason the flights are cheaper.

 

[marko]

For newer budget airlines, I'd also check info on their fleet - age, etc.

I'd also go a little deeper. Some "airlines" are actually charter flights which often have more lax maintenance requirements than the regular commercial airlines. The Atlas Air situation over Miami last week was a cargo plane which also likely has different maintenance schedules.

I flew Aeroflot back in the day. Not a pleasant experience! Also flew Air Tungaru which was a cargo flight to the mid-Pacific. Let's just say we hit a number of "snags" with the plane.

 

[brett]

We do not care about airplane food. We very seldom eat it and if we do it is just to pick at it.

We have take our own headphones....my favorite is a free pair that I got on TAP.

We only travel with carry on.

So....these are carrier attributes that never enter of decision process.

Do not know at AirEuropa.

Have you by change looked at Icelandic, TAP, Eurowings, Condor to see if they service hubs close to you. The later two are subs of Lufthansa.

Last spring we had excellent one way transatlantic fares on TAP.

 

[sengsational]

Fewer flights per week means you're SOL if something goes wrong. For that reason, it's got to be quite a bit cheaper for me to consider it. Flying out of Toronto can be a better price hack if you don't mind separate tickets and rechecking bags.

 

[Scuba]

We do not care about airplane food. We very seldom eat it and if we do it is just to pick at it.

We have take our own headphones....my favorite is a free pair that I got on TAP.

We only travel with carry on.

So....these are carrier attributes that never enter of decision process.

Do not know at AirEuropa.

Have you by change looked at Icelandic, TAP, Eurowings, Condor to see if they service hubs close to you. The later two are subs of Lufthansa.

Last spring we had excellent one way transatlantic fares on TAP.

Thanks for these recommendations. I did check TAP. It was cheaper than other majors but more than Air Europa for our itinerary. Will check out the others you mentioned, although they didn't come up on Google flights or Kayak. Will look them up individually if need be.

I know from your other posts that you often use discount airlines such as EasyJet, RyanAir, and Jetstar. I think we have somewhat similar travel styles except that you are more spontaneous that we are.

 

[brett]

Thanks for these recommendations. I did check TAP. It was cheaper than other majors but more than Air Europa for our itinerary. Will check out the others you mentioned, although they didn't come up on Google flights or Kayak. Will look them up individually if need be.

I know from your other posts that you often use discount airlines such as EasyJet, RyanAir, and Jetstar. I think we have somewhat similar travel styles except that you are more spontaneous that we are.

We have been on TAP several times. Last June it was Toronto-Madeira via Lisbon. Both flights were perfect, including the inflight service.

TAP pricing is interesting. It was less expensive to fly to Madeira with a change in Lisbon by about $100. than it was to just fly to Lisbon. Same on the Faro-Toronto route.

If you are near a Canadian hub Transat sometimes has some very attractive fares-one way. As does Westjet from time to time.

There is an advantage to flying with an EU airline. EU 261 consumer regulations are very strict. Those regs apply EU airlines flying in to the EU and all airlines flying out of the EU. Coming home last year our $350 one way Transat flight from Faro to Toronto was delayed 7 hours. We applied for the compensation. We each received cheques for the equiv. of 600Euro with 30 days of applying.

i

 

[tulak]

I've flown TAP in the past without any issues. Wouldn't hesitate to fly with them again. I've never flown with Air Europa.

For a European flight, I had to make a similar choice between EasyJet and SwissAir. SwissAir was a lot more expensive for the flight, but they have 3 flights a day, every day of the week, from an easier to access airport. The EasyJet flight is a couple of times a week. If for some reason the EasyJet flight is delayed or cancelled, it would be a hassle. So I spent extra for SwissAir.

If I'm not in a hurry, then I'd be fine with a bit of uncertainty.

For long-haul flights, I prefer to stick with major airlines.

 

[brett]

We have done a few Easyjet flights. You do have to be careful. Their price is never the price. You really do have to go through the complete booking, with all of the add on fees, to get to the bottom line. We avoid Ryanair...never been on it. If we are on Easyjet, which is very seldom, our preference is for early AM flights.

Many of the major carriers outside of NA also own and operate a low cost subsidiary for competitive reasons. Some are long haul carriers.

As an example Scoot is owned by Singapore Airlines. We have flown on their Krabi, Thailand to Gold Coast, Australia route. Long haul via Singapore.

Jetstar Australia is a sub of Qantas (on one Jetstar SYD-HNL flight we ended up on a Qantas code share). Long haul.

Vueling in Europe is a sub of IAG (BA, Iberia).

Lufthansa has two or three low cost subs, including Germanwings.

Transavia in Europe is owned by the KLM/Air France group.

The list goes on..

 

[tulak]

I've been happy with EasyJet, but yes, you need to see the total price. One thing I like about EasyJet is they tend to fly into the major airlines. I've never flown RyanAir and have little interest in flying in/out of inconvenient airports.

For longer flights, I will always book a seat, which with the other fees, usually puts it in the same ballpark as the major airlines. I'm thinking of IcelandAir, Aer Lingus, etc. I've flown the former and it was fine, but the cost savings weren't that great.

Condor is another low-cost long-haul German airline that flies in/out of Frankfurt. They partner with Lufthansa for continuing flights in Europe. I flew with them in 2021, first time with Covid restriction in place. They were fine, but I did pay extra for better economy (meal and seat selection).

 

[brett]

On three occasions we have been able to score very good one way transatlantic consolidator fare code tickets on BA. All three had excellent connections with backups in case of a late inbound arrival.

Two times through a well known internet agency, the third time they were cruise air tickets purchased with a late booking cruise.

All three times the O/W ticket price was close enough to half of the return fare price at that time which is unusual for most major carriers.