$99 one-way to Europe? Here’s how we booked it
Yes, we’re heading back to Europe. When we returned from Europe last summer, I said to myself that we won’t be back to Europe for awhile. After all, we’ve had three trips to Europe in the past 18 months:
- Spring 2015 – Milan, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Lake Como, and Paris
- Fall 2015 – London, Budapest, and Prague
- Summer 2016 – Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris
We’ve been enjoying Europe way too much and we decided to mix it up a bit. So we booked a trip to Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) back in November 2016. However, so many travels deals kept knocking on our door. And when a deal is too good to pass up, you just have to grab it and go.
A few weeks before our trip to Australia, an airfare deal was posted by WOW Air from Los Angeles to Iceland, direct flight for $99 one-way. What? $99??? Yes, $99.
So, what’s the catch? What is WOW Air? Well, we’re about to find out today as we embark on our very first flight. But, here’s what I know:
- budget airline
- no-frills
- you pay for everything food – no free snacks, assigned seats)
- Checked luggage fees vs free carry ons or personal items
I looked at that list, and I’m no stranger to those limitations. When it comes to flights within the US, the airlines that I’ve flown with do charge for checked luggage, very rarely do I get treated with “snacks” or a meal on a US flight when I fly economy. So to me, it’s really not a big deal. For $99, why not try and fly WOW. I told myself, “C’mon, it’s $99 to Europe?” Maybe I’ll have a different tune after my first real WOW experience. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I read somewhere that WOW is big on stopovers. They try to market or encourage travelers to stop in Iceland, and stay and visit for a few days, and then move on to another destination. So instead of booking a flight from LAX to KEF (or Reykjavik, Iceland), I decided to pick another European destination. I checked their website and by sheer of my process elimination criteria of “where can WOW Air take me for the least amount of money?” I then chose Stockholm, Sweden. How much? To fly from Reykjavik to Stockholm was for a whopping $80!!!! Insane.
Of course, we have to book a flight back to LAX, we paid $199 for the flight. So all in all, without using any airline points or miles:
- LA to Iceland (Reykjavik) – $99
- Iceland to Sweden (Stockholm) – $80
- Sweden to Los Angeles – $199
Altogether, from Los Angeles to Iceland to Sweden and then back to Los Angeles, without using miles or points, we paid$378. Insane!!!
For this trip, one of Nancy’s college best friends, Ana, will be joining us. Unlike our past trips, I took a back seat on this one. While I booked our flights and AirBNB stays, I let Ana and Nancy do all the planning. I think they did quite well….we’ll have to wait and see.
That’s it for now….we’ve got a long direct flight to Iceland and I’m sure I’ll find time to blog during the flight. I will write about my first-hand experience with WOW Air.