“Budget” European airlines – scam?

When I lived in Europe, I discovered the joys of Ryanair and Easyjet airlines. These European budget carriers put

Um, I guess complementary peanuts are out of the question?

their American counterparts, like Southwest, to shame. Not only do they offer ridiculously cheap fares but they also fly to most areas in the region. Both carriers keep their overhead (and costs) extremely low – offering no frills service, online booking and flying to smaller, regional airports. I once scored a roundtrip ticket from Frankfurt to Girona (near Barcelona) for only 50 euros – 50 EUROS!

Since TD and I wanted to hop around Europe quickly, I immediately thought of these airlines as an inexpensive way to get around. I discovered that the dirt cheap fares of yore are, alas, no longer in existence. Let me school you on the ways…

Extra bullshit that you will be charged for which will make you feel completely ripped off:

1. Taxes which are equal to/more than the amount of the ticket
2. Each checked bag
3. Airport check-in (where the fuck else are you supposed to do this?!)
4. Bulk items
5. Using a credit card instead of a debit card from a European bank account

In addition, they try to tack on all these extra fees for random services, such as priority boarding or travel and medical insurance. These boxes are always automatically checked and you have to manually opt-out for each option. So the tickets that I thought would total out to around $500, were actually closer to 800 bucks.

I guess I’m the sucka.