Jaunted

Tags: LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / Europe Travel / Germanwings / TuiFly / → All Tags

German LCCs Aim to Confuse Us Completely

European low cost airlines are getting pretty incestuous lately. First Germanwings started sharing flight bookings with Clickair, which then merged with Vueling. The news this week is that Germanwings is in serious talks to merge with TuiFly and Condor, two other German based LCCs.

But we'll have to wait on the legalities of it all: Condor tried to merge with Air Berlin last year but the German cartel office nixed the idea.

If you can sort all that out, you're doing well. We have a simpler suggestion: Just merge the lot of them and call it Cheap German Airlines.

Related Stories:
· Condor Joins TuiFly/Germanwings Tie-Up Talks [Reuters]
· Germanwings and Clickair Get Into Bed [Jaunted]
· Airline Mergers, Spanish Style [Jaunted]

[Photo: Andrei Dimofte]

Tags: Clickair / Germanwings / Europe Travel / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / → All Tags

Germanwings and Clickair Get into Bed

Here's a nice exercise in friendly cooperation: European low cost carriers Clickair and Germanwings have made an agreement to promote each other's (non-competing) flights.

That means, for example, if you're looking at Clickair flights from Barcelona to Germany, their own destinations of Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich will pop up, but so will Germanwings routes to Stuttgart and Cologne. If you then choose a flight from Germanwings, Clickair will redirect you over to that booking site.

We'll be interested to see if this new trend expands--and perhaps one day the whole of Europe will be covered by one mega-low-cost-carrier. Or they'll all collapse and we'll be taking the train.

Related Stories:
· Clickair and Germanwings Team Up [Peanuts]
· More Trains in Spain than Planes [Jaunted]
· Low Cost Carriers coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: carthesian]

Tags: LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / Europe Travel / Germanwings / → All Tags

Germanwings Has Christmas Spirit Too

Our inbox has been so full of flight offers from European low cost carriers since the Christmas season started that we couldn't possibly fit them all on our travel calendar. But wait... there's more, this time from the friendly folk of Germany.

Large LCC Germanwings is always big on promotional fares and right now has some cute wooden nutcrackers advertising flights for "€0*". Yes, zero euros, but with that little star, meaning the final cost for your flight will be between €19.78 and €55.85 ($29-$82). (Whatever happened to truth in advertising?) There are just 100,000 tickets at this price, so book fast--they're for travel through mid-March.

In the true spirit of Christmas giving, we're hoping that Germanwings will throw in a painted nutcracker with every ticket. Please?

Related Stories:
· Germanwings [Official Site]
· European Airlines Play Santa [Jaunted]
· Iceland on the Cheap and SkyEurope Celebrates [Jaunted]

Tags: Air Berlin / Germanwings / Airlines / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / → All Tags

Air Berlin Goes (Almost) Everywhere

German-based European LCC Air Berlin is also unashamedly pushing the new truth-in-advertising deal: their top-of-the-web-page motto now reads "Incl. taxes. Charges. And a smile." Like rival Germanwings, they also now have a frequent flyer program and are constantly announcing new routes, like the recent news that twice-daily London Stansted to Munich flights will start in November.

Air Berlin has a pretty extensive network already, servicing 97 different destinations, including 20 different cities in Germany. And they're not afraid to go where the sunburnt holidaymakers go, either: their website boasts 360 flights a week from various European cities to the Spanish island of Mallorca.

They also fly to the usually-less-serviced regions of Scandinavia and Russia, which gets the thumbs-up from us. Thumbs-down for ignoring Poland and all those other bits between western Europe and Russia, but with a run-of-the-mill name like Air Berlin they probably didn't want to compete with Wizz Air.

Related Stories:
· Air Berlin [Official Site]
· Site Scramble: Air Berlin [Jaunted]
· Germanwings' 5th Birthday Means Cheap Tickets [Jaunted]

[Photo: MarS]

Tags: Travel Trendwatching / Virgin America / Germanwings / Chris Dodd / Girls of Southwest / Steve Fossett / → All Tags

Travel Trendwatching, PEZ Dispenser Style

This quick hit list is all about pop culture travel trends in real-time. Six bits of travel pressed, dry candy pixels for you to digest weekly.

Fame
	Virgin America's Getting In-Flight WiFi
	50,000 Germanwings Flights For Next to Nothing
	Chris Dodd Wants You To Visit Cuba. Legally.

Lame
	The Saga Continues
	Still Searching for Steve Fossett
	German Tourists Stealing from the Tip Jar

Tags: Germanwings / Airlines / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / Sales / → All Tags

Germanwings' 5th Birthday Means Cheap Tickets

European LCC Germanwings always tries to be innovative--after all, they were the first to try to win LCC customer loyalty with their attempt at an air miles scheme, although they probably missed the point that people who use budget airlines do so because they want to pay the cheapest price, not cash in miles for free magazine subscriptions.

This week, rather than go all out to copy RyanAir's free tickets, Germanwings is offering a deal that might turn out to be better value. Since the airline's celebrating 5 years in the skies, tickets on 50,000 flights are on sale for just €5 (that's less than $7). Unlike RyanAir's "free" tickets, these €5 tickets already include all taxes and charges. Flights are on sale until midnight Sunday, and you have to travel between November 2007 and February 2008.

Related Stories:
· Germanwings [Official Site]
· Germanwings Makes Smart Connections (Maybe) [Jaunted]
· Germanwings Goes High Rent [Jaunted]
· RyanAir Giving Away 6 Million Tickets [Jaunted]

[Photo: klabusta]

Tags: Germanwings / Budget Airlines / → All Tags

Germanwings Makes Smart Connections (Maybe)

Seems that German low-cost carrier Germanwings really does want to be all modern and innovative. In its latest move to be something more than a budget airline, Germanwing has announced its Smart Connect service, which enables you to buy two connecting flights with just one ticket.

So, if you want to fly from London to Moscow, you could book a Germanwings flight going through one of the main German hubs like Stuttgart or Berlin, and although you'll have to recheck your baggage (security requirements), Germanwings promises that the connection will be easy and the flight will be cheaper than the old way where you had to buy two separate tickets. Let's wait and see if it works in practice, but the idea isn't too bad.

Related Stories:
· Germanwings Wants You To Pay Less [Jaunted]
· Germanwings Goes High Rent [Jaunted]

[Photo: albspotter]

Tags: Airfare Sales / Budget Airlines / Germanwings / → All Tags

Germanwings Wants You To Pay Less

The LCC industry is still a tooth-and-nail fight over in Europe, with new budget airlines entering the market from eastern Europe and alternatives like buses and trains trying to steal back the passengers. LCC Germanwings, which flies from pretty much anywhere in Germany to nearly everywhere in Europe, came up with a new promotion this week, but it sounded better than it really is.

Our first impression of the "The more people who fly, the cheaper it gets!" deal was that you could book tickets for more people and pay the same package price. It ain't quite so great: if you book for 4 to 5 people, prices drop by between 10 and 20 Euros per person, and if you book for 6 to 9 people, they drop another 10. Not a huge reward for all that diary coordinating needed to get your pals to all book the same flight. But if you are a big family and planning a trip around Europe, you have to book before July 1 for travel until September.

Related Stories:
· EasyJet Double or Nothing [Jaunted]
· Germanwings Goes High Rent [Jaunted]
· Germanwings [Official Site]

[Photo: albspotter]

Tags: Airlines / Budget Airlines / Germanwings / → All Tags

Germanwings Goes High-Rent

After you've cornered the market on cheap flights to destinations nobody's heard of, what is there for a budget airline to do? Not content with using their next-to-nothing airfares as a marketing ploy, low cost carrier Germanwings has started an air miles program to ensnare their pennywise customers.

Naming their scheme the "Boomerang Club" - because their customers get something back - doesn't fill me with confidence, because I've tried many times to flick a boomerang correctly. In any case, with 24,000 boomerangs, achievable by taking eight round-trip flights, passengers are subsequently entitled to a free flight anywhere in the network. Taxes and charges are still up to you, though, which could considerably dent the value of the prize: your one euro flight is free but the 36 Euro in taxes and fees comes out of your pocket. But pick your flights well and you avoid getting smacked in the head by your boomerang.

This so-called no-frills airline is also adding a branded credit card and a hotel partnership to the mix, and charging those who want to get some Boomerang Club action 5 Euro for the privilege. At the same time the airline's extended their insurance scheme to cover the costs of missed connections if your flight is delayed. Seems like Germanwings is really taking all the fun out of low-cost carrier travel. Who knows - perhaps the next step is to supply free refreshments on board. Hang on ... isn't that what real airlines do?

Related Stories:
·   Ryanair Goes Literary [Jaunted]