European low cost carrier SkyEurope has just started a new payment system for customers who get freaked out about putting their credit card details onto the internet. In the modern spirit of joining a bunch of words together with no capitals or hyphens, it's the paysafecard, a pre-paid PIN-protected card that you can use online instead of putting your real credit card info at risk.
SkyEurope is the first airline to hop on the paysafecard bandwagon and they're pretty proud about it, calling it "revolutionary." Whether or not they'll really pick up extra customers this way is something we question, but the idea is certainly not a bad one.
The catch is you have to buy it in pre-paid amounts (of €10, €25, €50 or €100), so you're going to keep ending up with leftover money. Maybe they need to revolutionize the idea just a bit more.
Hot on the heels of our prediction that the European budget airline industry is in trouble, we're instantly proven wrong with a bunch of new route announcements from SkyEurope and Ryanair.
In the next couple of months, SkyEurope will start new flights including Kosice (eastern Slovakia) to England, Poprad (northern Slovakia) to London and more regular flights between Slovak cities and Prague.
Ryanair meanwhile is launching 14 new routes, including service to four completely new destinations: Agadir, Nador and Tangier in Morocco and Lille in northern France.
We'll have to wait till the end of the summer to see if these new routes actually pay their way. Get in while they're still available!
If you've been daydreaming about a spontaneous (and cheap) trans-European trip then maybe we'll spark an idea with some of the latest deals from our favorite European low cost carriers. Take Iceland Express, for example. There are a hundred reasons to visit Iceland, half of which you can find out our favorite airline blog, How Do You Like Iceland?, and the 101st reason is they have a Christmas special on London to Iceland flights, starting at £60 ($122). Reason 102: They say New Year's Eve really goes off in Iceland.
For other European destinations, SkyEurope is offering a neat deal right now, to celebrate its best quarter of financial results ever. Book before December 16 (or sooner, as there are a limited number of tickets) and SkyEurope will charge you nothing but the taxes and charges, for travel between January 10 and March 18, 2008. Since the maximum taxes and charges add up to about $70, and some are far less, you could be flying between Western and Central Europe very cheaply indeed.
Those cozy quarters... the scarcity of armrests... the potential to get (six inches closer to) horizontal... What isn't romantic about airlines? The new Central European carrier SkyEurope must be banking on that as it builds up its SkyDate program on flights within Europe.
On the first SkyDate in June, passengers traveling between Brussels and Vienna were given the opportunity to meet 10 singles over the course of the flight. But those traveling on the upcoming London-Prague SkyDate (November 28 and 29) will have the opportunity not only to speed-date on board, but also to stay overnight in Prague and take a city tour. So in case you don't make that instant connection during the flight, maybe solid ground will be kinder.
As aisle-seat fans, we've been burned a couple of times by middle-seat passengers who needed to get up every 10 minutes during transcontinental flights, but apparently that isn't a drawback to Europe's lonely hearts. The overnight stay is a genius idea, though. If nothing else, it's a chance to play High School Tour Group again, sans chaperones.
Central European LCC SkyEurope might've had humble beginnings in Bratislava, and tricked a few people by inventing an airport called "Vienna Bratislava" (which actually meant taking an hour-long bus ride across a border checkpoint after arriving in ordinary old Bratislava). But in recent years they just keep expanding and the deals are still as cheap as ever.
With dozens of flight routes that now center around Bratislava, Prague, Budapest and Krakow, there are more being added every time we turn our head. This October, new flights will include runs to the London Luton airport from Bratislava, Prague and Poprad in the Tatra Mountains, and a connection to Kosice in eastern Slovakia too.
Since they're now showing "all inclusive" prices on their website, it's much easier to be impressed with the bargains: Even at short notice there are heaps of flights on many routes for just €29 (less than $40) including taxes and charges. And last time we flew SkyEurope, the flight attendants wore denim: We like that.
Here's a decent stunt from JetBlue's chic cousin from Budapest: SkyEurope will "pay" you to book a ticket with them between now and Sunday. The Czech LCC has discounted some ticket prices to minus 10 koruna, though that equals real money in dollars.
'Course, you'll end up paying for fees in positive dough, so the pitch isn't quite what it seems--what else is new with airline promos? Routes featured include Dublin to Bratislava, and London to Krakow. A one-way fare on that DUB-BTS leg will end up costing about $23. Not bad, even as we're all being spoiled by the competetive European discount airline market.
The differences between European LCCs can be quite drastic. To be fair, most try to follow the swish JetBlue model, not the frenzied Crazy Eddie experience that Ryanair offers. One of our favorites from the former category is Central European carrier SkyEurope.
The site is made up of soothing blue and white tones--high-impact sales is not the traditional way of operating in that part of the world--clearly displaying where the airline flies with a simple flash map on the front door. Fares on sale are also on the front door, making this close to the simplest interface we've encountered thus far.
Searching for fares is a little bit more difficult, although they do display dates surrounding those you're considering, if you want to burrow for added value. We wish taxes were displayed with the price of each leg, though, not after you've selected them. In the cool toys area, there is the option to send your itinerary via SMS to your phone. We're not sure if it's useful--we just said it was cool.
Between the leather seats we see pictured in the cabin and the lovely flight attendants, think of this as JetBlue's chic cousin from Budapest.
SkyEurope is a low-cost carrier based in Bratislava, though they have hubs in four outher Central European cities, including Budapest and Prague. Instead of being wedded to a big hub, like Transavia in Schiphol, or to the idea of tiny regional airports an hour or more from a the city's center (as with Ryanair's Frankfurt/Hahn destination), they keep things simple by spreading out their base cities in the region. As a result, they are poised to offer fares that are convienient and cheap; a rare combination.
We've chosen this fare--part of a SkyEurope sale to the UK--which is about $72 OW after taxes, as a good pick. You're not flying out of Luton, as with easyJet, and you're not stuck with the miserable Ryanair experience flying to Krakow. Krakow also has the advantage of being slightly less chockablock with stag parties in comparison with the Baltic countries and Prague. For now, anyway.
