You read. You posted. You conquered, Cheapos.

Recently, we regaled you with the story of our lackluster plane trip home from Paris. In short, we had a really crummy seat on an American Airlines flight and were forced to come up with ways to “overcome” the seats. We then asked you for your tips on overcoming such transatlantic trials.

In witty emails, funny blog comments, and some in-person chats, we heard it all. (Including, to our relief, that we aren’t the only ones who’ve posed strategically for photos in order to snap documentation of intoxicated passengers… Thanks Henrietta!).

We also learned some innovative ways to avoid seat discomfort and annoyance, including pretending to be pregnant, tuning out with an iPod, and playing trivia with other passengers.  One reader recommended the pharma-approach: pop a couple sleeping pills and say goodnight.  Others distract themselves with in-flight movies, no matter how inane (Mouse Hunt, anyone?).

But, alas, there can only be on winner for our Rough Guide to Europe on a Budget giveaway.
 

“Poetloverrebelspy,” aka Hilary, is our winner. A true Cheapo, PLRS offered countless tips in her post—stuff worth checking out before your next overseas trip. We especially loved her shout-out to SeatGuru, a EuroCheapo favorite for mapping out the right seat before you book your flight.

In her own words:

“I’m an ethnographer at heart, so I pretty much enjoy talking with my seatmates if they’re game. I think people’s lives are fascinating, and anyone traveling across the world generally has a good story to tell. Any flight attendant who’s willing also has a lot of funny experiences and insider insights to share.

One flight I sat next to a man who chewed tobacco and spit into a bottle every five seconds for the entire nine hours.

Another flight I was seated next to a Ukrainian woman who didn’t speak a word of English. Wasn’t she lucky I spoke Russian so I could help her fill out all her immigration forms! Couldn’t I order a vodka from the flight attendant to calm her nerves (it was her first time flying)? Couldn’t I order another to settle her upset stomach? (Thankfully, this story ends here.)

Any flight these days that has a personal video screen, I have no problem finding three movies to entertain myself. I usually have magazines I’m trying to finish, a guidebook I’m scrambling to read or mind puzzles for those long waits on the runway. And there’s always the iPod to drown out the sound of your neighbor’s . . . spit.

As for not getting shafted in the seat lottery, it pays to put the day when seats for your flight open up on your calendar (usually 90 days out) and go pick yours immediately! Use Time and Date’s Date Calculator to quickly figure out which day that is. If you don’t fly often enough to know what’s what on the plane you’ll be flying on, use SeatGuru as your guide.”

Thanks, Hilary. And thanks to all the readers who submitted their tips. Check out the blog for more contests in the near future!

In the spring of 2006, I was able to score some super-cheap tickets on Ryanair for a last-minute getaway to Barcelona from London, where I was living. It had been a great weekend, made possible by my low-cost flight. I booked a 6 PM flight in order to extend my holiday as long as possible, pushing off the reality of the next morning’s workday. As long as I was in Barcelona, I was on vacation! 

The tickets were basically free—I only had to pay the airport tax. The catch? I had to fly into and out of two less-than-central airports, London’s Stansted and Barcelona’s Girona airport. It was worth it, right?

What follows is a diary of my flight experience en route from Barcelona to London.

4:30 PM: I arrive early at the airport for a 6 PM flight. We all know you have to get to the gate before the other passengers in order to snag the best seat.

5:00 PM: Shortly after check-in, an announcement is made. The flight has been delayed an hour.

Ok, some extra time to score a panini at Girona’s atmospheric café. (In the above photo, do I look like I’m ready for take-off?)

Tip: Stock up on food, just in case. Girona’s airport café closed at 9 p.m. I’m glad I grabbed a sandwich when I did. Others would not be so lucky.

7 PM: A second announcement. The flight has been delayed for another hour. All assembled groan and pull out iPods, books and approved electronic devices. One nearby traveler starts clipping his nails over a waste basket, violating all manner of social codes (are clippers even allowed on airplanes?).

8:15 PM: A third announcement. Drum roll, please: The flight has been delayed for another two hours. The announcer says, with a tinge of exhaustion in her voice, “We hope to leave by 11. Thank you for your patience.” The thought of work the next morning was beginning to make me vaguely nauseous. 

Around 10 PM: Boredom sets in. All other flights have taken off. The airport feels empty, save the other poor souls flying to Stansted. With hardly anyone around, I attempt to fit myself, horizontally, into a row of seats in any way that could lead to sleep. I am not successful.

Above: Nothing happening under flourescent lights.

Tip: Bring back-up diversions. That could mean catching up on your trip journal, watching all the TV shows you earlier loaded up on your iPod, making progress on that novel, or even flipping through some celeb mags. In short, have something to do. I had packed ”Madame Bovary,” which only helped put me to sleep.

11:30 PM: All other flights have left the Girona airport, and there’s still no sign of our airplane.  The 20 Stansted-bound passengers are told we will not take off until after midnight. No excuse is given.

Tip: Make friends…if there are any out there. At some point after midnight, I found myself chatting with a couple from Los Angeles. A bottle of vodka became open. (Glad they took advantage of Duty Free when it was open…hours ago.) I pass up a shot (work seems ludicrously close), but others around happily partake. The mood lifts… and distorts.

1:30 PM: We take off, nine hours after my arrival at the airport.

Tip: Know when to go! Turns out there’s more than one good reason not to check any luggage on a budget flight. If you’re delayed, you could risk missing the last bus out of the arrival airport.

2:30 AM: We arrive at Stansted and immediately there’s a mad dash for the bus to London. And for good reason: The last one leaves the airport at 3 am (and sometimes earlier, depending on reasons I couldn’t quite understand). If you miss the last bus, you have to get a taxi, which can cost upwards of £60, or wait until 7 am when the buses start up again. I make the bus.

3:30 AM: I’m dropped off at Marble Arch on Oxford Street. What’s my name? Who am I? And how do I get a taxi? Work the next morning was, well, another story…

In the end, this experience didn’t deter me from flying on budget airlines. Over the next year, I’d often take cheap flights, including easyJet and Aer Lingus, for quick getaways. But I learned something about flexibility that long night in Girona.

Read another Cheapo’s tale of a long night in Stansted. Got a good airport story? Leave a comment or send us a note.

(tap, tap)

Is this thing on?

Ladies and gents, we’re thrilled to announce the newest addition to EuroCheapo: CheapoSearch Flights, our great, big search engine for researching budget airlines in Europe.

We’re big fans of European budget airlines, in all their quirky, bargain-ticket glory. How else could you fly from London to Rome for £10? We felt, however, that there weren’t enough reliable resources on the web to find, compare, and research the carriers and routes.

Thus, we built CheapoSearch Flights. Don’t know your Aer Arann  from your WizzAir? We’ve got you covered.

What’s special about CheapoSearch Flights?

Our flights guide includes 43 low-cost airlines in Europe, reviewed by EuroCheapo’s editors, and includes company profiles, pros and cons, luggage and boarding policy information, and direct links to their websites. While we include well known budget airlines, such as Ryanair and easyJet, we also features lesser known regional carriers, such as Intersky and ClubAir.

But wait, there’s more!

Budget Airline Route Finder: Travelers can search for budget routes between thousands of European cities and, when there isn’t a budget route available, receive suggestions for alternative routes at nearby airports. Search results also display flight times and ticket prices for tickets bookable through our reservation partner wegolo.com.

Airport Mapping: CheapoSearch Flights maps out all departure and arrival airports for each route, so travelers can better understand distances between airports and cities. This provides a better understanding of the travel time (and transportation cost) for cities with multiple airports, and presents other airport options within a 65-mile radius.

Airline Price Comparison: In addition to budget airline prices, CheapoSearch Flights also allows travelers to easily compare airfare on major airlines that fly the same route. After all, sometimes these carriers offer lower prices or fly into more centrally-located airports.

So, cruise around on CheapoSearch Flights. If you have any comments on how we can make it better, please let us know!

Many, many thanks to the Cheapos who contributed to the creation of CheapoSearch Flights, including Alex Robertson Textor, James Ellis, Mike Cargian, and the extended EuroCheapo family who provided constructive feedback, invaluable advice, and hours of free bug testing!

We’ve all been there—the nightmare seat on the plane. The airline staff knows the seat is terrible when they check you in, but they still assign it to you with a straight face. It’s a seat that nobody in their right mind would trade you for. That seat that will have to be endured. But how?

Earlier this week when Pete and Mere (pictured above) were flying from Paris to New York, they landed a couple of doozies. Their seats, ominously located in aisle 13, were situated up against the bathroom wall, preventing them from reclining. Rather comically, the row was windowless, offering a view of a beige wall for eight hours. Across the aisle, a fellow traveler became intoxicated and fell asleep, drooling on his chest, and upon the large Casio keyboard he brought along.

These Cheapos experienced a flash of panic as they contemplated how to deal with this unpleasant intercontinental scenario. Their solution: distraction. They whipped out one laptop and started going through the photos they had downloaded from the trip. When the battery died, they brought out their other laptop and did the same thing. This distraction, a reminder of the more pleasant aspects of travel, satisfied several hours and the rest of the time was easily filled with eating, drinking, trying to nap, and making trips to the bathroom.

The Contest: Your nightmare seats and solutions

Have you ever had a bad seat? A reeaaally bad seat? Tell us about it below. But also tell us about how you overcame the seat and made it through the trip. Did you do some airplane yoga? Get a few drinks? Make a new friend? Lock yourself in the bathroom?

Share your story and your advice. We’ll reward the best advice for overcoming a bad seat with a copy of the newly published “Rough Guide to Europe on a Budget,” out this month. The 1,280 page book is a budget traveler’s Bible, offering euro-saving advice for 34 countries in Europe, including top sights, cheap eats, and nightlife.

The contest deadline is Wednesday, April 2, 2008. (U.S. mailing addresses only and void where prohibited. We will be in contact with the winner by email to ask for their mailing address.)

Go ahead and post your story below!

Alas, after two weeks of traveling to Berlin, Brussels, and Bruges, these three Cheapos at Work had to fly home on Monday. Pete and Mere flew from Paris, and I returned from Brussels. 

Before I get into my “you won’t believe what Continental served us for breakfast” stomach-turner, I must apologize for not blogging during my six day hotel hunt in Bruges. The only excuse I can muster is that I was simply too tired to write. I hadn’t anticipated that Bruges would be so charming, friendly, and full of great hotels.

But more about Bruges tomorrow. I’m still fired up about my breakfast…

I returned to Brussels on Sunday night and woke up at 5:20 AM for my 8:20 Continental direct flight to New York. I was at the airport at 6:15, shuffled through check in, security, and along an extremely long terminal.

Leaving so early in the morning is kind of strange. It’s too early to get breakfast at the hotel, so you have to grab a bite at the airport. I managed to eat a quick croissant and coffee before boarding at 7:25, but I was ready for a proper breakfast.

We took off at 8:20. Soon after, Continental gave us honey-roasted peanuts and a drink. I should have already suspected something.

And then, at about 9:00 AM, they rolled down the aisle asking the unthinkable.

“Chicken or beef?” “Chicken or beef?” “I’ve got chicken and mashed potatoes or beef noodle.”

I was shocked, but not too shocked to note the reactions about me.

Many, after overcoming their initial confusion, simply resigned themselves to one of the meats and took their trays. One couple in front of me decided, in tandem, that they simply objected to the offer and didn’t want anything to do with the food or the server. The stewardess didn’t care.

“OK, don’t eat it. But this is an eight-hour flight. You’re going to be hungry.” She grimaced, and then rolled on.

When she came to me, I decided to dig a little for the real story.

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to be annoying,” I said, already accomplishing the task. “But why are you serving chicken and beef at 9 AM?”

She was cool. “Because it’s an eight hour flight.”

“Right. But why not serve it later, like at lunch time? Why not serve breakfast now?”

“What? We’re going to serve cereal and milk?” she laughed. “Do you want chicken or beef?”

I felt challenged. “No, but you could serve a muffin and a yogurt.”

“Look,” she said, obviously fed up. “Most people here ate breakfast at home before they left for the airport. Do you want chicken or beef?”

I was losing. “Well some people here slept in a hotel and had to be at the airport at 6 AM!”

She looked at me and shook her head. I somehow felt shame.

“Chicken.”

She rolled on and I uncovered my breakfast: One defeated chicken breast, limp atop mashed potatoes, mini carrots and green beans. All of it covered in gravy. The entree was accompanied by a lettuce salad, ranch dressing, a vacuum-packed dinner roll, and a brownie.

“Beer and wine is available for purchase for €4 or US $5. Please have correct change.”

Next time, I think I’ll fly a European carrier. You know, one that serves breakfast.

Which European airport guarantees the worst experience? Which has the longest security lines, the craziest gate transfers, or the most disorganized baggage claim? 

We chuckled our way through Elisabeth Rosenthal’s piece in last Friday’s International Herald Tribune in which she gives results of her own unscientific poll. The results:

1) London Heathrow
“Hands down the worst” cited by “100 percent of respondents.” An airport so massive that passengers are forced to sprint between gates, and hampered by an inconvenient one-bag carry-on limit through security.

2) Charles de Gaulle
The Paris airport features “Gaulle-ing conditions,” look-alike terminals, and a confusing layout that makes you feel like you’re “in an Escher print.”

3) Rome Fiumicino and Frankfurt 
Tied for “dishonorable mention,” one featuring “dirty conditions” and the other offering a miles-long “rainbow” subterranean tunnel.

The piece was in response to a new survey of the best airports in the world, put out recently by the air travel research firm Skytrax. To be fair, four European airports (Munich, Zurich, Amsterdam, and Madrid) did make the top ten list.

But that list is hardly as funny.

Just when you think you know how to book the cheapest flight to Europe from the States, the airlines and agency websites shake things up. Again. Budget-savvy author Tim Leffel notes on his budget travel blog a number of recent changes in booking policies and fees.

These include:

Effective December 1, Continental is dropping its 500 bonus mile award for booking flights through Continental.com for passengers booking within the United States. Similarly, Delta announced it, too was dropping mileage bonuses.

So why book directly through the airlines’ websites? Cheaper fares than the agency sites, who tack on an extra booking fee, right? Well…

Priceline announced this month that they were dropping their booking fees when you book a flight through their direct-purchase service (not through their “name your own price” service). Might this force other agencies, such as Orbitz and Expedia, to drop their five-spot charges?

Stay tuned!