Editor’s Note: Wow Air ceased operations in March of 2019.
Wow! Airlines, the self-proclaimed “ultra low-cost transatlantic carrier”, today announced a new crop of $99 seats beginning in October from two US departure points, Boston and Washington, to Paris and Amsterdam (all with connections in Reykjavik, Iceland).
Although the airline claimed that $99 seats are available starting in October, we weren’t able to find any of these cheap seats for that month in our test searches today.
However, we did turn up some $99 seats available to and from Europe for December, January and February travel. The return ticket, however, was often at least twice as much.
Related:
In one of our tests, we found a $99 ticket to Paris, but the return to Boston was $189.
In one test for Boston to Paris in November and December, November was already slim pickings, but we were able to snag a $99 seat for December. With a return two weeks later for $189, the bare-basics ticket came in at $288 (without bags or assigned seats).
Similarly, a test for Baltimore/Washington (BWI) to Paris in January yielded a $99 departure (on January 10), but the cheapest return we could find was $288 two weeks later. (The month was filled with $288 return flights from Paris.) Total flight charge: $387 (without bags or assigned seats).
Extra charge alert: However, note that checking a bag will set you back $67 each way, and reserving a seat will cost a minimum of $7 each way.
Bottom line
As we’ve written before, with a little flexibility, light packing, and good timing, you can find a steal on a round-trip from the US to Europe on Wow! Even if checking a bag bumps your overall ticket up by $134, the final charge could still be far less than you’d pay on a legacy carrier.
Check your dates on the Wow! website. And for Cheapos sake, if you do find a good fare, grab those seats before they’re all gone… and then tell us about it in the comments section!
The details:
• Some $99 one-way tickets available from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Boston Logan Airport (BOS) to Paris and Amsterdam.
• All flights connect through Reykjavik, before continuing on to Paris and Amsterdam.
• Frequency from BWI: Two flights a week to Amsterdam, five flights a week to Paris.
• Frequency from Boston: Three times a week to Amsterdam, six flights a week to Paris.