Flylc.com makes booking cheap flights in Europe easy

Matt Gross’s travel column for the New York Times, The Frugal Traveler, is usually good for a travel tip or two. But for folks headed for Europe this summer, Gross’s latest column — on the variety of low-cost European airlines — is a must-read.

If you’ve traveled in Europe in the past decade or so, you’ve probably at least heard of RyanAir, the low-cost Irish airline famous for fares as low as € 0.99 on flights throughout the continent. They offer some great deals, but often fly in and out of some remote airports. So RyanAir can’t always get you to where you want to be.

But there are dozens of other low-fare carriers in Europe. So many even that when you’re planning a trip, it’s hard to know where to start. Or at least it used to be.

Gross planned his low-cost odyssey using the very helpful flylc.com, a booking engine for most (if not all) of Europe’s budget carriers. It’s a snap to use. You just choose your departure and destination cities from dropdown menus and flylc.com tells you which airlines service that route, and gives links to their Web sites.

Granted, even with this easier booking process, buying tickets is maybe the least painful part of the low-cost experience. Budget airlines are notorious for their shoddy service and uncomfortable planes. And Gross finds this out the hard way. But he also turns up some surprisingly posh carriers. (Hint: FlyBaboo and EasyJet come up roses.) If you’re a vagabonder, no doubt you’re willing to sacrifice some leg room to stretch your buck. Still, it’s good to know that comfortable budget flights are out there (and that they’re easy to find).