COMMENT
When Cheap Flights Aren't Worth It

I recently wanted to book a weekend away in Stockholm and was pleased to see one of the budget airlines advertising flights from 99p on its website.

After plugging my details into their fare finder, I found I could get flights at the times I wanted, for the bargain price of £19.99 out, and £14.99 back (not including taxes and fees). That made a grand total of about £125 (inc. tax etc) for both of us. Bargain. Or so I thought.

The flights were from Stansted airport. Not that convenient for us (it's about 70 miles away) but not too much of a problem. When we arrived in 'Stockholm' (I use the term loosely as we were in actual fact 80 miles away), it then took a further two hours on a bus to get to the city. All in all, the time it took to get from our house to our hotel in Stockholm was nine hours.

Bearing in mind we were only there for a weekend, a lot of time seemed to be spent travelling, which wasn't really what we'd wanted. It actually made me wonder if it would have been worth us flying direct with a major airline and paying the extra, so I've checked up what the difference would be.

The result was quite depressing (for me).

Booking a similar weekend away for two people, in seven weeks' time (the same time frame I'd used to book our trip) and flying with Ryanair (within their current promotion period), will cost £135.92. This will be flying from London Stansted into Stockholm Skavsta. Similar times with BA will be £176.80. With Scandinavian Airlines, the trip would be £197.20.

Ok, still looking good for the budget airline, saving £40.88 on the BA price.

However, BA and SAS fly from Heathrow - much more convenient for us (only 25 mins away). They also fly directly to Stockholm, with a frequent 20 minute train connection into the city (in my opinion more pleasant than two hours on a bus).

In fact, if you take the time it takes to park at both Stansted and Heathrow into account, the journey time using BA would be six hours, compared to nine hours with Ryanair. This is a total saving of six hours for £40.88. Plus, with BA, meals and newspapers are provided on the flights, saving you some money at the airport (I haven't included the cost of travel to and from the airports as they work out at roughly the same).

Budget flights are excellent value, and a saving of £20 each (or more if you book earlier) is very useful, especially for longer trips, when time isn't so critical. And not all of them use airports two hours from your destination. But check out all of your options before booking. If I had the choice again for a weekend away; I would definitely choose a quicker journey time and pay a little extra.

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