Traveling with low cost carrier(LCC)

With the increase of the travel demand, more and more people are travel with LCC, and LCC companies are growing faster. In USA, Southwest Airlines connects almost 100 cities in the country with more than 600 aircrafts and in Europe, almost half of the flight is operated by LCC carriers. And also, many Korean and foreign LCC carriers connect many places like as far as Guam or Bangkok, and as close as Japan and China. But, since everything has light and shadow, LCC travel also have some benefits and disadvantages.

Video: How LCC reduce costs? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqgEB4U47bA)

The most biggest benefit from LCC is the cost for the flight. The price of the flight ticket sometimes go down below the half price compared with major airlines (which is called Full Service Carrier, FSC) like Korean Air or Delta. And many invisible benefits made from competition with companies can make your journey even better.

Photo: Seat of Ryanair aircraft. Ryanair is one of the famous LCC carrier in Europe. 

But, there are some inconvenience travelers should consider about. First, LCC carriers have higher seat density in the aircraft to take more passengers in the flight. This means each traveler have smaller space for their own. It might doesn’t matter for the short haul flight like Seoul to Tokyo, since it takes just two hours or less. But if flight goes further like Seoul to Bangkok, which takes five hours and half, sitting in narrow seat make traveler even more tired. And even more, in this flight no airline meal or sometimes even drink is not served but it is sold by the crew.

And it is difficult to change or cancel the ticket and it takes some charge or fee. And even some airline company doesn’t allow to cancel and refund ticket. Because of this, travelers should decide carefully when make their booking. And when the flight canceled or delayed, travelers can’t get extra services like accommodation, but only can get on next flight or refund of the ticket. So, if traveler has tight or important time schedule, there is a risk to fly with LCC carriers.

Nowadays many LCC carriers attracts travelers with their low costs, but in the market economy, we can get what we have for. So, I’d recommend to fly with major FSC airlines rather than endure many inconvenience to save just little money. Since lower cost means that we should endure our inconvenience compared with FSC flight, traveling with LCC for long haul flight, further than Japan or China, can make your journey hard one.

And sometimes LCC flight is not actually cheap. When I was planning my travel to Europe last year, I have to decide which airline to fly with from London to Munich. Lufthansa flight was more expensive than easy jet(LCC carrier) flight. But Lufthansa departs at Heathrow airport, easy jet departs at Gatwick airport, where is even far from London than Heathrow. So it takes more time and money to go to Gatwick compared with Heathrow. So, it seems easy jet flight is cheaper, but when I consider many other things like cost for moving to airport, flight departure time (usually cheap LCC flight departs at early morning or late evening.), and airline meals served by Lufthansa, I found easy jet flight has many hidden cost. So I take Lufthansa flight for my trip and got a good travel experience. 

Video:(Peach Aviation flight from Seoul Incheon to Osaka Kansai - Without cost and service, almost everything is same between LCC and FSC carriers, especially safety.) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DglmTgadOBs

Cheeper ticket or better service, choice is up to you. But just paying litter more can make journey even more comfortable. Your travel is should be pleasant, not hard and uncomfortable.

To find more about Low Cost Carrier, you can check about it at here.