I have been posting details about individual flights and transfers for every city in their respective posts. However, considering that the maximum expense for this trip was for the flights, I thought it would be a good idea to create a separate page for Euro trip flight costs. The easiest way to pull down your Euro trip cost without being stingy is to save money on flights.
Tips
For a Euro trip, almost 25-40% of your total trip expenses would be your flight expenses. So you can follow some of the tips mentioned to reduce that burden:
- Where possible, book multi-city flights rather than individual flights.
- For internal flights, book directly through the Airline websites or travel aggregators based in Europe. Avoid MMT/Yatra. They generally quote lower prices but don’t include essentials like check-in baggage etc.
- In case you don’t follow point no. 2, check all the inclusions of your ticket and if needed buy extras online during check-in rather than at the counter. The price variation between the online prices and counter prices is almost 60-100% for things like cabin luggage, extra check-in bag etc.
- Try to book flights 2-3 months in advance; earlier if travelling in the peak season.
- For Credit Card Holders – Try to book through a channel that gives you maximum points/discounts. For Diner’s Black that would be the HDFC Smartbuy Portal. You can read my other article about travelling with credit cards to know How I saved nearly 30000 INR for flights worth 90000 on this trip.
- Book overnight trains/buses when flights are too expensive. You get a double bonus, you travel for cheaper and also save on the overnight accommodation charges.
- Join the airline frequent flyer program. Its free and depending on the airline you get benefits like extra luggage, accumulated airline points and priority check-in.
If interested, you can also read about the Best Credit Cards for Travel in India.
Euro trip flight costs – Flight to & fro from India
| Source | Destination | Airline | Cost |
| Mumbai | Helsinki via Paris | Air France | |
| Amsterdam | Mumbai (Direct flight) | Jet Airways | 42000 INR |
Euro trip flight costs – Internal Flights
As you can see, I booked most of these flights from their Airline websites. Even though they costed me a little more than MMT/Yatra would, I still saved money. How you may ask?
Well, most of my friends who booked the cheap flight tickets on MMT/Yatra did not have a single check-in baggage included. So they had to pay extra for that. Plus most flights were indirect flights via Oslo, so it was essentially 2 sectors for every flight. So they had to pay double the charges. So for peace of mind, use the Airline websites or Europe based aggregators.
E.g. I got a ticket from Norwegian for 150 EUR and my friend booked the same ticket through MMT for 10,000 INR. At the airport he had to pay 80 EUR (40 EUR for each leg for the cabin baggage). That ticket ended up costing him 17,000 INR.
Helsinki to Tromso (Euro trip flight costs)
- Airline – Norwegian
- Route – Tromso via Oslo
- Cost – 150 EUR (13,064 INR)
Tromso to Bergen (Euro trip flight costs)
- Airline – Wideroe
- Route – Bergen
- Cost – 105 EUR (9,145 INR)
Bergen to Reykjavik (Euro trip flight costs)
- Airline – SAS
- Route – Reykjavik via Oslo
- Cost – 1606 SEK (13,567 INR)
Reykjavik to Amsterdam (Euro trip flight costs)
- Airline – WOW
- Route – Amsterdam
- Cost – 8,581 INR
Total Expenses on flights – 86,327 INR
I have never been the kind of person, who keeps a track of all his expenses. But writing this blog is helping me discover that. I did this trip 2 years ago and I only knew that I spent somewhere between 2-2.5L on the trip, but thanks to this blog now I know the exact day wise specifics. I hope this helps you all.
In case, you want to read about my other travelogues, check out: