During August, my sister and I booked a roundtrip for Helsinki and Paris. They offered a great flight that had the shortest travel time since all other airlines had lengthy layovers. Their prices were also among the cheapest, but with that comes the obvious headaches of budget airlines.
Before booking, I was aware that this airline would come extra fees but the difference in prices from standard airlines and this budget airline lured me over. The first extra fee that can leap out and attack an unsuspecting traveler would be the checking in fee. I was able to avoid this from reading others’ experiences online. Checking in online and printing out your tickets/ using e-tickets has no extra charger so pre-plan. My sister and I opted to check our luggage, which was another fee we were willing to pay.
Now the part that really bugged me about AirBaltic was that they forced us to check our carry-on luggage. Between my sister and I, we have 2 backpacks and 1 small luggage. They made us weigh everything and the total of weights cannot exceed 10 kg. It is pretty unreasonable and that extra fee was a true attacker. AirBaltic got us. I thought I did my research well, but clearly I failed. Another big issue was that not everyone was forced to check their luggage. My sister and I were clearly the only non-Nordic passengers there and the only ones forced to check our bags. This happened again at a layover in RIX right when we were about to embark onto the plane.
Other notable points would be regarding their seats and plane set up. They were the thinnest sits I’ve ever sat on for a plane and the most crammed I have every felt.
Safe to say I have learned my lessons with budget airlines.
Happy bookings,
Ry
Rese & Ry 