I’ve used Europebyair once and was very pleased with the results. They actually called me because there was a confusion about what day I left home and they wanted to be sure I would get the flight passes in time.

I used the $99 flight pass on a trip on Air Croatia. I was worried that it might be “unusual” and I’d have problems, or that if something went wrong (like over booking) the flight pass folks would be the ones who got bumped. It all worked out very well. The Air Croatia staff had obviously dealt with hundreds of these passes and it was very routine. They actually did have to bump someone from the flight, but how you’d paid didn’t seem to matter in bumping. The airport taxes (which you pay at check-in) were relatively cheap. We had to pay the standard overweight charge because we’d been working and had a ton of gear, but that would have been the same for any European airline. I would spend some time learning the specific airlines checked and carry-on baggage requirements. Many airlines charge more if you don’t pay for checked baggage in advance and I’m not sure how you’d deal with that with the flight pass.

I would use them again for any route where I could get a seat. I would not buy “extra flight passes” with the idea of getting reservations to use them later unless I was either very sure that I’d be able to use them (traveling in low season and on routes where there are routinely seats open for flight pass passengers) or so flexible that “if we can’t go to Budapest we’ll go to Brussels” would be reasonable. It looks like there may only be one flight a week on some routes that accepts the flight pass and there may be only one seat available for flight pass passengers on that flight.

Compared to the numerous low fare airlines in Europe $99 plus a few euros in airport taxes isn’t necessarily that great a deal. Why does it seem too good to be true?

I believe they’re very legit. I actually won free flight passes from them in a contest when they first started out, but was not able to use them that year. You can often do much better than $99 or $129 + taxes on the one-way routes that EuropeByAir offers. There might be some routes, however, which are historically higher, in which case the pass price would be better. EuropeByAir’s flexibility might be better in some situations, too.

To see what the going rate is, check one-ways with www.skyscanner.net and www.bookingbuddy.com

I so appreciate the info. I have searched fares within Europe and for example the lowest I can find for Spit to Paris is $250+, so indeed $99+ looks good to me. Thank you again.

When a poster from Smart Travel recommended you and Europetrip.com they knew their stuff. Thank you and look forward to further communications like my getting a good air fare to Split since I waited way too long to use my mileage miles!

What are your dates, and what sources have you checked for Split to Paris? Easy Jet and German Wings both fly this route in the summer and I see prices as low as 58 euros in July.

I need something for the end of September 2010 (like the 28th). I have used every website known to man so far! If I have missed something I’ll be shocked. Thank you so much.

You probably hit them all as it looks like Easy Jet only flies this in July and August, but check the stickys for newbies and listing flight search engines at the top of this forum.

Have you thought about flying from Dubrovnik, Zadar or Pula rather than Split or flying somewhere else in France and then quick train ride to Paris?

Note that the $99 flight pass applies to each flight. The routing that accepts flight passes that I see for September 28 has a connection in Zagreb so uses two flight passes — $198 plus the taxes, probably little if any cheaper the $250 if that included taxes.

Tough one. I see Dubrovnik to Lille for 105 Euros on Oct 1, bookable through Thomas Cook — this is one way. Of course this is a few days beyond what you prefer, plus you would have travel costs to Dubrovnik Airport, and from Lille Airport to Paris.

Otherwise, next-cheapest option I see is a round trip Split-CDG for $202 USD currently, nonstop flights, Sept. 29 on Croatia Airlines. I found this price with Oct. 6 return; bookable from Travelocity, Expedia, and CroatiaAirlines.com.

Unless you go from Zagreb to CDG, it looks like the EuropeByAir pass requires 2 x $99 flight passes, plus $20 shipping, plus the airport taxes.

I too used Europebyair successfully, there were three of us, and we flew from Split, Croatia, to Frankfurt, Germany, in 2006. (We were on our way to Strasbourg, we took a two-hour train from Frankfurt.)
I remember Oldlady guided me through my purchase .
Everything was fine, and just as she said it would be.
Good luck with whatever you figure out.

So, I’d never heard about this site until this thread popped up. I need to travel from Paris to Zagreb on August 4 (myself and a friend) and I haven’t really been able to find anything cheap thus far. I’ve just seen flights for $300+.

About how much would the airline taxes be? Is there anyway to figure this information out? We would each only be traveling with a backpack, so we won’t have too much in terms of luggage. I’m thinking that $99 plus taxes might actually work out for us… what do you experts think??

@ Dreaming…

If it’s the Croatia Airlines flight OU471 on Aug. 4, the taxes are tentatively set at:
Tax: OU YQ surcharge €29.00 (fuel surcharge)
Tax: French Aviation Civile Tax €7.38
Tax: French International Passenger Service Charge €23.42
Tax: French Airport Tax €11.25
Tax: French Air Passenger Solidarity Tax €4.00

= €75 … assuming the fuel surcharge has to be added to the USD$99 flight voucher price as well.

I think the $99 includes many of the taxes on the actual flight. All we had to pay was the airport tax for the departure airport which we had to pay at the airport, in local currency. We flew from Zagreb and I think it worked out to about $9 US each. However, things may have changed since 2004. Europebyair.com is pretty good about telling you the whole story — they list a toll free phone number so you can probably call and get a reasonable estimate of what taxes you’ll actually have to pay. They send very detailed information with the flight passes including how to get to the airports, how to use the passes, how to change reservations, etc.

Book anything with Europebyair.com as soon as you’re sure of the date as there are limited seats available that honor the flight pass.

Thanks for the responses. Given that my travel date is basically fixed (August 4) and there isn’t a budget line that goes Paris-Zagreb (at least I can’t find one…), this seems like a great deal for me. $99 plus the taxes seems like it would be less than the over $300 I’m finding on this route. Do you guys concur?

Yes, It looks like a reasonable deal. If you have to pay all of the taxes and charges Don identified it comes to about 75 euros ($100) so it’s still cheaper. There may also be a shipping fee on the flight passes ($10 or 12?) and it mentions something about airline fees on the site so I guess it’s possible that an airline may charge a fee to use the pass or perhaps you can’t check-in on-line with the pass and there’s a fee for counter check-in. Hopefully Don’s figures covered all of this, but I’d probably call the toll free to see what I could find out…

The flight passes would be used on Air Croatia. Did you check their site to see the cost to book directly with them?