| Arthur Frommer Online
Comments, opinion and advice from the founder of Frommer's Travel Guides
Good Deal/Booking Nightmare: How to Get to France on XL Airways
6 Apr 2011, 4:37 pm
Remember France's XL Airways? It's the small carrier that's supposedly going to undercut all the standard fares this summer for crossing the Atlantic. Whereas heavy-handed, old fashioned companies like Air France are going to be charging as much as $1,500 round-trip between New York and Paris (including all fees and taxes), XL Airways (with 16 years of experience flying within Europe and on long-haul routes to Africa and Asia) is going to be charging as little (on some dates) as $747 round-trip between New York and Paris -- a big saving.
Trouble is, it's hard to find a method of booking XL Airways' flights on the Internet (thus avoiding the extra booking fees you'd have to pay to intermediaries). I, for one, haven't been able to find an English-language website for XL Airways, and the French-language site seems designed for persons originating their trans-Atlantic flights in Paris.
And yet... And yet... Would you believe that some airfare search engines are offering to confirm low-cost flights across the Atlantic on XL Airways? If you'll go to www.vayama.com (as a friend of mine did three weeks ago, and as I did yesterday), you'll find that an XL Airways flight scheduled to depart on May 23 (when its service is supposed to commence) and returning a week later, can be booked on that site for $747 (including all taxes and fees). The closest other rate is $900-some-odd for an awkward one-stop flight to Paris on Iberia Airlines, going there via Madrid, and then all the other airlines are cited as charging $1,100 all the way up to $1,500 for the non-stop itinerary to Paris.
So there it is. If you'll believe Vayama.com (and there's no reason not to do so), you can fly the Atlantic this summer for far less than others will be charging. Though XL Airways has massively botched its introduction to the American public (in my view), it apparently will be flying trans-Atlantic several times a week this coming summer, and offers a chance to reduce the cost substantially. Just know that you'll be on a plane that's mainly filled with privileged French travelers, to whom XL Airways apparently does offer a convenient means of booking these low fares.
One caveat: it's almost impossible to tell from any published source whether XL Airways' prices include a fuel surcharge, and whether the competing prices also include a fuel surcharge. It's possible that the $747 price on Vayama.com (including government taxes and fees) doesn't include such a surcharge, but if that's the case, then the competing fares don't include such a surcharge either. If I sound confused, it's because I've been left in that condition by XL Airways' failure to create an explanatory website. |
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