Airline Fanatic

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the preium, all business class carriers (Silverjet, Maxjet and Eos) now criscrossing the Atlantic Ocean between New York, Paris and London.  These carriers provide great service and seats for much lower fares than legacy carriers.  For most people though a few thousand dollars to get across the pond is still way too expensive.

Enter Zoom Airlines, a discount no-frills airline that has been operating for a while between Canada and the UK, but is just now entering the US market.  There is definitely demand for this kind of service, just think about all the backpackers who head to Europe every summer, or students winging their way to a study abroad semester.  Zoom, which now has fares as low as $200 one way from JFK to London.  It’s a good thing it costs so much less too, what with the dollar being pretty worhtless once you actually arrive at Gatwick.  If you plan on coming back, $400 is a pretty darn good price for the whole thing.

How does Zoom afford this kind of thing?  They do away with the amenities those business class guys flaunt – lay flat seats (the cheapest seats only offer 31″ of legroom, thats a  small seat for a long flight), seat-back entertainment, and those little gift bags that you don’t really use or keep anyway.  You can of course pay more for a “Premium Economy” seat which offer more legroom, a choice of meals, increased baggage limits, and priority baggage delivery.  But of course if you were looking to spend more money on a flight when you have the option to spend less, you probably wouldn’t be looking at flying Zoom.

Bottom Line: $400 round trip is a great price to pay for round trip transportation to London.  Get up and walk around the plane a few times during your flight and then worry about stretching out and relaxing when you get there.  I’d defintely give these guy a try if you are looking for trips on the cheap.