Are Cheap Airlines Worthwhile for Long Trips?

You’ve probably had to deal with shoddy airlines at one time or another. If not the terrible seat, then maybe it was an unprofessional steward, an overly-talkative seat mate, or a fussy toddler in the seat behind you. While there are some things you simply cannot control on a flight, there certainly are a few things that you can! Unfortunately, the quick fix for any of a thousand issues that might come up on an airplane is to throw money at it, so if you’re on a tight budget, there are a lot of things you may want to consider. 

Whether or not a cheap airline is worthwhile for long trips is a question entirely up to you. After all, you may not be bothered by who sits next to you on a flight, and just want the absolute cheapest fare you can get from New York to Madrid. That’s all right, too. Of course, there are going to be tradeoffs.The cheaper you get, the less legroom and seat size you're going to get, and the further to the back of the plane you're going to end up.

Economy class in most long-range planes these days isn’t really all that bad, particularly the bigger planes. Small, short-haul flights are the ones that typically have the least leg room, smallest seats, and the greatest reliance on their passangers’ use of deodorant. Not all long-haul flights are entirely comfortable, though. 

If you’re a person of greater than normal proportions, either in width or in height, than the once in a while splurge of a few extra dollars for a comfortable seat is well worth the extra expense, particularly on any flight that’s going to last for longer than an hour or two, but this is especially true if you’re taking a flight that will take all day. Of course, even someone of smaller proportions might enjoy having a little extra room. With the rapidly diminishing legroom in most commercial airliners these days, it’s clear that airlines want us to pay more, but given that the day of large-scale commercial airlines is going to come to an end soon, we should comfort ourselves in knowing that we won’t be paying that much for a cross-country trip for long! Want a little insight into this particular prophesy? Check out the next post to understand why!