Travel Europe on a penny

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WHAT do you do when you have a 1-jiao coin in your pocket? Perhaps you buy a piece of candy. Maybe you give it to a homeless man in the street. But have you ever used a jiao to fly to a foreign country?

Last summer, I flew from London, UK, to Madrid, Spain, and then on to Faro, Portugal, and all the way back home. The combined cost of these four flights was just 4 pence (4 jiao). It even included all the taxes.

Although it was a special offer, it is common to be able to fly between Europe’s major cities for around ￡20 a journey. These days, many young people, especially students, opt for this cheap travel as a way of visiting countries around Europe.

But don’t expect to be treated like royalty. Seats are normally cramped, in an attempt to pack as many people as possible onto the flight. Food and drink, which tends to be provided for free on an airplane, is costly. And if you want to watch a movie to pass the time, you better have brought a potable DVD player with you.

No luggage
The problem with these flights is that added extras cost a lot of money. If you want to buy food on the plane, check-in a big suitcase and get a priority-boarding pass that allows you to skip the line, you can end up paying close to the price of a normal flight.

But there are ways around this. When I flew to Spain and Portugal, instead of paying ￡20 to take a big suitcase, I carried a small bag of hand luggage and then wore all the clothes I would need for my holiday. Fortunately, it wasn’t too warm, but I still looked fairly ridiculous in seven T-shirts and ten pairs of socks.

To keep costs low, flights are usually based at smaller, more remote airports. When I go on one of these flights, I will often end up spending more money on the 30-minute train to the airport than I will on the three-hour flight across Europe.

And often the cheapest flights are either very early in the morning or very late at night. My 1-pence flights departed at around 5 am. If you want to fly at a more reasonable time, be prepared to pay a little more.

These low-cost airlines have received a lot of criticism from people who campaign to save the environment. One of my friends refuses to use them, and instead will always take trains when visiting other countries in Europe. Although they are often more expensive, and take longer, she says at least they aren’t as damaging to the planet.

Still, it can be hard to resist a flight to an interesting country when prices are so cheap.

生词：
cramped 狭窄的
opt for 选择
portable 便携式的
priority-boarding 优先登机

BONUS
Expressions
Terms you’ll see on the budget flight service website:

flexible fare
Flexible Fare allows you to amend the date of your flight to two days before or several days after the date of your original booking free of charge.

speedy boarding
Be among the first through the gate to get the widest choice of seats.

carbon offsetting
This scheme allows you to pay extra money, which is then used to balance the environmental damage caused by your flight.

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