Budget Airlines and their $10 Tickets now in America!

Finally!

After years of budget airlines ferrying Europeans around the continent for laughably cheap rates, Americans are about to be treated to the same.

Ultra-low-cost carriers, as they are now being called, charge rates for as little as a penny and then make up for it by selling drinks, food, pillows, blankets, seat upgrades, fees for checked baggage, and more. Tickets can only be booked online, and advertisers are free to plop their logos on everything from the seatback tray to the tail fin.

According to a Chicago Tribune article by Peter Pae, the vanguard of the ultra-low-cost carriers is represented by two new airlines on American soil; Spirit and Skybus.

I spent some time checking out both sites and didn’t find any of the penny tickets, but I did find some sweet deals.

Skybus, for example, currently only flies to one location out of my hometown of Los Angeles: Columbus, Ohio. One-way rates are running about $60-110 dollars in the summer. But, if I want to suck it up and fly there in November, I can do so for just $10 each way (plus taxes, of course).

Spirit, on the other hand, flies to about 20 destinations from Los Angeles, some of which are even in the exotic Caribbean or Central America. Unfortunately, I did not find any $10 tickets, but what I did find was much cheaper than any major airline would charge.

Spirit and Skybus are still very new and will continue to grow and open up new routes.

In the meantime, I might just consider flying to Columbus for $10. Why? Why not!