How we did it: Luzern to Reykjavik
Boarding EasyJet Switzerland Switzerland, in general, is an expensive place to vacation. It’s also just as expensive to fly in and out (...
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| Boarding EasyJet Switzerland |
I found seats for about 48CHF. A ticket allows travelers to bring aboard a small roller bag of unrestricted weight, but not an item to place under the seat in front of you. I found it a strange policy, but a nice one nonetheless. Still, we were traveling with backpacks and there was no way we could condense our items to fit only in a suitcase. The cheapest option was to buy an “up-front seat,” which allows travelers to bring a small backpack.
We decided to get to the airport early since we both weren’t feeling well and I had lounge access thanks to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. We spent the morning enjoying an excellent lounge with ample seating, food and drinks. The clerk spoke multiple languages and advised us to arrive at our gate early so we could take advantage of the up-front seating.
About 45 minutes before departure we walked over to the gate and they were already calling for those with Speedy Boarding and Up-Front seats. They corralled us next to the door and a gate agent walked the line eyeing bags to make sure they weren’t too large. I was nervous because our bag was again a centimeter or two too large, but the agent walked by me and in the end didn’t pull anyone aside. They then began boarding everyone else and the eagle-eyed agent had no shame about pulling those people aside to check their bags. Soon we boarded the plane and were on our way to Reykjavik.
Side note for Allegiant travelers: you may feel nostalgia traveling on EasyJet. That's because Allegiant is purchasing former EasyJet Airbus planes and isn’t paying to refit the interior so there are some similarities like the Easy Orange stripe down the overheads.
Once in Reykjavik we made our way to the Budget rental car counter. It seemed many people on our flight rented through Budget because the line quickly filled beyond capacity. The Up-Front seats meant we were the first off the plane so our wait wasn’t nearly as bad as others.
We saved about 25% off the rental thanks to applying the Costco discount in a roundabout way. Generally, Costco has some of the best rental car coupon codes for round-trip rentals, often taking a dollar amount off the already nice price. However the Costco Travel website doesn’t allow you to search all of the locations.
I first went to Budget.com assuming there was one website for all Budget rentals. I was quoted a price of $125USD, which was surprising because I expected the price to be in Icelandic Kroner. I then clicked over to the Reykjavik Airport website to check other local companies and found they had a local Icelandic website for Budget. There the price was quoted in ISK, but it wouldn’t accept many of the coupons that would work on the regular site. For some reason, the Costco coupon worked and quoted a price in ISK equal to $92…a significant savings.
It’s also worth noting coupons at many other rental companies don’t work in Iceland. I’m a member of National Car Rental’s Emerald Club since National often offers me the best rates and rewards program. I tried to use my free days in Iceland, but was denied. Apparently the franchisee there doesn’t allow you to redeem free days and the other coupons I had didn’t offer any savings so I went with Budget. I didn’t earn any rewards, but we saved a lot of money.
