Star Alliance European Airpass

[RooFlyer]

'Airpasses' seem a bit old fashioned, with the ability to use local LCCs in most regions. That notwithstanding, I'm planning to use the Star Alliance European version to hop around eastern Europe (OneWorld can't match SA for destinations in the east) - I'm not a LCC type of person, especially international!

However to get the Airpass, you have to use Star Alliance to fly into and from Europe, and pay whatever fares you can snag there.

I'm not uncomfortable with the fare/airline combo I have in my (yet unticketed) booking, and a high level comparison of this package Vs 'cheapest unpackaged fare for same itinerary - except LCC' shows that the airpass option is materially cheaper; but I wonder if anyone else has investigated using airpasses (esp Star Alliance version) Vs more flexible, stand alone tickets.

Tricks / traps / savings?

 

[dajop]

One thing I found the surcharges on the airpass can make it a lot more than face value of each sector, so I've never used it. Although I am not averse to LCC's there's only one occasion where I've actually flown one - Easyjet (from Faro, Portugal to London Gatwick) - and the experience was not materially different to any other carrier I have flown in Europe, although I do draw the line at Ryanair! (I generally hear/read OK things about Easyjet and bad things about Ryanair.) One thing I found in looking at flights at different times was that oneway flights purchased through most legacy carriers (other than ex-London) are prohibitively expensive, in fact buying a return and throwing away the return sector is likely to be cheaper. However, I have found open jaw and even multi-sector itineraries can price reasonable and they seem to be treated as a return, particularly on Lufthansa group airlines. (eg. we flew MXP-BRU-OPO on SN + LHR-ZRH on LX on the one ticket was a lot cheaper - 1/3 the price - than buying either sector separately). Expedia.com (the US version) seems to have a good ability to combine such itineraries).