Cheap Airfare - Hitchhike Across the Atlantic

By Nick July 30, 2006

During one of my seemingly endless search periods with Google, I found a best friend for any budget traveler planning to fly to Europe: Airhitch. Airhitch.org is an organization that lets you “hitchhike” flights accross the Atlantic, if you are willing to be flexible with your dates and European destinations. Signing up with airhitch has its advantages and disadvantages alot like becoming an air courier does.
After signing up for Airhitch, you get a predeparture itinerary that gives instructions on how to get your flights. They will give a listing of flights with vacancy available to get to your destination, and these flights will have a letter grade from A to F. A means you’ll probably get on, and F means its unlikely.

Even though your European destination may be a country or two away, and a day late, the total cost of the flight will still be much cheaper than any other possible flight available.

Another good reason to Airhitch is that you do not pay for your flight until after you’ve boarded it. This way, you will not have to worry about refunds for any prepayed tickets. For the service that Airhitch offers, they do charge a modest $30 fee for a flight.
A little cartoon backpacking hitchhiker I made with my photoshop skills

Another very similar site is air-hitch.org. Air-hitch.org runs in pretty much the same way air no hyphen hitch runs.

After a quick expedia airfare search with random dates in December, flying from New York to London at anytime, I came up with the numbers.

Airhitch: Roundtrip from US = $250 * 2 = $500

Expedia: Roundtrip from US = $625

That’s a savings of $125, but that is with fares booked 5 months in advance with Expedia. Without the early flight booking, Airhitch would save you even more.

So Airhitch has the potential to save you atleast $100 in exchange for your inconvenience. If your dates are flexible, and you are not bothered by not knowing when you will have a flight, hitchhiking your way to Europe is the way to go if you want budget travel backpacking vacation.

[tags] airfare, flight, backpacking, budget travel, travel, hitchhike [/tags]

Topics: Budget Airfare and Airlines |