Oops! I did it again! WOW $69 fares LAX/SFO to Europe

WOW Air has $69 one-way fares between Los Angeles and San Francisco to Bristol, UK; Edinburgh, UK; Copenhagen, Denmark and Stockholm ARN. These are the best deals to Europe of the discount WOW fares from USA airports. Lowest fares are for travel on limited dates January to March 2017.

The catch is fares are higher on the return flight, but still under $100 one way from Copenhagen or Stockholm back to California. Lowest one way flights from Bristol or Edinburgh are $184 to California LAX and SFO airports.  All flights route via Reykjavik, Iceland KEF. You also have the option of $111 one way fares on Norwegian for several dates.

There are deals from other airports with WOW service: Baltimore BWI, Boston and Miami, but more in the $99 range.

WOW Airfare deals from LAX and SFO are $69 one way to Europe.

Oops! I did it again! I am flying WOW Air to Copenhagen for $69.

I flew WOW Air Boston to Copenhagen during their first summer of USA service in July 2015.

Loyalty Traveler – WOW Air. My worst low fare deal to Europe ever! (July 3, 2015).

Loyalty Traveler – WOW Air Boston to Iceland flight review (July 4, 2015).

Loyalty Traveler – WOW Air Review Part 2 Copenhagen to Boston (July 17, 2015).

Those were the only flights I have flown with Wow Air. The baggage and seat fees turned me off.

Loyalty Traveler – Fare Analysis WOW Air $99 LAX or SFO one way to Iceland and $199 to Europe June 2016 really cost $500 to $650 round trip

Then, potential game changers came in 2016 when the airline added the option of a free stopover and also made it possible to fly with one carry-on bag for free.

Loyalty Traveler – Free WOW Stopover in Iceland on round trip USA-Europe tickets (April 28, 2016).

Loyalty Traveler – How to book free Iceland stopover with WOW Air tickets to Europe (March 16, 2016).

Loyalty Traveler – WOW Air now allows free 22 lb. carry-on bag, but can you pack that small? (Aug 24, 2016).

Keeping It Real Loyalty Traveler with WOW Air low fares

I get annoyed with WOW Air low fares on Google Flights blocking out other fares. The real cost to fly WOW is much higher for most flyers. I typically search airfares from LAX and SFO by filtering out WOW Air first, so I can see what the other airlines’ fares are for  dates. WOW Air is generally not much of a bargain compared to major alliance airlines, if you pay seat fees and bag fees.

For example, I booked my ticket San Francisco to Copenhagen for $69. A look at the WOW seat map showed only seats at $51 or $61 and nearly every seat on the plane was priced $51 or $61 and only a couple seats were taken. Four budget seats for $13 were located in the middle of the 4-seats-across middle section of the aircraft. It can’t get worse than paying money to self select a middle seat.

I am not paying $51 for a seat on a $69 ticket to Europe.

I am gambling on luck for my WOW flight.

My WOW commitment. I am flying San Francisco to Copenhagen for $69.

The other aspect that I have always wanted to test with WOW Air is can a person fly to Europe in winter on one of these deep-discount tickets and not pay any additional fees?

I plan to make a 9 day trip to Copenhagen and other places in Europe with only one free carry-on bag for the WOW flights.

This WOW airfare deal came to my attention around 7am this morning and I spent three hours planning out a workable itinerary. The situation for me is I did not want to spend my time in Bristol, Edinburgh, Copenhagen or Stockholm.

Flying Past WOW destination cities Norwegian, Ryanair and Wizz. 

Simply playing around with Ryanair flights from the cities Bristol, Edinburgh, Copenhagen and Stockholm NYO showed me cheap tickets under $30 one way to Madrid, Faro, Portugal, Budapest, Krakow, Milan, London. Basically, I played around with low cost routes across Europe and there are more than a dozen countries accessible with Ryanair, Norwegian and Wizz Air flights. There are even ticket prices as low as $9 one way (for example: Budapest, Hungary to Nuremburg, Germany $9 and Nuremburg, Germany to Milan Bergamo BGY) especially from Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Wizz Air  Malmo, Sweden MMX – Budapest BUD – Malmo  (Malmo has excellent Clarion Collection Hotel Temperance for 8,000 Choice Privileges points per night)

$34 round trip  Sat Jan 21 – Thu Jan 26

Ryanair Budapest, Hungary BUD – Nuremburg, Germany NUE – Budapest

$18 round trip  Mon Jan 23 – Wed Jan 25

I also found several good deals for Radisson Blu, Park Plaza and Park Inn using Club Carlson elite member 4-for-2 and 2-for-1 hotel rates. I will book a couple of hotel reservations to keep that option in place.

There really is no set destination for my travel plans at this time. I simply know I will use Copenhagen primarily as a transit hub to some other country  in Europe. I have looked at Alicante, Madrid, Lisbon, Milan, Budapest, Alesund Norway, Nuremburg, Wroclaw and Prague. There are all kinds of places for round trip tickets under $50 from Copenhagen with city hotel winter rate deals at $50 and under per night. The new IHG PointBreaks list will come out in about 2 weeks from today.