Every Airline You'll Fly Studying Abroad in Europe, Ranked
Quick honesty check before we start. None of these airlines are good. You are flying across Europe for forty bucks on a two hour hop, not sipping champagne in business class to Tokyo. Some are annoying, some are fine, one is genuinely painful, and you will fly all of them anyway. I have booked well over forty of these flights in the last year alone, so this is not theory. It is which ones I actually reach for and which ones I brace myself for. Table first so you can see the ratings, then the real talk on each one below it.
| Airline | Rating | Price | Bags | The vibe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vueling Top pick | ★★★★½ | $$ | Fair | Smooth and on time. The sweet spot. |
| easyJet | ★★★★ | $$ | Fair | Reliable. Basically Vueling's twin. |
| Wizz Air | ★★★½ | $ | Easy | Cheapest ride, a little shaky. |
| SWISS | ★★★½ | $$$ | Generous | Comfier, but you pay for it. |
| Lufthansa | ★★★ | $$$ | Strict | Nice, but you rarely need it. |
| Iberia | ★★★ | $$$ | Strict | Fewer routes, delays happen. |
| Ryanair | ★★½ | $ | Brutal | The worst, and unavoidable. |
1. Vueling
This is the one I actually hope pops up when I search a route. Vueling is the least painful airline in Europe, full stop. Flights leave close to on time, they are smooth, and you are not sitting there waiting for something to go wrong. It runs out of Barcelona and Madrid, so if you are studying in Spain it is basically your default. Bags are fair. Small one free on the cheap fare, pay a little for the bigger cabin bag, same as everybody. Nothing fancy. Just the closest thing to easy you get over here.
2. easyJet
easyJet is basically Vueling with an orange logo. Same tier, same experience, and I honestly could not tell you one real difference between them after landing. On time most of the time, carry on rules that are firm but not psychotic, and it flies almost everywhere out of London and Geneva. The one thing to know is the app moves the price on you constantly, so when you see a good fare, book it. Do not sit on it overnight. If Vueling does not fly my route, this is the one I grab. No thinking required.
3. Wizz Air
Wizz is the move when you are flat broke and the only goal is spending as close to nothing as possible. Usually the cheapest thing on the board, and pretty chill about bags, which is why students live on it. Here is the catch. The flights can get rough. A couple of mine have bounced around enough that I actually noticed, so if turbulence freaks you out, sit this one out. But for a fifteen dollar Friday flight to a whole other country, you deal with it. I always do.
4. SWISS
SWISS is the flip side of Wizz. Same middle tier for me, just coming from the fancy end instead of the cheap one. It is a genuinely comfier ride and you get a real cabin bag included, but you pay for that and the price climbs quick. It flies mostly through Zurich, so it is great if Switzerland is already on your plan and pointless if it is not. I do not seek it out. But if the price lands near the budget guys, sure, take the nicer seat.
5. Lufthansa
Lufthansa is a real airline and the flights are totally fine, the kind you forget ten minutes after you land. It sits this low for one dumb reason. You almost never need it. It runs through Frankfurt and Munich and skips the cheap weekend routes the budget airlines own, so it barely comes up all semester. When it does, it is stricter on bags and the delays hit harder because you paid more to be there. Good airline. Wrong airline for the way we actually travel.
6. Iberia
Iberia is the Spanish flag carrier out of Madrid, and it lands near the bottom for the same reason as Lufthansa. It just is not on the routes we live on. Half the semester goes by and you never touch it. When you do, expect stricter bag rules and do not act shocked when it runs late, because it will. Honestly, I skip it whenever there is a cheaper option flying the same way, which is basically always.
7. Ryanair
And here it is. The airline everyone loves to hate, and yeah, they are right. Ryanair is the worst one on this list and you are going to fly it constantly anyway. It is dirt cheap and it flies literally everywhere, which is the exact reason you cannot dodge it. You pay for that price in other ways. The bag rules are savage and they will absolutely make you jam your bag into the little metal cage at the gate. Delays, bumpy flights, and if you show up late or fumble a fee, you are cooked. So stop fighting it. If you want to actually see everything on a student budget, you are gonna end up on Ryanair whether you like it or not. Pack light, follow every rule to the letter, and embrace the chaos.
So what do I actually book
If you skimmed all that, here is the cheat code. Look for Vueling or easyJet first, grab Wizz when you are broke, take SWISS only if the price randomly lines up, and make peace with Ryanair for everywhere else. Do not lose a single second on Lufthansa or Iberia. None of this is glamorous, but the flight was never the point. The weekend on the other side of it is. And if you would rather just have someone text you the exact flight to book instead of reading a ranking, that is literally what we do.