A beautiful city, I have been there twice in recent years.
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it was either Republic of Ireland fans or Northern Ireland fans, I can’t remember which.
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Same here.
Only when the difference in price is really significant, once I factor in all the costs you mentioned or if it’s a direct flight that can save me time and effort. In my experience, if you have a particular date you want to travel, it’s usually more expensive to fly low cost, plus the “bonus” of getting treated like cattle.
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Something we do with the grandchildren when they fly down to us. We always use cut price airlines and book way ahead of time to get the best deal but the luggage cost is usually twice as much as the ticket so the luggage is sent by post. Worth having a look at.
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I did that once in the US. I somehow got the dates way off from what I wanted(I think it was because of Google flights horrible habit of ignoring what you put in for dates and jumping to “a week trip sometime in the next 6 month” and you having to go back and tell them no, I wanted the dates I indicated on the computer). Fortunately, the way I found out about my error was when they notified me of a flight time change that pushed it into the next day so I was able to cancel it an rebook since it was their change. Worked out for me!
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Oh, I forgot another time! We were flying back to the US from Sydney and I booked the tickets from Sydney to Honolulu and Honolulu to LA at different times. In my mind, We left late at night and planned to have dinner in Honolulu with friends so I booked a late flight the next day. Enter the International Date line! Oops. We had to stay in Waikiki for a night that we hadn’t planned. Darn the luck! 
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This is beyond annoying. Twice, I happily purchased great-value tickets—one for a train and another for an international flight—only to discover later that both were scheduled for departure two months later than intended. Fortunately, I noticed the mistake in time to cancel.
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I use Skyscanner to find most of my flights, and I have come to detest them.
Aside from the problem with airports bearing the name of a city many hours bus ride away, which we can all learn to be alert for, they simply don’t compare like for like.
If you’re travelling without any baggage, obviously it doesn’t really matter which airline you fly with (short-haul), but getting a genuine price for person+baggage still seems to be impossible without checking it manually yourself. Factor in the extra fees and the cheapest option is often not the cheapest - which annoys me because this is the whole point of comparison sites like this.
Anyway, having chosen a low-cost airline, I have found that they will ask you several times if you want to include a bag, and the first option is always more expensive than the later one. So I book the the ticket without baggage, then get the cheaper deal later on.
This is all complicated by intermediary companies such as Opodo, Kayak, etc. These sites will offer the same Ryanair flight at a lower cost than Ryanair does, but then charge more for all the extras. The final price always seem to be higher if I had just booked with Ryanair directly.
Ryanair has also started making things complicated for these intermediary companies. For example, last year I discovered that I couldn’t check in for my return flight without a reference number that was on a confirmation email they had sent to Kayak (or whoever it was). This company had booked my flight with Ryanair using a one-off email address which I didn’t have access to, and there was no way to retrieve it at short notice. Easy to blame the intermediary but Ryanair were doing things this way to actively screw up bookings through third-party sites.
I eventually capitulated and now only book Ryanair flights through their app.
For long-haul to Asia I always fly with Emirates or Qatar. They’re usually competitively priced, always comfortable, and no long layovers on the routes I take. It doesn’t make any sense to save 50quid and spend 18hrs in an airport where I have to pay a fortune for food.
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Ryanair does not (and never has) allow passengers to purchase tickets through agents.
If passengers do so anyway, they will not be allowed to check in online, nor will the airline issue a refund if the flight is canceled.
Additionally, tickets purchased directly from the airline are typically cheaper than those purchased through third-party websites.
Don’t they also charge these days for not checking in online? Or perhaps it’s Wizzair, I can’t remember.
We are having some trouble at the moment trying to find an affordable flight from Europe to Australia that will allow us to take more than 25kg each for checked luggage. We’re moving indefinitely this year, and have to get all our stuff from one side of the globe to the other (it’s not a lot, but it needs to be at least 35kg checked luggage each). It’s crazy, most airlines only allow 23 - 25kg, and if you want to add just 1kg extra it’s like £200 
Not quite sure how we’re going to mange it yet 
We have thought about shipping, but I’m a bit nervous about shipping our stuff across the globe, and it’s no less expensive anyway.
I’m not 100% sure ( I didn’t use it) but I think I was allowed 2 pieces of up to 23 Kg with China Southern. I flew Madrid-Amsterdam- Gwangzhou- Melbourne for just 486€. It was over a year ago.
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Thank you, I’ll check it out! 
A few tips I’ve found useful. Book flights asap as particularly budget airline prices can rapidly increase closer to travel especially for peak travel dates. Last year my outward flight to Portugal was booked for £80 on the 26th December back in June when a repeat sit was agreed. The guy sitting next to me let slip he’d booked it 2 weeks prior to the flight at a cost of £497!!
Easyjet and Ryanair allow you a small cross bag (mine fits a 8 inch tablet, passport, wallet and phone in) plus their usual cabin bag. It means I have all my essential flight stuff in front of me in the seat back pocket or under my seat. I believe both airlines also allow a duty free bag each.
I prefer non budget airlines as well. If there’s not a lot of difference (say £40-50) then I’ll choose non budget. However sometimes there’s a huge difference. My flights to my current sit in Tenerife booked in June where £148 return with easyjet or £590 with BA.
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We’ve just added some luggage onto a flight from 23kg to 32kg for just £18. (Yes a 4 hour to Turkey but easy and cheap). You could only do it later though, not at booking, usually you can have an extra 23kg as another entire bag? We’ve also just shipped all our stuff internationally & it was surprisingly efficient & quick and everything came intact. Just made sure it was someone with tonnes of reviews (CMl Cargo for us). You’ve probably done this but sometimes playing around with the day & the cabin class and just looking for a single passenger gives you the best deals. Then clear the cache and try again. Sometimes I can find business for less than premium that way. #jugglingchallenge
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We have gained a little more weight on carry on by putting socks and underwear in the neck pillow case instead of the pillow. Every little helps!
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I’ve been known to take my own pillow and stuffed a folded kingsize sheet and two pillow cases in the pillowcase! It worked for me but that was 11 years ago and I think it was with Emirates!
Thank you!
We looked into China Southern, and @newpetlover is right - they allow x2 23kg checked luggage each, and this will work really well for us!
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Top Travel Tip #2
When leaving the airport don’t do as we did and forget to pick up your luggage first, it will be embarrassing when the first thing your home host says to you is " I came in the big car as I was expecting you to have luggage"
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Why not put the most heavy small items in it, too?