At first glance, a return flight to the US for €100 looks like an offer you don’t need to think twice about.

There’s just one catch, though: it departs from Dublin and I live in Prague.

This is just one example of the many special offers we’ve featured on our homepage.

Before I can board a long-haul flight, I’ll need to buy another ticket, probably book an overnight stay, and allow plenty of time in case of delays. The original 100 eur , the cost can end up being several times higher.

Even so, offers like this usually make sense to me. Why? I’ll show you in this article.

I’m using specific examples from Prague here, as that’s where I personally travel from. However, you can calculate the actual cost in the same way from Bratislava, Budapest, Vilnius or any other city in Europe.

The price in the headline is just the start

When it comes to prices for such promotions or error fares, we almost always quote only the main ticket from the departure airport to the final destination.

This is because it’s usually quite difficult to calculate exactly how much the final journey will cost – our readers travel from different airports, and the need to book connecting flights for specific dates can also make a big difference.

I often take advantage of these offers myself, so I add to the final cost everything I would otherwise pay for a standard flight from my home city, i.e. Prague.

• Main flight + connecting flight + necessary accommodation + transfers + luggage and other surcharges = the actual cost of the trip

As well as money, I also take into account time, comfort and risk, but those are difficult to quantify.

What to include alongside the main flight ticket

The connecting flight in both directions

With super-cheap deals, it’s a bit tricky.

If you follow us regularly, you’ll know that extra-good deals or error fares sell out or get corrected quickly, so there isn’t much time for a detailed comparison of connecting flight prices.

I simply go for the first date I can afford. And I sort out transport to the starting point afterwards.

And that can be quite tricky.

Take, for example, special-offer flights to Dublin – from where you can often find great deals to America – which you can get for a few tens of euros, but usually only on a very limited number of dates.

Conversely, the standard price of flights to Dublin tends to be very high and can easily exceed the cost of the main flight you’re organising all this for.

Accommodation before a long-haul flight

An overnight stay is almost essential, particularly if your long-haul flight departs in the morning or early afternoon. Depending on your return journey times, you may also need an extra night’s accommodation after your return.

Hotel prices are calculated per room, so the total cost depends on the number of travellers. For solo travellers, accommodation can significantly reduce the savings, whilst a couple can share the same cost.

That’s why I always check hotel prices near the departure airport before booking a flight.

And in European cities in particular, it’s quite common for a single night in the cheapest hotel to easily cost more than 120 eur.

I book hotels through Booking.com and always opt for free cancellation, in case of flight time changes or flight cancellations.

Transport between the airport and the hotel

I add the cost of a train, bus or taxi from the airport and back to the hotel price.

A cheaper hotel in the city centre may not be good value if it means I have to pay for two expensive transfers.

With some combinations, you also need to factor in travel between two different airports.

This could be a small amount, but it could also run into tens of euros.

👉 On our website, we describe our own experiences with transport from airports around the world.

Luggage and other surcharges

I check the baggage rules separately for every booking. The main long-haul ticket may include a cabin bag, whilst a cheap connecting flight might only allow a small bag under the seat.

So, I usually only have to deal with the difference in hand luggage – if a standard piece of cabin luggage is included on the long-haul flight, you’ll generally need to add around 30 eur to the cost of the connecting flight within Europe.

In the same way, I factor in mandatory airport check-in, seat selection or other services that I don’t want to do without on that particular journey.

Food and other expenses whilst travelling

During longer lay-overs or overnight stays, I also spend money on food and drink. This isn’t usually the biggest expense, but with two connecting flights and several long lay-overs, it can add up to a significant amount.

I do not include everyday expenses that I would incur at my final destination anyway. I only take into account the costs incurred because of departing from a remote airport.

I do admit, however, that this is really more of a minor detail.

Time and extra days’ holiday

A separate connecting flight can add a whole day to the journey in each direction. If I need to arrive the evening before my departure and don’t return home until the day after arrival, I end up using up as many as two extra days simply because of a cheaper ticket.

I do not convert my time into a precise monetary value.

But I do ask myself whether the resulting saving is worth the longer journey, more planning and possibly an extra day’s holiday.

The risk of separate flight tickets

The connecting flight and the long-haul flight are on two separate bookings. If I miss the second flight because the first one is delayed, the long-haul airline will not usually rebook me free of charge.

A problem can also arise several months after purchase.

All it takes is for one airline to change its departure time, and the originally convenient combination ceases to work.

I do not factor this risk into the price as a specific amount. However, I do take it into account when determining how much of a saving I expect from a similar combination.

The cheapest option isn’t always sensible

When making my calculations, I don’t use the cheapest theoretical option, but the cheapest option I’d actually be willing to take.

A connecting flight arriving a few hours before a long-haul departure might seem perfect. However, a single delay could mean losing the entire main ticket.

For an expensive long-haul journey, I therefore usually plan to arrive at the departure airport the day before.

If I want to travel on the same day, I only choose connections with a generous buffer and the option of taking an alternative flight – personally, I allow at least 5 hours between flights.

Example: A flight from Dublin to the US for €100

To illustrate this, I’ll use a promotional return ticket from Dublin to the US for 100 eur, which we found in August 2026.

The following prices are specific to the dates I found for my trip in November, when I had a free window of time to travel.

In the end, I didn’t buy the tickets because they literally vanished before my very eyes. That’s just what happens with special offers like this.

Item	Item
Return flight Dublin–USA	100 eur
Return connecting ticket Prague–Dublin	96 eur
Additional hand luggage on the connecting flight	26 eur
Overnight stay before departure	125 eur
Transfers between the airport and the hotel	5,50 eur
Meals and additional incidental expenses	20 eur
Actual final price	373 eur

So a flight ticket for €106 actually costs me at least €373.

It may still be an excellent deal, but I need one more crucial piece of information to make a decision: how much does a comparable flight from Prague cost?

If I can get to the same destination from Prague on a single booking for 550 eur, I’ll save around 200 eur.

And that’s an amount I’ve assessed as worthwhile, and I was keen to buy the tickets.

If the difference were, say, just 50 eur, I’d be giving it a lot more thought.

You might also get lucky with a connecting flight and end up paying as little as 50 eur.

The same ticket for €106 can therefore be an exceptional deal for one traveller and a practically worthless offer for another.

But above all…

An extra night as a great bonus

So far, I’ve only been looking at the figures and the extra costs. But I’m, above all, a traveller in body and soul.

So an extra night – or even several extra nights – in Dublin, Milan, Lisbon, Madrid or anywhere else served by a cheap long-haul flight is not a waste of time for me.

But a significant bonus.

I simply combine two trips into one.

And that’s what I like most about trips like this.

Even though I probably wouldn’t have planned a trip to Dublin on my own, circumstances ‘force’ me to do so, and I discover a place that I might otherwise have unfairly overlooked.

That’s how I came to love Milan and Oslo, for example.

I first travelled to both cities simply because of a cheap flight to the US and Argentina respectively, and since then they’ve been among my favourite places in Europe.

What I compare the offer to

I don’t compare a special-offer ticket with just any expensive connection I happen to find. I try to find a genuinely comparable journey from Prague:

• to the same city or an airport of similar distance
• at a similar time of year and for the same duration
• with the same luggage allowance
• without having to buy an additional separate ticket

I take standard prices into account. If flights from Prague regularly sell for 550 eur, it is not fair to compare an overseas deal solely with the current price of €800 and claim that I am saving nearly €700.

What matters isn’t the current price tag, but the amount I could realistically pay for a comparable journey from my home airport.

The number of passengers can affect the result

Some costs are calculated per person, others per room or for the whole group.

Connecting flights, luggage and most travel tickets are multiplied by the number of passengers.

A hotel room or a taxi, on the other hand, can be shared between two people.

Departing from a remote airport can therefore sometimes work out better for a couple than for a solo traveller. For a family, on the other hand, connecting flights, extra luggage and more complicated journeys can significantly increase the total cost.

I therefore always carry out the calculation based on the actual number of travellers, not just for one person.

Compare hotel prices worldwide

How much of a saving is worth the hassle to me

Everyone has a different threshold.

Some people are willing to book two separate flights to save a few tens of euros, whilst others prefer a more convenient journey from their home airport.

I generally make my decision as follows:

• savings of up to50 eur per person – flying from a distant airport is only worth it to me if I specifically want to visit the city of departure.
• Savings of50 eur to 150 eur per person – I base my decision mainly on the times and the length of any holiday I might need to take, but it’s starting to look interesting!
• Savings of over200 eur per person – if I’ve got time off and really want to go to the destination covered by the special-offer flight, I usually go ahead and book it.

💬 How about you? At what amount do the savings start to look attractive to you?

What to check before buying

Before I buy a flight from a distant airport, I always ask myself these questions:

• Roughly how much is a connecting flight in both directions?
  • I can almost always get to Milan or London reasonably cheaply. Lisbon, Madrid or Istanbul are a bit trickier...
• Do I need accommodation before departure or after my return?
  • This is particularly important if I don’t want to visit the place of departure.
• What luggage allowance is included with all bookings?
  • The main differences lie in the size and number of pieces of hand luggage.
• Do I have enough time to spare?
  • This is very important – these will always be non-connecting flights that I’m putting together myself.
• What should I do if the flight timetable changes?
  • I need to be prepared for the possibility that I may have to buy new connecting flights.
• What is the actual price of the whole combination?
  • That’s what matters most in the end.

What are the best deals we’ve found?

To round things off, here’s a selection of the best special-offer flights from the past. Just to give you an idea of what we’re actually talking about.

• USA and Canada from Dublin for 106 eur
  • In this particular case, the cost of transport to and from Dublin could have exceeded the price of the main flight, yet it still made sense overall
• Brazil from Lisbon for 157 eur
  • Connecting flights to Lisbon are usually quite expensive, but at the same time this represents a huge saving, as flights from Europe to Brazil are typically very expensive!
• Latin America from Amsterdam for 187 eur
  • Again, the connecting flights are relatively expensive, but overall it’s a brilliant deal (I used it for a trip to Peru)
• New Zealand from Paris for 300 eur
  • Probably the best deal I’ve ever personally taken advantage of. The relatively expensive connecting flight to Paris was more than compensated for by the unbelievable price to the other side of the world.