NOTE: UPDATED LISTING of Paypal Airlines for 2011 go here: Airlines Accepting Paypal 2011

Following our surveys in 2008 and 2009 its time to review once again which airlines accept Paypal as a form of payment for purchasing flights. Whilst all the major airlines in the US accept Paypal payments, the uptake from other international airlines has been less widespread.

The 2010 Paypal airlines list:

US airlines:

American Airlines – US/Canada/UK customers only
Delta – US customers only
United Airlines
Continental Airlines
US Airways
Southwest Airlines
JetBlue
Midwest Airlines (merged with Frontier)

International airlines:

Lufthansa
British Airways (added Jan 2011)
Emirates – GBP/EUR transactions only
Transavia
Monarch Airlines
Jet 2 – GBP/EUR transactions only
Vueling

Air Asia – Australia flights only (though currently there is no info about Paypal on their website??)

Travel Agents:

Australia agent Webjet will allow you to pay for booking flights (including domestic flights with Qantas, Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways and Skywest and all international flights excluding Jetstar). Other Aussie agents using Paypal are Jetabroad and Flight Centre.

Hotwire in the US accepts payments by Paypal.

UPDATE: Airlines Accepting Paypal 2011

NOTE: UPDATED LISTING of Paypal Airlines for 2011 go here: Airlines Accepting Paypal 2011

It’s time to update our list of airlines that accept payment via Paypal for flight bookings online. The list has grown a little since last year’s article (2008)  – but this form of payment still remains more common in the US than other parts of the world.

“Paypal” airlines (as of September 2009):

American Airlines – US/UK customers only
Northwest Airlines – US customers only
Delta – US customers only
US Air
Continental Airlines
Southwest Airlines
JetBlue
Midwest Airlines

Lufthansa (Germany)
Monarch Airlines (UK)
Jet 2 (UK) - GBP/EUR transactions only
Emirates (Dubai) - GBP/EUR transactions only
Air Asia (Malaysia)
Air Asia X (Malaysia)

Some airlines are currently offering incentives to book through Paypal. For example Jet 2 and Monarch are waiving booking fees; JetBlue will give you a free first checked bag; Emirates and AA are offering a 1% cashback to UK residents.

Online agent Hotwire also accepts Paypal as payment for flights.

UPDATE: Airlines Accepting Paypal 2011

And AirTravelGenius.com accepts Paypal for purchases of the Ultimate Airfares & Upgrades Guide

Qantas and British Airways held a very limited “Ashes Cricket” sale in July with return flights from London to Sydney priced at an amazing £215 – flights sold out within minutes. The Middle East carriers have also had some consistently aggressive prices to Asia and Africa.

As of today what can we book for our £400??

North America

US Airways has some reasonable deals to New York (£283), Las Vegas (£327), Los Angeles (£349) and San Francisco (£354) bookable at Netflights.

Air Transat (operated by a Thomas Cook Airbus A330) can fly you from London Gatwick to Vancouver for just £298 return – out Sep 24th and back Oct 2nd. Air Transat flies to Toronto using an Airbus A310 from £258 around the same dates.

Middle East

Qatar Airways has offers to Dubai (£229), Abu Dhabi (£239) and Bahrain (£251). Book by August 15th for travel Aug 15th to Mar 25th 2010 with some blackout dates applying over Xmas / New Year.

Netflights has even cheaper Qatar flights available to Bahrain (£233) and Dubai (£210).

Africa

Swiss and Egyptair have flights to Cairo for £250 return. Qatar has sale offers to Johannesburg (£352) and Cape Town (£382) – whilst the Joburg flight can be purchased on netflights for £327.

Egyptair can get you to Khartoum for £328 whilst Iberia has a deal to Lagos for £394.

India

Some good return deals are available to Mumbai with Qatar (£264), Etihad (£269) and KLM (£272). Qatar also flies to Delhi for £273.

Asia

Etihad will fly you to Kuala Lumpur KUL for £369 via Abu Dhabi. Travelocity UK has Etihad fares to KUL for £364 and Bangkok for £354.

Air Asia X can get you from Stansted to Kuala Lumpur for a base fare as low as £248 for some dates in November. Don’t forget to add on £5 each way for 15kg checked luggage and £12.60 for all meals.

Qatar will take you to Hong Kong for £297 (£280 on netflights, who also have Qatar fares to Singapore for £390). From Hong Kong you could also get on a cheap Air Asia flight to KUL or Bangkok.

Air France can fly you to Shanghai for £384 and KLM to Beijing for £389.

Central/ South America

More difficult to find deals under £400 – however Lufthansa has a special offer from London to Mexico City (£339) and Caracas (£379) – these are £10 cheaper if departing Birmingham. Their London – Sao Paolo fare of £419 is just over budget! Depart Sep 1st to Oct 16th, return between Sep 8th and Jan 16th.

Australaisa

No sub-£400 schedule deals on the market at the moment. The cheapest fare is Royal Brunei’s £469 to Perth and £489 to Auckland. Note, these flights stop in Dubai for re-fuelling and then transit in Brunei.

However it is “theoretically” possible to use Air Asia X to get to Oz for under £400. The cheapest Kuala Lumpur – Perth flights is currently £109 return, added on to the £248 cheapest base London – KUL fare does come to £357. Because separate bookings are needed it is more difficult to co-ordinate the dates to find sale fares that match up. That said, KUL is a good stopover location with great value hotels.

Final tip, if booking with online agents do check the fare restrictions and compare them to buying direct with the airline.

For Aussie flyers, Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) is available from AU$120 all in return. Perth to KUL is priced from AU$115 return and Gold Coast to KUL can be found for AU$104 return, which is a very reasonable price. Don’t forget though, extra fees apply for checking in luggage, seat assignments and meals.

This ‘taxes only’ offer is available on many of Air Asia’s route network around south-east Asia. Under this deal we found return flights from Perth to Bali for just AU$87 all in – this is operated by Indonesia Air Asia.

The booking period is limited to 13th May to 15th May, so hurry up if you want to book. Travel between 5th Jan and 30th April 2010.

London – Kuala Lumpur is not included on the ‘taxes only’ deal, but there is a promo fare of £283 return all in. Air Asia X’s new service from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei can be found for MYR389 return all in (around US$110). Same booking and travel dates apply.

Tips for booking flights with Air Asia X:

1. Get on their “Red A!ert” email newsletter list.

2. Monitor prices – only book the very best promo fares (not the usual promo fares). It probably is worth the extra charge to bag the exit row, especially on the long haul flights.

3. Compare fares with Malaysian Airlines who can be very competitive and are a full service airline – sign up for their Grab-A-Deal promotions. If flying to a resort check through-fares to that destination as they can be similar to fares to KL.

4. Compare prices with other full service carriers. For example, Qantas has some very competitive fares out of London currently to Hong Kong – prices are as low as £250 return this June if you know where to look.

5. For Australia-Asia routes also check prices with Jetstar.

5. If you do book with Air Asia be wary of any flight time schedule changes, as this does happens on occasion. And allow plenty of time for connections.