Jokerfliegen & Blind Booking – > ready for take off!

You’re ready for a holiday but you lack the big bucks to afford an oversea- vacation? You’re spontaneous and up for something new? Check out “Blind Booking”/ “Jokerfliegen”.

For a fixed price you book a flight without knowing the exact destination in advance. You only get to see categories of destinations and it is not until a few weeks before the flight that you’ll get to know where you’re actually heading. There are two German airlines (correct me if there’re more) that offer the so-called “blind-booking” experience.

1. If you prefer an over-seas destination, Condor offers “Jokerfliegen”, where you pay 199 € for destinations like Barbados, Cuba, Goa, or the following:

For an extra 19€ you can cross out 8 destinations in total. In addition, the member of the Thomas Cook Group also offers short-haul trips to European destinations plus Morocco or Turkey for a fixed price of 49 €.
You can freely choose the date where you wish to fly within the next 60 days, given that they’re still available.

 Achim Lameyer, sales manager of Condor  announces “Joker Fliegen ist DIE Chance für abenteuerlustige Schnäppchenjäger”. 

True, there are however two conditions that should be considered: There’s only one airport of departure, which is Frankfurt/Main. The second condition which might be even more considerable is  the fact that the price only accounts for a one-way ticket, yet you need to return somehow, it is even obligatory to buy a return ticket as well. Imagetours.de indicate in their blog that consequently you’ll end up paying  398 € for long-haul destinations and 98 € for short-haul routes. 

2. option of „Blind Booking“ is Germanwings, a Lufthansa-affiliate that concentrates on European destinations only. In contrast to Condor, you can select in advance categories of the type of vacation you prefer, like

• Party
• Culture
• Sun & Beach
• Shopping
• Hiking & Nature
• Metropolis in Western Europe
• Metropolis in Eastern Europe

Except for the category “Sun & Beach” (49.99 €), all other categories are available for 29.99 €.
As a first step, you choose the airport of departure. In contrast to Condor, there are several airports you can choose from, like Cologne/Bonn, Berlin, Hanover and Stuttgart. After choosing the category of the trip you can freely select the date where you wish to travel.

The student blog “Pflichtlektüre” refers to the blind-booking experience as „Fliegen mit Ü-Ei Effekt“. That describes it pretty well.
The blog further reveals that „Blind Booking“ is primarily a marketing campaign after all.
Heinz Joachim Schöttes, press relations officer of Germanwings explains „Wir wollen interessanter für unsere Kunden werden und sie auf unsere Homepage ziehen. Viele Leute wollen sich gerne überraschen lassen“.
Apart from the marketing success, it’s further profitable for the airlines as they get their flights fully booked.

To conclude, “Blind Booking” and “Jokerfliegen” are cheap alternatives to fly, one however has to consider that the cheap prices only account for a one-way ticket and that all conditions listed on the respective homepage should be closely considered in advance before one can enjoy such a spontaneous trip. I believe that 398 €uros for a ticket to places like Brazil or Cuba is still much cheaper than you would normally pay. Besides, it is of mutual benefit: while the airline gets to sell its tickets that could otherwise not be sold anymore, students like me and all those that could normally not afford to pay regular long-haul ticket prices benefit from it.
I really feel like trying it out this summer. What about you?