It's almost that time of the year where I get to relocate (again). In particular, it's kinda time to start looking at the travel arrangements: more specifically, it's time to look for flights. The goal is essentially to get from City A (where I'm now), to City B (where I want to be). There is an airline operating out of City B and they offer direct flights from/to City A, so it shouldn't be that hard?
The obvious answer would seem to be a one-way trip. Let's fire up Google Flight and check the approximate prices. A direct flight (~1.5h) with the obvious operator sets you back about β¬300 (on the relevant dates).
The cheapest option for the same trip is about β¬65, but includes flying about 2h into essentially the wrong direction, spending 22 hours at the wrong airport and then flying for another 2.5h (surprisingly, in the right direction, this time). There's plenty of options in between those β¬65 and β¬300. For about β¬150 you can pay a visit to Oslo (so A -> Oslo -> B, and no Oslo is not exactly on route either), or to Prague and Hamburg (A -> Hamburg -> Prague -> B with two of the flights on propeller planes -- I'm actually almost tempted).
For funsies, I checked taking the detour via Athens, for a total of A -> Frankfurt -> Munich -> Athens -> ZΓΌrich -> B, which will still cost you less than those β¬300, albeit you have to stay a day in Athens and the other transfers aren't exactly great either. I'm not quite sure how far you can get, it seems Ankara is still (barely) within the β¬300 budget. Reykjavik, at β¬315, barely isn't, though.
Anyway. the less obvious answer (or, rather, what would be the less obvious one in a sane world; I was fully aware of this) is to book a return trip. Assuming you don't really care about the return date, you can get away with β¬120 (direct flights both ways). Prices vary less here, so 22h in Warsaw would knock only about β¬20 of those β¬120. If you hate your checked-in baggage, you could also go via Paris CDG for something in between. (I didn't play around with the multi-trip planner this time, though.)
Anyway, a direct flight will do fine. I'll probably go for the return trip, and use the opportunity to pay a visit to people I know here. Or something.
So, that's β¬120 for the cheapest option (no rebooking/refunding and no checked-in luggage). Luggage will be another β¬35 (they will also let you rebook for the low price of β¬70+difference in fare with this option). If you want to have a flexible ticket with no rebooking fee, that's plus β¬130 (they are feeling charitable here, because this also includes checked-in luggage, a few bonus frequent flier miles and apparently priority boarding, probably so that you can spend more time in the comfort of your cattle-class seat in the airplane). The flexibility would be nice, if it weren't for the fact that for β¬130 I could just get a new ticket instead. One that would -incidentally- include the necessary return trip to B for me.
Except. On the next screen you can add a few extras, including an option that allows you to rebook without fee (just the difference in fare) up to three times for β¬35. Feeling swindled yet? (No wait, you miss out on the extra frequent flyer miles with this option!)
If you're averse to traveling cattle class, the business class round trip is just β¬650 for the direct flight (and β¬350 if you can live with an extra stop somewhere in Europe). The one-way trip lowers the price by like β¬3 (so, yay, savings!). Except if you (again) hate your checked-in luggage, because then you can fly business class via Heathrow for about β¬300. (Rumor says that business class luggage is less likely to be lost, but let's not underestimate luggage-losing-powers of the likes of Heathrow and CDG.)
Eh. Seriously. What's up with this shit?