If your flights to your destination don't look good, use your airline to get to another European city as close as possible and then use one of the regional discounted airlines like RyanAir or EasyJet. Most are very cheap, especially if you buy a ticket online BEFORE you go...as cheap as 5 euros!! Just be careful of add-ons as bags can be costly! Here's a good list. Low cost airlines in EUROPE - Complete listing

You can also use your affiliated European airlines to get a ZED fare but again, try to buy before you go and the good part is you can even use this as a back-up plan b/c they are all refundable. I once flew Lufthansa's regional carrier from Nuremberg to Amsterdam as it was much cheaper than taking a train back to Frankfurt and the flight looked better in AMS.