You have to price it both ways to see if the savings is worth it to you. In peak season (June-Aug, and around Christmas) it sometimes is much cheaper to fly to a major city first, then use a low-cost airline to your actual destination. It would depend if LAL and Air Baltic have good fares from, say, Copenhagen or Stockholm or London.

You are right about doing 2 tickets. If airline 1 is late, airline 2 does not have to help you, so if you do this, allow plenty of time for a connection (4+ hours).

If you can depart in early June, it’s sometimes a little cheaper. Try consolidators via — especially Mobissimo and AllCheapFares, as well as Lufthansa’s “We Fly Home” special fares to some countries,

If you book on 2 different airlines (like a bigger airline and a no frills one like easyjet, or 2 airlines with no baggage agreements) then if there is a delay or you need to take your luggage back and you end up missing your connection, there will be no compensations or rebooking. It’s always preferable to book everything together, just to save the hassle of stressing out thinking something might happen.

I’m not too sure but maybe there are a few other airlines you could check to see if they can beat the competition?