Monarch In-Flight 23% covert exchange robbery

loveangel

What would you say is a reasonable rate of exchange on a flight from Spain to Luton.
here's the deal - 4 100ml cans of lemonade purchased at 80p each - the stewardess explained you can pay in english or euros, so I presumed there would not be any currency conversion ali babba behaviour. So €20 given to pay for a bill of £3.20 (4x80p). I got £10 and 41p which quite surprised me as the standard excahnge rate at the time was £1 = €1.25 and so I would have expected to get £12.80 - 23% more than what I got

After seeing my meagre change I asked the hostess what the exchange rate was that she used and was told it was £1 = €1.47

It would perhaps have been more helpful if in stead of saying you can pay in euros or £ , they said we will charge you 80p per can or rob you blind if you pay in euros.

Any thoughts or ideas on this 23% skim off scam? should Monarch advertise their exchange rates somewhere or are they allowed to make it up as they go along?

Incapuppy

loveangel wrote: »

so I presumed there would not be any currency conversion ali babba behaviour.

Never presume anything

Personally, if I had had the choice of two currencies I would have asked for the price in each. Don't forget that for a lot of people its a useful way of using up odd bits of foreign currency left over from a holiday.

ince_mon

Don't know why people pay in euros on the plane,they always come in handy next time round.

loveangel

people pay in euros because they have left their debit card abroad and have only £5 UK cash on them - not enough to buy 4 tint cans of lemonades for a very thirsty person whose flight has been delayed by 1 3/4 hours.

Yes i would love to have kept my €20 note and not been done by the Monarch Clippers for 23%, i have to say i have never sat beside anyone who has asked how much in english and how much in euros before deciding what and whether not to purchase from the trolly dolly - but i guess the solution i will be offered will be to bring a packed lunch and fill and empty bottle from the free water taps in the gate area.

I had thought i might have some informed responses on how much they can get away with charging like bank charges etc, but clearly it's the wrong day for sensible responses.

yvonneem_2

Hi there, I recently witnessed some young guys on a monarch flight from Birmingham to Ibiza ask for price of ham sandwich in both pounds and euro's. £3 or 6 euro's they were told. How do they get away with it? They were young kids all aged about 18 to 20 years with a pocket full of euro's ready for their drunken week away. They paid in euro's and never batted an eyelid. Glad they could afford to do that because I certainly would not.

hammy_the_hammer

loveangel wrote: »

people pay in euros because they have left their debit card abroad and have only £5 UK cash on them - not enough to buy 4 tint cans of lemonades for a very thirsty person whose flight has been delayed by 1 3/4 hours.

Yes i would love to have kept my €20 note and not been done by the Monarch Clippers for 23%, i have to say i have never sat beside anyone who has asked how much in english and how much in euros before deciding what and whether not to purchase from the trolly dolly - but i guess the solution i will be offered will be to bring a packed lunch and fill and empty bottle from the free water taps in the gate area.

I had thought i might have some informed responses on how much they can get away with charging like bank charges etc, but clearly it's the wrong day for sensible responses.

i don't see anything wrong with the responses you received . people obviously don't know if this is your first flight abroad or not....it's a given that the exchange rate offered by the cabin crew is going to be pretty dire ...it's nothing new and been going on for as long as i can remember....they give you a choice and i would never put myself in a position where i didn't have enough sterling to get me through most scenarios.
at the end of the day you said the drinks were £3.20 and you had a fiver anyway so you needn't have been 'scammed'

Horace

I think that the OP has a point - whenver do you ask for the price of inflight drinks in sterling or euros? I have travelled extensively around the world and have never come across this problem before.

I am sure that you can appreciate that when your plane has been delayed for over an hour, the weather was most likely to have been unbearably hot and you are incredibly tired then you just want to back to blighty then I feel sure that you would just pay in euros and expect the exchange rate to be what it is and not inflated by so much.

I notice that someone else has made a comment about the OP having a fiver in his/her pocket - have you thought that this may have been for a taxi?? It is understandable that he/she wouldn't have wanted to break into that and would therefore have used euros instead, so it isnt unreasonable to expect a decent exchange rate.

The unhelpful comments made on here have probably chased the OP away, I have noticed that he/she is a new member and really doesnt deserve to have people make unhelpful comments "you should have paid in pounds" etc.

OP, if you feel that you are experiencing troll-like behaviour, there is a little red triangle on the left side of your postings - click on that and you can send an abuse report to the moderating team.

basill

loveangel wrote: »

was told it was £1 = €1.47

The Monarch stewardess told me this when I bought Top Gear magazine to read and Vodka and Tomato juice to drink. I dug about a bit and found some Pounds. On my flight home the exchange rate was certainly not a secret, they mentioned it several times.

B

hammy_the_hammer

Horace wrote: »

I think that the OP has a point - whenver do you ask for the price of inflight drinks in sterling or euros? I have travelled extensively around the world and have never come across this problem before.

I am sure that you can appreciate that when your plane has been delayed for over an hour, the weather was most likely to have been unbearably hot and you are incredibly tired then you just want to back to blighty then I feel sure that you would just pay in euros and expect the exchange rate to be what it is and not inflated by so much.

I notice that someone else has made a comment about the OP having a fiver in his/her pocket - have you thought that this may have been for a taxi?? It is understandable that he/she wouldn't have wanted to break into that and would therefore have used euros instead, so it isnt unreasonable to expect a decent exchange rate.

The unhelpful comments made on here have probably chased the OP away, I have noticed that he/she is a new member and really doesnt deserve to have people make unhelpful comments "you should have paid in pounds" etc.

OP, if you feel that you are experiencing troll-like behaviour, there is a little red triangle on the left side of your postings - click on that and you can send an abuse report to the moderating team.

horace telling people what they don't want to hear isn't troll like behaviour.
now if you have travelled extensively around the World and never come across this problem before i can only assume that you don't fly charter or pay in the currency of the airline.
yes it could have been delayed , it could be really hot in the airport and you're tired and thirsty ....well personally i would have bought drinks airside in the airport (queue chance for everything including vending machines to be closed at airport) .
the same as your remark about the fiver being for a taxi ....well it may well have been, but again if that's all you've got left you're in poo street if you lose it or the taxi comes to £5.50.
there's part of adult life where you have to take some responsibility for your own actions ....i would never risk travelling without a 'float' of money in addition to cards so if problems occur eg a flight delay you aren't dependant on 1 drink every 4 hours from the airline.
likewise if they took me to a flea-pit for an overnighter caused by a delay i would have the funds to make my own arrangements. being a seasoned World traveller i thought you would appreciate that.
by all means click the red triangle thingy if and when you feel the need

rbulph

I hate the way airlines rip you off for these things. If you're worried about getting thirsty why not:

- take a bag of satsumas with you on the flight?
- say you're really thirsty, don't want to pay their prices and could you just have a free glass of water? I expect they'll say yes.
- take some water purification tablets with you and an empty bottle. If they won't give you some free water, go into the toilets, fill your bottle up from the sink, and make a real show of purifying the water, just to show them up for how mean they are?
- collapse in the aisle gasping "water... water..."?

Maybe you have some other ideas.

Pollycat

horace telling people what they don't want to hear isn't troll like behaviour.

hammy, I agree totally with you on this one. Of course it's OK to disagree with someone on a forum, the important thing is not to be rude about it.

I don't think anyone was particularly rude to the OP, before he/she got huffy and said:

I had thought i might have some informed responses on how much they can get away with charging like bank charges etc, but clearly it's the wrong day for sensible responses.

The OP did get sensible responses, they just weren't ones that agreed with his/her point of view.

The OP asked:

What would you say is a reasonable rate of exchange on a flight from Spain to Luton.

The answer is 'Whatever Monarch (or any other airline as this is NOT specific to Monarch) wants to set.

I've travelled quite a lot with Monarch and in my experience they have always been upfront with declaring the exchange rate for paying in non UK currency.
However, this is usually an announcement made (which the OP maybe missed) rather than information given to each passenger as they are served by the stewards.