Beat Budget Airline Charges Article Discussion

Ernisius

While it's annoying that Ryanair add so many extras during the booking,checking in process, especially as many of these charges are unavoidable, the total cost is still very cheap.

I recently flew to Malaga from Birmingham, £88 return for 2 people.
Take a look at Virgin trains prices.
I could travel Birmingham to London via Malaga with Ryanair for less than the cost of taking the train directly to London with Virgin.


I always feel though, when booking Ryanair that it is a competition between them and me to avoid extra charges . You need to be very careful nor to make any errors. It is pity they do it the way they do because it creates mistrust.

If, as some people have called for,there were a campaign to eliminate the additional charges, then they will just be added elsewhere, the total cost will stay the same.

But then I'm happy with the price, but would appreciate the transparency.

Katie-100_2

Just searched for flights online and taxes almost doubled the advertised cost of the flights!! That wasn't including the online seat booking and bags etc that all had to be paid for before the final costing of the flights. I don't know about anyone else but i am getting increasingly fed up with "additional extras" being added to the cost of so called "cheap flights". Is it too much to ask for these "no fills airlines" to advertise the ACTUAL true costs of the flights?? And as for "online check" in to keep costs down, what a scam!! They still have to have someone on the check in desk to book your bags through.
Surely this should and can be stopped, anyone else with me on this??

joerugby

Ernisius wrote: »

While it's annoying that Ryanair add so many extras during the booking,checking in process, especially as many of these charges are unavoidable, the total cost is still very cheap.

I recently flew to Malaga from Birmingham, £88 return for 2 people.
Take a look at Virgin trains prices.
I could travel Birmingham to London via Malaga with Ryanair for less than the cost of taking the train directly to London with Virgin.


I always feel though, when booking Ryanair that it is a competition between them and me to avoid extra charges . You need to be very careful nor to make any errors. It is pity they do it the way they do because it creates mistrust.

If, as some people have called for,there were a campaign to eliminate the additional charges, then they will just be added elsewhere, the total cost will stay the same.

But then I'm happy with the price, but would appreciate the transparency.

With due respect this is complete nonsense. You can go from Euston to Birmingham with Virgin for £7.50 if you book a few days in advance, and you don't have to pay extra for baggage, speedy boarding, check in, scratch cards or even using the loo. It's quite civilised really

[Deleted User]

I am also fed up with misleading prices - they should quote the correct total price and stop wasting my time. This is how today's search for a "cheap" flight to Pisa advertised by Jet2.com worked out:
Leeds Bradford - Pisa

Base Fare £26.99
Taxes and Charges £26.00
Bags £15.99
Online Check-in £5.00
Total: £73.98
Pisa - Newcastle

Base Fare €14.99
Taxes and Charges €31.00
Bags €20.00
Online Check-in €7.00
Total: €72.99 + a booking fee which they don't tell you until you have filled in all your details

What a waste of time. Sorry but there is a huge and unwelcome difference between the advertised price of 14.99 euros and the end price of 72.99 - HUGE difference. And I still have to get to Leeds-Bradford = £30 petrol if I'm lucky + £40 parking

That's £220 so I might as well go via KLM or Alitalia from Newcastle and get the freebies and a proper flight. Stupid. It's getting worse.

The lucky travellers live near Luton or Gatwick or some other centre for all the cheapest flights.

[Deleted User]

joerugby wrote: »

With due respect this is complete nonsense. You can go from Euston to Birmingham with Virgin for £7.50 if you book a few days in advance, and you don't have to pay extra for baggage, speedy boarding, check in, scratch cards or even using the loo. It's quite civilised really

Try getting one of the cheap trains from Newcastle to Kings Cross a few days in advance - I don't think so!!

joerugby

[Deleted User] wrote:

Try getting one of the cheap trains from Newcastle to Kings Cross a few days in advance - I don't think so!!

There are at leat ten trains available next Wednesday with fares of £45.50 and three available with fares of £35.50. No extra charges and seat reservations included.

[Deleted User]

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/ was down when I tried. I presume you mean one way. £90 would be about the cheapest you can get. Really cheap seats seats used to be late at night or early morning when you don't want to be on a train. At least that's how it was when National Express were in charge.

Ryanair is the cheapest right now but they don't fly from Newcastle - has to be Leeds. All I want to do is go to my local airport and fly to Italy! Newcastle is in limbo as far as the cheapest flights are concerned.

I can get a week's package holiday to Marmaris b&b for £200 flying direct from Newcastle.:rotfl:

Yes it seems good that you can get a reasonable price ticket but never at the right time of day. Package tours offer the best deals it seems. The days of the independent traveller are over unless you are well off or want to travel like a student.

Ernisius

joerugby wrote: »

With due respect this is complete nonsense. You can go from Euston to Birmingham with Virgin for £7.50 if you book a few days in advance, and you don't have to pay extra for baggage, speedy boarding, check in, scratch cards or even using the loo. It's quite civilised really

With due respect I think you are talking complete nonsense.
I can get cheap flights with Ryanair very easily. I have heard of £7.50 trainfares from Bham to London with virgin, but have never actually found one. The vast majority of TRAIN fares bham to London are substantially more expensive than the TOTAL cost of a flight to Malaga. One would expect rail travel to be cheaper than air travel, but then most rail routes have a monopoly.

But I do agree with other posters about the lack of transparency. I don't understand why they can't just bundle the whole thing together.
Adding so many additional charges for stuff that is not optional, I think is designed to mislead.

Wills_mistress

Do people think that the easyjet easy boarding one year deal is a good one?

I think it is 99 pounds and you get on every plane at the front

But i know if they are using buses to get to the plane you might lose your place.

flyingflea

Just wanted to say I applied for the Neteller plus prepaid mastercard and it arrived within 5 days so those hesitant to order due to it taking forever need not neccessarily worry.