Beat Budget Airline Charges Article Discussion

WickedWolfie

I see people have picked up on the easyjet insurance con..... Ryanair have their own variant, asking you to positively select no insurance and hiding that option in the middle of a list of countries!!!

Omega_1

I do hope that Martin, in addition to his excess charges campaign, will also take on board a campaign to see that the rip-off Air Passenger Duty & Tax, which is no more than yet another 'stealth tax', is removed and also the 'temporary' Fuel Excess which as a result of fairly recent falling oil prices I believe has been removed by a few airlines but not by the majority. Can Martin perhaps draw up a template for us to use to e-lobby our MP's on this issue as certainly needs addressing as understand the Air Passenger Duty & Tax is due to be increased substantially shortly !!

jendemon69

i think one thing that hasnt been mentioned is the hidden charge when you do book in online. in order to do so, they charge you for booking in online and then charge you for your chosen seat, charging you upwards of an additional £7.50. you cannot book online without booking and paying for your seat. its actually therefore often cheaper to book in, as usual at the airport. the length of queues are often the same anyway.

powertothepeople

Ryanair aren't great, but if David Dimbleby flies with them, then who's to quibble! They are fairly cheap and fly to places others do not.
My main gripe concerning baggage, is when passengers bring large cases onto the plane as hand luggage, but quite clearly it is not. Often they are people with obviously a bit of money, they aren't poor, yet they have to save every penny. It makes me laugh. Just like all the people who moan about Ryanair, yet still fly with them. Fifteen years ago so called bucket shops sold cheaper airline tickets for between £100 - £150 for a standard European destination.
With inflation these tickets should be over £200 now, so Ryanair, with its 'hidden' charges is still cheaper.
Stop being hypocritical. If you don't like Ryanair, or any budget airline, fly with BA or Alitalia and see if the service is substantially better. i doubt it. A good article all the same though.

richardw

jendemon69 wrote: »

i think one thing that hasnt been mentioned is the hidden charge when you do book in online. in order to do so, they charge you for booking in online and then charge you for your chosen seat, charging you upwards of an additional £7.50. you cannot book online without booking and paying for your seat. its actually therefore often cheaper to book in, as usual at the airport. the length of queues are often the same anyway.

Which airline is this?
Please provide a link to their website that details the charges for what you are on about.

inflationbusting

WickedWolfie wrote: »

I see people have picked up on the easyjet insurance con..... Ryanair have their own variant, asking you to positively select no insurance and hiding that option in the middle of a list of countries!!!

It's actually placed in alphabetical order in the drop-down menu.
Sure, it foxed me the first time.... for about 20 seconds.

Either you are being sensationalist, or extremely dim.
If I remember the last time I used Expedia, insurance was added automatically and you had to remove it yourself at checkout. Don't recall an uproar over that.

WickedWolfie

inflationbusting wrote: »

It's actually placed in alphabetical order in the drop-down menu.
Sure, it foxed me the first time.... for about 20 seconds.

Either you are being sensationalist, or extremely dim.
If I remember the last time I used Expedia, insurance was added automatically and you had to remove it yourself at checkout. Don't recall an uproar over that.

Neither actually, but I find removing insurance from easyjet far more intuitive. How hard would it have been for Ryanair to put no insurance at the top of the list? I am VERY cynical about why they didn't do that.

richardw

Please be very careful with MoneySaving Newbie comments that have a low post count, some of them aren't actually double checking what they say with the relevant websites.

macmic

As a regular flier back and forth to Spain I took up the suggestion of getting a GBP Visa Electron card. To do so commission free was not as simple as it sounded as there is no Travelex outlet in Edinburgh. However I was able to wheel past Newcastle airport and pick one up which I loaded with GBP200. I have used it successfully to book flights but now I discover that there is a 2% commission to top it up - even from Travelex direct. As I was only paying a 2.99% surcharge for credit cards with FlyGlobespan I am not reaping much of a saving at all. Does anyone know of a workaround?

richardw

macmic wrote: »

As a regular flier back and forth to Spain I took up the suggestion of getting a GBP Visa Electron card. To do so commission free was not as simple as it sounded as there is no Travelex outlet in Edinburgh. However I was able to wheel past Newcastle airport and pick one up which I loaded with GBP200. I have used it successfully to book flights but now I discover that there is a 2% commission to top it up - even from Travelex direct. As I was only paying a 2.99% surcharge for credit cards with FlyGlobespan I am not reaping much of a saving at all. Does anyone know of a workaround?

http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/easycash.asp