Beat Budget Airline Charges Article Discussion

crazycleric

easyjet charged me £13 at Glasgow airport as they checked baggage again before you boarded. You also have to be careful buying duty free - it counts as an extra bag!!!

dicklocksley

Its Ok to say that you can see the total price at the point of booking but the TOTAL PRICE should be clear when you are comparing different airline costs. Its not until you go into the booking process that these charges become visible, so a complete comparison cannot be made without going all the way to booking every time on every site. The web site asks how many adults and children will be travelling. Why cant they check boxes with all of the 'optional extras' you may want, such as Hold bags, seat selection, meals, insurance etc. I dont know any family that could go away for 7 days with just hand luggage. So for most people is a necessity not an option. Next they will charge to use the on-board toilets.

chili2001

dicklocksley wrote: »

Next they will charge to use the on-board toilets.

Ryanair ARE going to do that apparently. £1 a go. They probally hope people get a dodgy belly for the flight home, could be an expensive journey!

katsoft

I agree Ryanair get all the stick, but every airline is out to grab as much money off us as possible. You just have to treat it as a game and your object is to win. I travel to pisa approx 6/7 times a year and because I know the dates of travel I start checking prices as soon as I can, booking when the price is right for me, remember a £4 all in flight is cheaper than a 1p flight when charges are added. Hand luggage, remember WEIGH YOUR LUGGAGE, will be all most people need and using coats/jackets works, I do that also. I just wish people would engage their brain before booking, blaming cheap carriers for your own mistake doesn't wash with me (although when you mess up once you won't do it again). Get an electron card it's easy (HBOS still does them). Don't complain about rip offs follow the booking form read it carefully and don't confirm until you are sure.
I have traveled with Ryans rockets for 6 years and the prices are now lower than this time in 2004.
Recently a minor celeb (ex politico) slated Ryanair for charging him for excess luggage, he should have known better his wife is an air hostess!
Rant over, just let O'Leary get on with gettinf people from A-B cheaply, and don't complain about the price of his inflight food, unless you have never flown via Stanstead.

katsoft

just sent in a post and have now read more of the posts. how thick, bitter and twisted are some people. I have flown upwards of 150 times with Ryans Rockets with 1 cancellation ( put on next available flight and onward flight also changed).
Don't fly with cheap airlines, pay fuel surcharges with BA etc. then I don't need to listen to you complain.
Smile at the staff, given some of the rants I would probably tell you to "foxtrot oscar"
If your brain can't fathom a form then perhaps you should be banned from air travel
Don't complain about prices until you have compared with tour operators and major airlines.
Stop slagging off Ryanair, Easyjet etc. O.K. they are not first class travel, if you want that pay £2000.00 per flight
Don't queue there are seats for every body, if you are so scared that you might have to sit apart from your partner/friends for 2 hours perhaps any form of travel is not for you
Yes check return flight prices and one way, sometimes savings can be made
Treat the plane like a bus, I don't ever remember people complaining about bus ticket prices or cost of food on board, on subject of food try buying food/drink at Stanstead Ryanair are cheap in comparison
Get off O'Learys' back I can now fly return from Scotland to Italy cheaper than flights to London with major carriers. I don't pay surcharges (last time I paid 8 years ago it was £75.00)for the privilege of living in Scotland anymore

chili2001

katsoft wrote: »

I agree Ryanair get all the stick, but every airline is out to grab as much money off us as possible. You just have to treat it as a game and your object is to win. I travel to pisa approx 6/7 times a year and because I know the dates of travel I start checking prices as soon as I can, booking when the price is right for me, remember a £4 all in flight is cheaper than a 1p flight when charges are added. Hand luggage, remember WEIGH YOUR LUGGAGE, will be all most people need and using coats/jackets works, I do that also. I just wish people would engage their brain before booking, blaming cheap carriers for your own mistake doesn't wash with me (although when you mess up once you won't do it again). Get an electron card it's easy (HBOS still does them). Don't complain about rip offs follow the booking form read it carefully and don't confirm until you are sure.
I have traveled with Ryans rockets for 6 years and the prices are now lower than this time in 2004.
Recently a minor celeb (ex politico) slated Ryanair for charging him for excess luggage, he should have known better his wife is an air hostess!
Rant over, just let O'Leary get on with gettinf people from A-B cheaply, and don't complain about the price of his inflight food, unless you have never flown via Stanstead.

I've no problem with the service Ryanair provides. The flights we got went on time and arrived early to our destination and on our return.
What really bugs me is how they go about selling you the ticket. A £1 flight should be just that, and not £150+ inc taxes and charges. My main problem is the fact that they charge you extra for absolutly everthing, and your right, people should read the smallprint but I still think that £15.00 per Kg for excess luggage is a bit strong.
My personal gripe was with the online check in as mentioned in one of my previous posts.
Why change something for the sake of it? Unless as I said they like the fact that people don't read the terms and conditions fully so they can put all sorts of crazy chargeable things in so they can blame the consumer if inevitably things go wrong.
In my opinion, Ryanair are still one of the most expensive "budget" airline around and if they continue down this route of misleading customers with fake prices and rip off charges then I don't see a rosy future for them.

crumpsall

On a recent flight, I thought that I had paid for Speedy check in with easyjet. Used the Speedy queue and put bag on scales - 18.6 kgs. Check in girl advised that I hadn't paid (I checked again and I hadn't) and made me go to another check in. Case registered 17.9kgs. Obviously I wasn't charged extra as both readings were under the 20kg limit.
Question is, when weight is so crucial, how often are the check in scales checked and by whom? Given the current behaviour of the airlines it should be independently monitored. Does it fall under the weights and measures act?
From now on, if I am ever marginally over the limit, I will challenge and insist on checking on another scale.

Advice on the legal position please.

Elderwoman

We've only flown once with Ryanair. Never again. Had no bags to check. But when we went to do online check-in (which we've done several times with Easyjet with no probs) we found that although I could do so, my husband couldn't. Ryanair made him check in at the desk (and pay more) b/c although he's a UK resident he has a US passport. We thought this was very unfair and discriminatory.

singletrack800

I suppose we need to keep in mind is that Ryanair is in the business of making money and it is of course not free to fly a Boeing 737 from London to wherever and I must agree with some of the more recent posts that if you can't handle it stop flying with budget airlines or pay the premium. I do however agree that they need a far more transparent pricing policy and especially the £5 online check-in fee when there's no alternative, is pathetic.

Totally agree as well with taking a jacket/coat with big old pockets and stuffing it with your mobile/netbook/extra pair of socks or whatever. We've flown Ryanair between UK & Sweden about 6-10 times/year since they started the routes to Sweden and I have never been denied two bags onboard once at the gate. Where do they suppose I put everything I buy at the airport? After all, they would be shooting themselves in the foot given that all that spending also keeps the industry afloat.

At the end of the day; Easter holiday 2009 - SAS 450 £ for 2 adults and a 3 year old from London to Gothenburg. Same flight with Ryanair 170 quid.

richardw

Elderwoman wrote: »

We thought this was very unfair and discriminatory.

Had you read the bit about non EU passport holders on ryanair's website before calculating the total cost of the flights?