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Cheap flight hidden extras
By Sarah Coles
We've all been there, on a rainy summer day when a huge billboard catches your eye. For mere pennies, it claims, you could be soaking up some Spanish sun. So you rush home, log on, and discover that £5 flight could end up costing you anything up to £150, once all the charges are added in.
Airlines use all sorts of wheezes to bump up the bill. First they advertise the one-way cost, so you'll need to double it. Then they add in the tax and the airport fee -known as the passenger service charge.
Add to that the host of extra charges from the low-cost airlines. Ryanair, for example, charges to check in luggage. Meanwhile, easyJet charges for priority boarding, so you can grab the seats with extra legroom, and Monarch charges a variable fee if you want to pre-book the legroom. Then there are charges of up to £3 a person per flight for using credit and even debit cards, checking in online, using a wheelchair or bringing golf clubs or skis.
Richard Martin, a consultant from Edinburgh, came across the vagaries of low-cost airline pricing when he visited his daughter in London. After an initial search he found Ryanair was the cheapest, so decided to book. He says: "I was shocked as I went through the booking process at how the extra charges were adding up. I was expecting taxes and some charges, but it seemed crazy to pay separately for things like bags."
As the price rose, so did Richard's blood pressure. "I started to feel like I'd been deceived, so I began looking elsewhere," he says. He ended up booking with British Airways. "It was more expensive, but I felt less ripped off by the booking process, so I didn't mind paying more."
Pricing structure
Airlines are keen to pass off responsibility for this ludicrous pricing structure, claiming if their competitors do it then they have to as well. Ryanair is probably the worst offender. In the past, it has charged passengers for baggage, even though they took only hand luggage (to escape paying the charges), simply because they failed to check the right box online.
Trading Standards has been livid about these sort of charges for years.
Bruce Treloar from West Sussex Trading Standards, a specialist on travel, explains the legal position: "If any service advertises a price for goods or services which doesn't include non-optional extra charges for fixed amounts, we can take action." That doesn't include optional things like baggage charges or the cost of an in-flight sandwich, but anything that all passengers have to pay, such as tax.
Airlines continued to flout the rules, so in February, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said it would take enforcement proceedings against any airline not complying by May.
Mo Bullbrook, a spokesperson for Cheapflights.co.uk, says the situation has improved. "Even a year ago we would have to chase the airlines all the time to get them to send us the prices inclusive of taxes, but the pressure is on and it's a lot better now," she says. But this is nothing to shout about. The OFT says a handful of airlines are still failing to comply. And even among those who aren't falling foul of the rules, spurious charges are still rife.
Take a perfectly compliant message on the first page of easyJet's website for a flight to Barcelona for £34.98. Add in taxes and charges and you'll pay £56.98. If you want speedy boarding, that'll be £66.98. So your return flight is £133.96. Hardly transparent is it?
Equally, Ryanair is trumpeting a £10 fare (one way), including all taxes and charges. Fantastic - until you find out that it doesn't include credit or debit card, baggage, web check-in or priority boarding fees. That's before you even consider niceties such as a soft drink on your three-hour flight.
You need to make sure you know all the rules and take care not to break them or you could easily triple the price of your flight. And it's a matter of debate whether some of these things, such as taking baggage, are optional.
It's vital that the OFT is put under as much pressure as possible to make sure the airlines comply with the rules - passengers should take the time to complain to it direct on 08454 040 506 whenever airlines break them.
Flight comparison websites, such as Cheapflights.co.uk and justtheflight.co.uk, will compare complete prices, but even they cannot include every spurious optional charge, so you need to check these before you buy your ticket. It's hardly a major success for the consumer, but hopefully careful shopping will turn your wet weekend into a scorcher, without you getting too burned by the price.
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