As a solo traveller, that often books one way flights with EZY. I can safely say this now makes them very uncompetitive to alternatives available to me. As a point of principle, an unavoidable admin fee to buy a ticket appears to be very unreasonable. Seems to go against their business friendly strategy - OK maybe for families & groups. Think it's a big mistake- surely the trend is now the other way? Making fares all inclusive rather than introducing more add ons.
Wrong call Ms McCall:=

I thought all airline were required by law to offer at least ONE free method of payment??

I believe the fares are all inclusive and the first price you see includes the admin fee

"Seems to go against their business friendly strategy - OK maybe for families & groups."

Boo Hoo for big business. What a stupid comment.

Why should it be ok for families, but not for businesses to pay this charge?

I think he means that for an average family of four booking flights the fee is fairly reasonable in that percentage wise, of the total transaction, it is less. If that makes sense.

easyflyer83 - yes i think that is what was being alluded to.

The route i frequent has flybe as a direct competitor. the £9 admin fee now means that BE offer the lower lead in fare.

Not correct. Headline fares are shown, then the additional £9 is added on in the basket when confirming.

However they present it, it's cynical in the extreme and completely against the spirit of recent legislative moves.
There are lots of business that I buy goods and services from who don't charge me an admin fee - why should airlines be different. I can understand if they are having to print something off for me (as is the case for theatre tickets often for example) but I check-in myself and print the boarding card myself. What are they doing for the £9?
I can understand the percentage for credit card usage but debit cards are a guaranteed payment.
It still may be better than the appalling FR (in this context) but it's really scummy business practice.

The admin fee is simply a mark up pure and simple. The only reason that it's not in the headline fare is so that the "basefare" can be comically low only to disappoint you later once you come to pay for things.

Dear narrow....
I am NOT referring to big business, but business travellers. there is a difference.
If i book a one way flight for ONE it will cost me a £9 fee.
If a family of 5 book a return flight, then the £9 fee is spread over in effect 10 sectors. ie 90p each fee.
Understand now?:ugh:

Narrow Runway -

Pleased be advised that referring to comments as "stupid" and "Boo Hoo" just because you don't happen to agree with them does not impress other readers on this board. Especially in a case such as this where it appears that YOU are the one who has misunderstood the facts. Mr A Tis is a valued and long-term contributor on PPRuNe. He has been a positive contributor to discussions here going way back, and has won the respect of other readers whether they agree with his points or not.

You have some way to go before achieving the level of respect Mr A Tis has earned here, and the manner of your recent post will not elevate your reputation any time soon. If you have data or information which counters views expressed by other posters, please contribute these to the discussion. However, if your aim is to label valued members as "stupid" maybe you should not bother.

SHED.

EZY management's answer this Friday to why this fee has been applied:

"From yesterday, we are replaced our booking fee with an admin fee of £9. This fee will be included in all advertising, displayed as part of a full and final flight price at the first stage of the booking process and will be applied to all bookings, regardless of payment method and the number of flights booked.

The admin fee will be charged on all bookings and passengers using a credit card will pay an additional fee to cover handling costs. We will not charge for handling debit card payments It is necessary for us to charge an admin fee to contribute to a wide range of administrative costs which have increased throughout the airline and across Europe.

Inflation has been a significant driver of cost increase as well as our investment in IT (to improve the passenger experience) in our call centre (to cope with the extra burden of EU261 regulations - which make airlines responsible for delays, cancellations and right of care expenses during force majeure events such as volcanic eruptions, snow closures and ATC strikes), plus other central costs.

This has left us with no choice but to pass on some of the additional costs to passengers. These changes have been made in order to address the concerns raised by consumer bodies and regulators across the EU whilst retaining a simple, transparent and consistent booking process for all passengers regardless of nationality.
We will apply the charge per booking, rather than per person, because the overwhelming majority of our customers book multiple flights or flights with multiple passengers.
Other airlines charge for each person flying, so that a family of four would be charged £48 compared to only £9 when they travel with easyJet. We believe this offers the most passengers the best value for money."

I still struggle to understand the logic behind EZY's argument.
When I go into Tesco/Asda/JS etc, none of them tell me that a further £9 will be required when I check-out. All the prices are displayed regardless of my final payment method - cash,debit or credit card.. All incur an admin cost of some sort or another, but this cost is absorbed by the total profit generated by my purchase. I believe it is classified under 'overheads'. Why do EZY [plus others] not seem to understand 'overheads' and their incorporation into a business model?
Why doesn't EZY just increase all its fares by £2 and proudly advertise 'No Hidden Extras!' Then we can all sleep easily in our beds knowing that we are not 'knowingly' being ripped off for some unjustifiable admin charge.

More Hidden costs exposed
 

It seems I go from paying a fare and a credit card charge to a fare AND an admin fee and a booking card charge! Well I don't as I will probably eschew Sleazy once and for all for the airlines with leg room and spare capacity and normal service.

What I can't understand is by making themselves more transparent more people can see there are being more and more ripped off. Simply increase the fare and say you have not decided to implement any additional charges. 99% of people would not be any the wiser. A policy of honesty doesn't pay... if indeed it is honest!

"their" a319s... come on!

wowzz - I agree 100% I just can't understand the logic on this one. Infact I have trouble even to understand the easyjet statement.

It would have been much better just increasing all fares slightly and having no fee (admin or credit card). This would have been received far better by the fare paying public than adding a rather erroneous admin fee to a booking as folks will still think they are been ripped off.

Easyjet Found Guilty of Discriminating Against Disabled Passengers | The News

Not good news on this front and not needed publicity.

I don't really like the 'admin fee' either as I said a few posts back. However, and this won't be a very popular view, the consumer is partly to blame. There is an unrelenting thirst for cheap flights to the extent where a return fare of £150/£200 on a sector length of 4+ hours is deemed expensive. Nobody (I hope) would argue thats not a lot of money, to many people these days it is. However we have reached a point where those airlines who predominantly compete on price have to, to some extent, massage the figures in order to tap into this thirst and to keep up with the competition. That is why I support legislation to level the playing field in this respect......I don't think it should particularly be down to one airline because in my view a policy of "no extra's" would likely harm that carrier. It is my belief that it would still take close to a generation to break the cycle.

It's also interesting that there is alot more hysteria about this than the fuel surcharge adopted by various airlines at various points in the past. It's no different in my view.

Please don't mistake my sentiments, I don't particularly like the admin/card fee's and in fact it is the only extra that I don't really agree with. But I don't think the consumer is whiter than white on this issue for reasons I have cited.

Pretty much expected this as a get out by airlines from being hit by Consumer groups............consumer groups are sometimes their own worst enemy.

I don't particularly think airlines should use it as a get out but folk in general just aren't prepared to pay the true going rate for air travel. I think the vast majority of us are guilty of that.