Budget airline fees and charges labelled 'unfair'

[FlyZB]

Which? has compiled a survey detailing charges imposed by budget airlines, that may have to be paid in addition to your fare and government tax. It highlights which airlines are worse for 'ripping off' the passenger. Unsurprisingly, Ryanair has the most additional charges which could amount to an extra £32 on top of the advertised fare & tax. The survey claims that the fees are often unfair, misleading to the consumer and the overall price with extras could add up to a lot more than the face value fare. Even though airlines have to advertise the full fare including all taxes on their websites, the addtional fees for checking in luggage, speedy boarding etc are not detailed as part of the fare.

Here's a link to the full article from BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7176401.stm

Interested to know what your thoughts are on this? Are budget carriers deliberately misleading passengers by offering 'free' fares with many hidden extras on top or do you believe the fares they offer are still good value for money even with the extra expense? Discuss...

[757_Driver]

i think that is an utterly unfair report, sure there are fees, but they're already in the advertised headline price.
What I find completely unacceptable is the use of 'fuel surcharges' by most 'non budget' airlines, which are not included in the advertised price.

eg.
go and find a brand new, newly printed Virgin brochure and see how much a £999 holiday actually costs you. Its not like the oil prices doubled between the brochure being printed and the booking date is it.

[akerosid]

I booked flights with BA and BE last week:

BA ... Jersey to Dublin, all in, no extras, £162, which I thought was a very good fare - includes taxes, bags etc.

BE ... Jersey to LGW return; can't remember what the price came out as, but I do remember there being a lot of extras: taxes, baggage and seat reservation. Sure, I can avoid the latter (and indeed, baggage), but it was just so much more troublesome to deal with BE than BA; indeed, I'm surprised FR was rated worse than BE for surcharges, because I always found BE to have the most surcharges; you just see the costs mount up.

I can't help being reminded of the innkeeper in Les Miserables!

Reasonable charges
Plus some little extras on the side!
Charge 'em for the lice
Extra for the mice
Two percent for looking in the mirror twice
Here a little slice
There a little cut
Three percent for sleeping with the window shut
When it comes to fixing prices
There are a lot of tricks he knows
How it all increases
All those bits and pieces
Jesus! It's amazing how it grows!

[JAR]

You remember all the lyrics but can't remember how much you paid for a flight????????

[nonemmet]

What I find dispicable are those airlines who are quite happy to take money off families who are allowed to believe that they need to pay for priority boarding, speedy boarding or for choosing their seats, in order that they can be sure of sitting together.

All UK airlines are required to ensure that family groups are sat together for safety reasons (in the event of an evacuation). Whether the IAA require the same form Ryanair I don't know. Any Ryans care to comment?

[Red Snake]

All carriers are guilty of this, not just the budget ones.

The real fare is the amount charged to your card. Anything else is a deliberate, and highly successful, ploy to make it look cheaper than it really is.

IMHO, it is misleading and it doesn't surprise me the consumer groups are campaigning against it. They should.

[James 1077]

My opinion differs from most people here somewhat; in that if I like to fly with just hand luggage, having checked in online, paid by a debit card and not really caring about eating or drinking on the flight then why should I, as someone who doesn't cost much to transport, pay the same amount as someone who flies with luggage, checks in at a manned desk, pays by more expensive credit card and drinks the plane dry?

I like the budget airline fare structures as it means that I can choose what add-ons I want and which ones I don't want.

The only thing that I disagree with is airlines that charge compulsory extras on top of their advertised price (ie not including tax etc).

[The SSK]

The LoCos all like to quote Southwest as their role model, but Southwest generate only 2% of their revenue from non-ticket sources (compared to about 20% for Ryanair) and one of their mottoes is 'we won't nickel-and-dime you to death'.