Cheap flights or false economy?

I think I have mentioned before that it’s important to consider the long term costs, rather than just trying to save pennies in the short term.

A prime example of this is buying cheap flights with budget airlines. One particular airline (I think Rhodd Gilbert calls them ‘Bryan Air’ in his hilarious suitcase sketch) are notorious for hiking up the cost after you’ve booked your ticket.

Despite having vowed never to travel with them again a year or so ago, we found ourselves suckered in to it once again when planning a visit to Mr BudgetCity’s family in Italy. There was an £80 difference in price between them (even including paying extra for checking in baggage) and good old British Airways, and stupidly, we booked the cheaper tickets.

Why stupid? Well, we didn’t factor in the cost of getting to the smaller departure airport: Two return tickets on the express train, or 4 days medium stay parking pretty much canceled  out any saving we might have made. Doh! BudgetCity fail!

Its been a while since we made this trip with this particular airline, and I have to say, they are pushier than ever when it comes to selling extras. So, what other extras (aside from paying for your seats and luggage) can you expect to get offered when you travel with good old ‘Bryan’?

1. Priority boarding.

What you get: To join a shorter queue and get on the plane sooner

Extra Cost: £5 per person per flight (£20 return for a couple)

2. First class (!) seats (this was a new one on me!)

What you get: To move to a slightly more comfy seat with more leg room

Extra cost: They were flogging them for £15 per person extra on the flight we came to Italy on. (£60 return per couple)

3. Scratch cards

What you get: the chance to win prizes/vouchers. Although you may not get it immediately as this is run by an external company. This could be frustrating.

Extra cost: 2 Euro each

4. Snacks, drinks, cuddly toys etc

What you get: Hot drinks, fizzy pop and snack food etc. The new aircraft have no pockets in the seat in front to discourage you from bringing your own.

Cost: £2.50 for a cup of tea is the baseline.

We were in the air for around 2 hours, and every 20-30 minutes there was some kind of advert pushing products on us. You very much feel like their business strategy is to use the flights to create a highly captive audience a few thousand feet above sea level, then hassle them with the hard sell.

If you haven’t seen it, check out this fabulous song that really gets to the heart of the ‘cheap flights’ issue.