They suggested that a £9.99 air ticket could end up costing £100, once credit card fees and baggage costs are included – a practice known as ‘price dripping’.
The study by Which? suggested price dripping shows no signs of stopping and warned that no-frills airlines have “plenty of tricks up their sleeves” to make sure that the price consumers actually end up paying keeps creeping up.
I looked through this piece and nowhere could I see a reference to taxes. Looking at one airline site that would be £12 on a short haul flight and I believe it can be as much as £40 on a long haul.
Worth mentioning, surely?
You’d think so. It’s not the ‘Guardian’, after all!
“Even if the final cost represents a good deal, the customer still ends up feeling resentful when they come to hand their money over”
I don’t – I think, ‘Hey, that’s a good deal.’
No money for Which in that, though.
Really Dan? When the Bucket airline’s headline price is £10 and you end up paying more or less what BA was quoting anyway?
Tim – here is an example from Virgin Atlantic:
Fare USD 753.00
Taxes/Fees/Charges/Surcharges YQ332.00 GB97.90 XT107.10
Total USD 1290.00
It looks like the UK tax is $98
Diogenes: yes, really. You did read the part that says ‘Even if the final cost represents a good deal’?
That’s by definition a good deal, irrespective of what Which or any other self appointed customer champions think about it, surely?
As to bucket v scheduled, I fly to Geneva quite a bit and Easyjet are usually half the price of BA/Swissair. There are downsides like take off times but I factor those in and fly Easyjet.
I’m an adult, I read small print, Which and anyone else who whines about the headline figure and pretends they can’t add up can fuck themselves.
That’s by definition a good deal, irrespective of what Which or any other self appointed customer champions think about it, surely?
Erm, psychology much? If I promise to sell you an iPad for GBP100, and then when you’re about to hand me the money and the iPad’s in sight I say “actually that’ll be GBP200”, you’re probably going to be peeved – even if the Apple Store is charging GBP300. Unless you’re a Vulcan, of course.
On the taxes – like any other cost for the airline of doing business, they should be included in the headline fare. If the airline wants to make a political point about how much of the fare is taxed, they’re welcome to do so on the receipt, the boarding pass, and *over the fucking tannoy before take-off* if they wish. But not on the headline fare.
Erm, psychology much? If I promise to sell you an iPad for GBP100, and then when you’re about to hand me the money and the iPad’s in sight I say “actually that’ll be GBP200?, you’re probably going to be peeved – even if the Apple Store is charging GBP300. Unless you’re a Vulcan, of course.
Apart from anything else, I know – in the airline example given – that the headline price is not the final price. Everyone knows this*.
But apart from that, what you’re saying is, you’re selling me an iPad for £100 less than the Apple Store and this is not a good deal?
Am I missing something?
On airlines and headline fares, until such time as legislation is introduced which forces them to give one price, they can – presumably – do whatever the hell they like, even if you don’t like it.
*At least, all sentient adults know that there’s a catch somewhere between the big writing and the small writing on adverts; people who don’t know this should not be allowed to catch flights on their own anyway.
Am I missing something?
Yes. My Vulcan hypothesis is confirmed, I believe.