They've more bolt-ons than Frankenstein; outrageously, budget airline ‘extras' include taking bags, checking in or even just paying.
Yet be it Ryanair, easyJet, Flybe or BMI Baby, this guide has tricks to beat those nasty charges, from special payment routes to baggage allowance busting.
In This Guide
Best Buys: Avoid card fees
The Five Facts Everyone Should Know
Before we get to the nitty-gritty, if you only remember five things about this, make 'em...
Promos are not on all flights
Don't assume that special promos are valid on all flights. The biggie is that Ryanair's ‘inc. all taxes and charges sales' are the only way you can sidestep its check-in charges.
With all other flights, even those that look very cheap, you'll pay for check -in. So be sure to read all terms & conditions first.
A prepaid card's the only way to pay for free
Most budget airlines charge up to £10 per person return if you pay by credit OR debit card.
Yet the majority let you pay free with ‘Visa Electron' cards, probably because so few people have them, so get yourself a prepaid version of those and it'll slash the cost. For Ryanair it's a prepaid Mastercard. See top prepaid cards list for details.
Hand luggage only is a must
Each stowed bag costs between £10 and £40 return. Yet in most cases, you get a free 10kg hand luggage allowance, so take full advantage.
Putting five pairs of underwear on is probably pushing it, but if you're ‘hand luggage only' ensure you're wearing your heaviest clothes, are multi-layered and your coat pockets are jammed with heavy items like books. (More hand-luggage only tips below).
There is a quick way to find £1 sale flights
Budget airlines commonly promise a million seats for £1, yet try to book and they're nowhere to be found. The FlightChecker's a non-commercial tool we built to beat this. It's designed so you can ask, for example, ‘find any £10-and-under inc. taxes & charges Rome flights in August'.
Online check in can save you £100s
With most airlines, you can sidestep fees by checking in online first, though Ryanair usually charges £5 even if you do it online.
Plus, always print your boarding pass before you go. If you've printer problems, it can be cheaper to find an internet cafe than pay the fee for not bringing the boarding pass (on Ryanair, it's £40 per person each way). More tricks to avoid check-in fees below.
Budget flights can be a penny
There should be a law against the hideous range of add-on charges, but as politicians won't sort it, we need take matters into our own hands.
Budget airlines can sell flights for miniscule prices because that's all you're paying for: just a flight. Make no mistake, they are no-frills; the only extras you get are the charges companies include to claw back the cash.
Yet while hidden costs make the blood boil, don't forget the key fact:
Book the right way and you can sometimes still fly for a total price of less than a tenner each way.
Though if you're not careful, it could cost you big.
A very extreme example for the total additional fees charged is, for a family of four on a Ryanair £1 each way sale deal (inc. taxes & airport charges) return to Europe, in August, paying by debit card, taking two suitcases in total (not pre-booked) and forgetting to print their boarding passes…£440!
That's £10 return each for debit card payments (£40 total), £40 for the first case and £80 for the second each way (£240) and £40 one-way for boarding pass re-issue (£160 - we'd hope if you forgot to print your outward tickets you wouldn't make the same mistake coming back!).
How to find 1p flights
Of course, the start point is finding the cheapest possible flight; which tool to do that depends on how flexible you are.
Know exactly when & where you want to go?
Budget airlines aren't always cheapest, so use a screenscraping comparison site where your trip details are zipped to scores of budget airlines, normal airlines and brokers, to find the cheapest quote.
The top picks are Kayak* for power, Travelsupermarket* for breadth and Skyscanner* for options. Full info and more tips are in the Cheap Flights guide.
Want to find all the £1 sale flights?
Budget airlines commonly promise a million seats for £1, yet try to book and they're nowhere to be found. The FlightChecker is a non-commercial tool we built to beat this, eg, opt to ‘find any £10-and-under inc. taxes & charges Barcelona flights in August' or set a price and pick “I'll go anywhere”.
Hidden charges & how to beat them
When booking any flight, it's worth watching for hidden extras. Yet, specifically with budget carriers, they've come up with all sorts of ingenious fees to ensnare unsuspecting flyers. Don't think ‘inc. taxes & charges' means everything is included.
Always check to see if the price includes costs like fuel excess, Air Passenger Duty and tax, commonly £30-£50. Then, of course, there will be the other optional charges too.
Avoid charges for paying by credit and debit card.
Outrageously, budget airlines consider paying an ‘optional extra', with charges applying whether you use credit OR debit cards. Worse, elsewhere credit card extra charges are a small percentage of the transaction, with airlines it's usually a set amount per person each way...
Ryanair lists its debit card charge as £5 per person each way. It doesn't sound much, but it adds up to £40 per return trip for a family of four.
How to easily get a card to pay for free
Most airline booking charges do NOT apply to those paying on Visa Electron cards, a specific type of card few have for their bank account. However, Ryanair now charges £10/return trip for Electron payments too, so using a Mastercard Prepaid card is the only way to avoid its fees.
We suspect offering one free payment option is to make it easier for airlines to call debit & credit card charges ‘add-ons'. They know few people get the Electron card from their bank and Prepaid cards are relatively new.
In fact there are a few ways to get your hands on one, each with their own pros and cons...
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Get a prepaid card
Recent years have seen an explosion in the prepaid cards market. These are a bit like plastic cash; anyone can load ‘em up and use them to spend. Some allow you to get one, pay for flights on it and avoid the charges.
There's no credit check carried out when you apply for most prepaid cards, though you have to wait 4-10 days for one to come through the post. Make sure you get the exact version specified. Plus don't add on more than you need to; money held in current accounts is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the event that a bank goes bust, with prepaid cards, there's no such protection.
Specifically, the best card depends on who you are flying with:
Ryanair: To avoid payment fees with Ryanair, the prepaid card must be issued by Mastercard. The best is the FairFx* Anywhere card, where the only charge is 1.5% of the transaction amount each time you spend on it.
Alternatively, newcomer the Neteller card has no fee to apply or spend on the card, though this is a new card and we are still testing it out. Read full details and charges for using prepaid cards to beat flight payment charges.
The Rest: The others airlines currently require the card to be a Visa Electron product and the Post Office Travel Money card is a prepaid Electron card, so get one, pay for flights on it and you avoid the charges.
There's no credit check carried out when you apply for most prepaid cards. Read full details and charges for using prepaid cards to beat flight payment charges.
Pros:
Only way to dodge Ryanair fees
Strong products regardless of Prepaid card loophole
Cons:
Some have fees for loading money or spending
Cards take about 10 days to arrive.. Bag a basic bank account (not for Ryanair)
These are specially designed current accounts with limited features intended for those with poor credit scores, as they don't perform a credit check like standard bank accounts do. However, anyone can apply if you've got identification.
The benefit here is that some give Visa Electron cards, which you can then use when buying budget flights. The Halifax Easycash basic bank account can be applied for online, and issues Electron.
Pros:
Totally free
Can apply wholly online
Cons:
Hassle and time taken setting up new account
Not accepted on Ryanair
Special online payment system (not for Ryanair)
Online payment system Entropay works a bit like Paypal; you sign up and pay money onto it using your debit or credit card. Then you can use your Entropay 'virtual' card details to spend online, and most budget airline flights treat this as an Electron transaction.
Sadly the set-up process can be hit or miss, and very glitchy. Plus there is a 4.95% charge for loading money onto it; this is more than Post Office charges, but still far less than most will pay to book budget flights on a non-Electron card.
Pros:
Totally instant
Cons:
Can experience glitches and downtime
Not accepted on Ryanair
| Pay by Credit card | Pay by Debit card | Pay by Visa Electron | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryanair | £10 per person | £10 per person | £10 per person (2) |
| EasyJet | £4.50 per payment + 2.5% of transaction | £3.50 per payment | Free |
| BMI Baby | £9 per person
| £6 per person | Free |
| Flybe | £10 per person | £8 per person | Free |
| Aer Lingus | £10 per person | £10 per person | Free |
| Jet2 | 3.5% of transaction + 2.25% of transaction | 3.5% of transaction (1) | Free |
| Thomson Airways | 2.5% of transaction | £2.95 per payment | Free |
1) Except for Solo, which is free. (2) Only Mastercard Prepaid cards are free. |
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Beat baggage fees
If you want to stow luggage in the hold, expect to pay £10 to £40 per case return. Plus the weight allowance budget airlines allow is often lower than elsewhere at 15kg – 20kg.
Airlines will ambush anyone who goes over the limit, for example, BMI charges £10/kg and Ryanair charges £20/kg for excess baggage. See the chart below for full airline by airline details.
Yet there are ways to cut the cost:
Don't think more bags means more weight
With many budget airlines, you can pay extra to take more bags. Yet this doesn't increase the overall weight, just how many cases you can spread it into. If you want more weight you'll have to pay for it.
Wear heavy clothes.
It may be a bind, but to help minimise weight (or space if you're hand luggage), then wear your heaviest clothes and shoes. A big coat could add 2kg of excess baggage (that's £30). Once you're on the plane, take ‘em off and stow under your seat.
Then again, you could take it to the extreme. For an ITV Tonight programme Martin wore special US survivalist jacket on a Ryanair flight. This jacket contained a laptop, two books, a towel, passports, a T-shirt, socks, magazines and much more. Even though it was heavier than hand luggage, they don't have rules to stop it … yet.
This was a 22-pocket US Scottevest, yet it ain't cheap, so check your closet or try a camping or army surplus store. One thing to look out for is a jacket with a ‘poacher’s pocket’, a deep lower pocket at the back, where hunters keep game. This bodywarmer on eBay’s a good example. Otherwise, check out things like Regatta or Zebco.
Pre-plan your packing.
Luggage is for losers!
For short sojourns, hand luggage to go in the cabin is the way forward; so far, no airline charges for this. It'll save you hanging out at the baggage carousel too. In most cases, you do get a free 10kg hand luggage allowance, so take full advantage. See the chart below for the different allowances.
Stick to carry-on rules
You must carry liquids and gels in individual, 100ml-maximum containers. You are allowed to carry more than one 100ml container, ie, you are allowed to decant sunscreen into two 100ml bottles. All liquid containers must be in one transparent, resealable bag.
Use the scales at home.
Always pop cases on the scales at home first. If you've no scales, a cheeky trick is to nip over to any empty airline's check in desk and weigh the bag on its built-in scales; they should work whether the desk is open or not. Cram the excess into your hand luggage.
Balance the weight out … allowances often aren't pooled.
Many budget airlines are cracking down on members of the same family pooling allowances, eg, don't assume if you take an 8kg bag, your hubbie's can weigh 22kg. And if you're with a young child, often they won't be allowed to take their own.
Leave space for the way back.
Most people return home from a holiday with more than they took (see the Cheap Travel Money guide for getting the best rates if you're going to spend). If you're planning to, leave space in your luggage for the return.
Throw stuff away.
If you get to the airport and your cases are overweight, consider whether it's worth paying the excess or throwing the goods away. Many common travel clothes or items cost less to buy per KG than the £15/Kg excess charge! Though, of course, there's an environmental consequence to this that needs factoring in too.
Per bag each way (booked online) |
Per bag each way (at the airport) |
Luggage allowance |
Per kg Excess |
Hand luggage allowance |
|
| Ryanair | 1st £15 rest £35 (1) | 1st £35 rest £70 | 15kg | £20 | 10kg |
| EasyJet | £9 | £18 | 20kg | £9 | By volume (6) |
| BMI Baby | £9 – £14 (3) | £20 | 18kg | £9 | 10kg |
| Flybe | 1st £10 rest £28 | 1st £18 rest £28 | 20kg | £10-£20 (4) | 10kg |
| Aer Lingus | £10 (2) | £17 | 20kg | £12 | 10kg |
| Jet2 | 1st £10 rest £25 | £18 - £23 (3) | 22kg | £8 | 10kg |
| Thomson Airways | £8.00- £16
| £18-£30
| 20kg | £10-£15
| 5kg |
1) Passengers who travel in July and August '10 will pay £20 first the bag and £40 for the second. 2) Most routes are £10, with the exception of Belfast - Heathrow: £8 & Belfast - Tenerife/Lanzarote: £12 4) £12/kg for first 3 kilos, £15/kg for 4 - 6 kilos and £20 for every kilo above. 5) Varies depending on destination 6) No weight limit, but dimensions must not exceed 55 x 40 x 20cm. Correct at July 09 |
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Avoid fees for check in
One of the more fury-inducing ‘add-ons' some airlines have is the ‘luxury' of checking in, up to a staggering £80 per person, per return, if you need assistance at the airport.
Check in online
With most airlines, you can sidestep fees by doing it online first. Yet Ryanair (£5/ew) and BMI Baby (£7/ew), even charge for online check-in (excluding Ryanair's ‘inc. all taxes and charges sales'). Even with these two though, check-in's a darn sight cheaper online than if you need help at the airport.
Always print your documents
Once you've checked in online, always print your boarding pass before you go. If you've printer problems, it can be cheaper to find an internet cafe than pay the fee for not bringing the boarding pass (on Ryanair, it's £40 per person each way).
| Online check in per person per return | Airport check in per person, per return | ||||
| Ryanair | £10 (1) | £80 (2) | |||
| EasyJet | Free | Free | |||
| BMI Baby | Free or £14 if checking in bags |
£20 | |||
| Flybe | Free | Free | |||
| Aer Lingus | Free | Free | |||
| Jet2 | £1 (3) | £4 (4) | |||
| Thomson Airways | N/A | Free | |||
All correct July 09 1) Except on "inc. taxes & airport charges" sales 2) Ryanair doesn't offer airport check in, this is the boarding pass re-issue fee 3) Online check-in 1 or more bags £4 4) Airport check-in no bags £4; Airport check-in 1 or more bag £8. |
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Sit together without paying more
Some airlines charge to pre-book seats and ensure you sit together, usually £7-ish.
Turn up early.
Where there are pre-assigned seats on the plane, just turn up for your flight as early as possible to boost chances of grabbing the best spots, especially if it's a weekend or other busy time. (Though if seats are assigned at check in, then do that online early to assure you sit together.)Find the best seats online.
Check the plane's layout on Seatguru, which shows the best and worst seats on different airlines' planes. If there is a choice of seats at the check-in desk, you can pick the prime spot.Do you need priority boarding?
Priority boarding simply means you'll be first on the plane to pick seats. Ryanair and Easyjet don't allow you to reserve a seat when you book, instead they offer priority boarding for £4-ish a head.One trick is paying for priority boarding for just the biggest, burliest member of your party, who then gets on and saves the seats for you.
Some MoneySavers with families say it's worth it. Others reckon it's still a big free-for-all and priority boarders don't always on first; the only solution's to arrive early. Remember these are generally short-haul flights lasting a few hours, so unless you've kids it's not the end of the world … it's Alicante, not Australia.
Food, drink & plastic bags
Of course, no-frills means not a sausage once you're on board. On most budget airlines, you're looking at upwards of a fiver for a sarnie and a cup of tea.
Take your own grub.
Keep costs down by taking your food on the plane, and buying drinks from the terminal shop before boarding.
Stock up on plastic bags.
If you're taking make-up or liquids, they need to go in a clear plastic bag, or you may be charged £1 for getting one of those too.
Don't book on the phone.
All budget carriers charge for telephone booking, as much as £16. They also use premium rate numbers if you need to contact them. Use online services if you can.
Airline by airline extra charges
While the big catches above are common to all budgeteers, true to form, each has their own charging pecadillios to get a final snack on our cash. This is a quick guide to each, plus the Flight, Currency & Car Hire board has a wealth of expertise if you're stuck.
Ryanair cost-cutting
Unsurprisingly the company with the lowest flight costs is the king of add on charges, so it pays to be uber-cautious. Especially important here is checking in online, spotting ‘taxes & charges' sales & avoiding its expensive travel insurance.
See the full Ryanair booking tips notes.
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You MUST check-in online and print your boarding cards
You MUST check-in online with Ryanair and print your boarding cards, as it doesn't offer airport check-in anymore. Forget to print them, or forget to take them with you, and you might as well charter a private jet as it'll cost a mammoth £40 per person each way, (so that's £80 return) to get them reprinted at the airport, even if it was a sale flight.
A family of four faces a shocking £160 bill on top of their ticket price each way in this event (hopefully if you forget them on the outward journey there's no way you'd forget them on the return, otherwise it'd be another £160). If your holiday is less than 15 days, print off the return pass at the same time as the outbound to save the hassle of finding an internet cafe abroad.
Online check-in costs a fiver (unless it's an ‘including all charges' sale), and is open 15 days before you go, and shute four hours before your flight's due to depart.
Look for “all taxes & charges” sales
Ryanair regularly runs £5 and under flight sales, some of which “include all taxes and charges”. The beauty of these is that with these sales, you don't have to pay the £5 each way online check-in fee; though you have to pay it with all other fights.
Select “no travel insurance required”
Some airlines pre-tick an insurance box, automatically adding travel insurance to your basket.
While Ryanair does not automatically include insurance, you still need to be careful.
The airline asks you which country you live in for the purpose of buying insurance. From the drop-down menu then displayed, ensure you click 'no travel insurance required'. If you click your country of residence, you'll be charged.
You can get far cheaper travel insurance elsewhere (see the Cheap Travel Insurance guide).
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Ryanair Cost Cutting Discussion
EasyJet cost cutting (including insider info!)
EasyJet has fewer strings, but at times its pricing isn't that much cheaper than traditional airlines. Huge savings on fees are still possible, especially card charges. Also important is avoiding accidental insurance.
See full easyJet booking tips notes.
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Debit card is better than credit
EasyJet is one of the few airlines that makes a distinction between booking on a credit and debit card. Of course the cheapest way is to use a special Electron card where there's no fee for paying, though if not, always pay by debit not credit card.
That's because, while the debit card is a relatively reasonable (compared to other airlines) £3.50 per transaction, the credit card is £4.50 a further 2.5% of your total bill on top.
Bag a sale flight
EasyJet also runs flight sales, typically between 10% and 50% off. It's first come, first served, so if you spot one, act quick.
Beware premium rate calls.
The only way to get in touch with easyJet to change bookings is via a hideous 0905 number, which costs 65p per minute or more from mobiles.
Avoid this by being very careful when you book; double check flight dates, names, and number of cases etc.
Tips from an anonymous easyJet insider ...
The following are tips from an anonymous senior easyJet steward, who secretly slipped Martin a sheet of paper on a flight.
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Pick the best airplane seats.
The top rows to sit in depends on which plane model you're flying on; the number should be on the front of the plane.
Airbus A319. The best rows are 1, 10 and 11
Airbus A320. The best rows are 1, 12 and 13
Airbus A321. The best rows are 1,8 and 20
Airbus A320. The best row is E24
Never sit in rows 14ABC onwards, ie, the seats on the right past row 14, as two extra rows have been added in, so there's much less space. Likewise, never sit at the back on late night flights, as the crew congregate there, so you'll stay awake.If you want the freshest, hottest food, sit near either the front or the back, as the crew start there and meet in the middle.
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Never pay in foreign currencies.
If you book a one-way easyJet fare to the UK from another country, you pay in the local currency, eg, euros if flying from Spain. Yet always pay in pounds, as the exchange rate used is usually hideous.
To do this, select an outbound flight as well as the return you want, then your return flight will be in pounds. Once you're on the next page, simply press ‘remove' to remove your outbound flight from your list of flights, so you've only now got the return leg from the other country booked, and it's still in sterling.Plus, you don't pay any foreign loading fees on your plastic.
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Frequent flyer? Buy an annual ‘speedy boarding' pass.
If you're a very frequent easyJet traveller and want to guarantee where you sit, buy ONE speedy boarding annual pass for the family. This costs £115, compared with the normal cost of £8 per one-way flight, so is only worth it if you take more than seven return flights per year.
Once the speedy boarder is on the plane, they can save seats for the rest of the clan.
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easyJet Cost Cutting Discussion
BMI Baby cost cutting
Despite its cute name and logo, BMI Baby's fees are not so sweet. Especially important here is checking in online and sticking to the 18kg luggage allowance.
See the full BMI Baby booking tips notes.
Check in online
Online check in with is £7/ew. Yet turn up at the airport and it's £10 per person each way, costing a family of four £80 return in total.
Watch your luggage allowance
Do note that BMI Baby's luggage allowance is 18kg. The limit used to be 20kg, but it lowered it in early 2009, a manouvere than caught a few MoneySavers out. Excess baggage is charged at £10/kg, so those two extra kilograms will cost you big.
Yet you do have a 10kg hand luggage allowance. If they charge you, ask to move the excess into your hand luggage (they might not suggest it, but you should be allowed to do this).
Keep hand luggage down or pay £30
Be sure to keep hand luggage down to 10kg, or BMI Baby will whack you with a £30 charge to put it in the hold. This is bizarre, seeing as it costs only £15 to check a bag in at the airport.
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Call the right customer services number
Some MoneySavers suggest that BMI Baby's customer services are harder to get on the phone than the Prime Minister. If you need to rebook following a flight disruption or a schedule change to your flight, thre press office says the best number to call is 0844 245 00 55 (10p per minute).
If you still don't have any luck, read the Flight Delays guide to find out how to claim compensation.
Don't confuse it with BMI.
The airline is based in the midlands and is the low-cost arm of BMI, but don't get the two confused, ie, some folks have googled “BMI luggage allowance” and got caught out.
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BMI Baby Cost Cutting Discussion
Thomson cost cutting
Thomson flights are the flight-only version of Thomson holidays. Thomson tips include how to sneakily get extra legroom without paying extra and beat its stringent baggage rules.
See the full Thomson booking tips notes.
Extra legroom without the legwork
One of Thomson's optional add-ons is extra legroom, at £30 per passenger per return journey. Unless you're especially long-legged, this is a waste of cash. Instead check Seatguru's aircraft seating plans at home, then check in early and request a prime seat.
Only take 5kg hand luggage
Watch out for Thomson's miserly 5kg hand luggage allowance. This can make it hard not to avoid checking a bag into the hold, which costs £6.50 - £16 if you book them in online first, or double if you do it at the airport.
Don't pool allowances
Customers who buy seat-only fares with Thomson cannot pool baggage allowances, even though those going on Thomson package holidays on the same flights can. This means you and your other half can't pool your 20kg allowance and take one big suitcase.
If one bag is over 20kg, you'll have to stump up a £6/kg fine.
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Thomsonfly Cost Cutting Discussion
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