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.
Budget flights can be a penny
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. As an example, the total additional charges for a family of four on a Ryanair £1 each way sale deal (inc. taxes & airport charges) return to Europe, paying by debit card, taking two suitcases (not pre-booked) with airport check-in would be £570!
That’s £10 return each for debit card payment (£40 total), £35 for the first case and £70 for the second each way (£210) and airport check-in’s £80 return (£320).
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 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. Doesn’t sound much, but it adds up to £40 per return trip for a family of four.
How to easily get a Visa Electron.
Most airline’s booking charges do NOT apply to those paying on Visa Electron cards, a specific type of bank account card few have. 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 card from their bank.
In fact there are a few ways to get your hands on one, each with there own pros and cons...
- Get the top 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. Specifically, the Travelex Cash Passport* 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. (Please do note that Flybe does not count Travelex Cash Passports as Electron cards). Read full details and charges for using prepaid cards to beat flight payment charges.
Pros:
Instant card if you go to a branch
Strong product regardless of Electron loophole
Cons:
Fees for loading money onto the card,
Potential inactivity fee (easily avoidable). - Bag a basic bank account
These are specially designed current account 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
Potentially using up accounts for which others have a more pressing need - Special online payment system
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 usually more than Travelex 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
Could be blocked in future as a method of payment
Budget Airline Card Charges Per Return
| Pay by Credit card | Pay by Debit card | Pay by Visa Electron | |
| Ryanair | £10 per person | £10 per person | Free |
| EasyJet | £2.95 per payment + 2.5% of transaction | £2.95 per payment | Free |
| BMI Baby | £7.50 per person | £5.50 per person | Free |
| Flybe | £7 per person | £3 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 |
All correct August 09 1) Except for Solo, which is 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 per kg for excess baggage. See the chart below for full airline by airline details.
Yet there are ways to cut the cost:
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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 your 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. Pre-plan your packing.
It’s usually cheaper to pre-book cases online in advance, so decent planning is important. Think carefully about minimising the number of cases you need to take, though bear in mind strict size restrictions.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.But size matters!
Airlines have different cabin baggage size limits, eg, Ryanair’s is 55cm x 40cm x 20cm. Go 1cm over, and they will charge to bung it in the hold. These days, more luggage is being built specifically to fit into the cabin space; you can take more than you think. For more top tips on packing and what to take, see the Forum’s Hand Luggage Only discussion.-
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 cheap travel money 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.
Luggage fees & allowances
| 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 | 1st £35 rest £70 | 15kg | £20 | 10kg |
| EasyJet | £8 | £8 | 20kg | £9 | By volume (6) |
| BMI Baby | £9 – 11 (3) | £15 | 18kg | £10 | 10kg |
| Flybe | £8 | £13 | 20kg | £10-£20 (4) | 10kg |
| Aer Lingus | £10 | €15 | 20kg | £6 | 6kg |
| Jet2 | £7 - £15 (3) | £18 - £23 (3) | 22kg | £8 | 10kg |
| Thomson Airways | £6.50 - £15 | £13 - £30 | 20kg | £8 | 5kg |
3) Depending on destination 4) £10/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 do it at the airport.
Check in online
With most airlines, you can sidestep fees by doing it online first. Yet Ryanair (£5) and, if you want to check in a bag, BMI (£3.99), 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 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).
Budget airline check in charges
| Online check in per person per return | Airport check in per person, per return | ||||
| Ryanair | £10 (1) | £80 | |||
| EasyJet | Free | Free | |||
| BMI Baby | Free (2) |
£20 | |||
| Flybe | Free | Free | |||
| Aer Lingus | Free | Free | |||
| Jet2 | Free | £6 | |||
| Thomson Airways | N/A | Free | |||
All correct July 09 1) Except on "inc. taxes & airport charges" sales 2) or £3.99 if you want to check in bag/s |
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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 a 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.
Always, always check-in online
Forget to check in online with Ryanair, and you might as well charter a private jet. Online check-in costs a fiver (unless it’s an ‘including all charges’ sale), and is open X days before you go, otherwise it’s a mammoth £40 per person each way, (so that’s £80 return) even if it was a sale flight.
A family of four faces a mammoth £320 bill on top of their ticket price per return journey. The same £80 horror story applies even if you forget to print your boarding pass. You can check in online from 15 days before departure, so don’t forget to check in and print the pass for your return journey too.
Look for “all taxes & charges” sales
Ryanair regularly runs £5 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; 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).
Share your tips/read others
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.
Untick the insurance box … twice
EasyJet pre-ticks the travel insurance box on the booking page, a wheeze that can fool you into getting cover you didn’t want or need. The insurance typically costs £8.99 per person for a single European weekend away, when you can get annual European insurance for £15 (see the Travel Insurance guide).
To remove the insurance from your basket, tick the orange “- remove” box, at step 2 of 5. Now be careful, it’s still not removed. Another box will drop down, asking if you’re sure you want to cancel. Again, tick “remove”.
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) £2.95 per transaction, the credit card as a further 2.5% of your total bill on top. So if flights for a family come to £300, it's just £2.95 on a debit card but £10.45 on a credit card.
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.
£40 worth of Easyjet flights
Open an Easyjet Mastercard (from Citibank), spend £250 within 90 days and 4,000 reward points will credit on your account. These are worth £40 when you make a purchase from the Easyjet website; so you can use them as full or part payment towards flights.
So just use the card for your normal day-to-day spending until you hit the trigger £250, ensuring you're paying it off in the full at the end of the month so there’s no interest, and quite a decent freebie is yours. Full details on this and other free flight offers in the Cheap and free flights guide.
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, 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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Share your tips/read others
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 free if you only take hand luggage. Yet turn up at the airport and it’s £10 per person each way, costing a family of four £80 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 costs £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.
Share your tips/read others
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 - £15 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.
Share your tips/read others
Thomsonfly Cost Cutting Discussion
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Beat budget airline extra charges
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