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Get a Deal on Budget Flights By Martin Lewis By With the feel of snow still fresh, a £1 flight to the sun sounds like a dream. Yet, while you’ll often see incredible promotions advertised, unless you do it the right way, it’s more like a nightmare. Budget airlines have more bolt-ons than Frankenstein; they’ve the bare-faced cheek to describe baggage, checking-in and even paying as `added extras’. It no exaggeration to say that, get it wrong, and your £1 flight could have over £200 of extra charges. Yet this isn’t a tirade against budget flights. Price-wise I’m a fan. After all, know what you’re doing, and it’s possible to jet off to Europe for 2p return (I’ll show you how to find those prices in a moment). Yet, whether you’re booking with Ryanair, easyJet, BMI Baby or Flybe, think of it like a hurdle race. You need to jump over every one of these extra charges to get the super cheap flights – and here’s how: Don’t pay to pay Outrageously, budget airlines consider ‘paying’ an optional extra, even though they charge whether you pay by credit OR debit card and don’t accept cash. This isn’t small potatoes. Ryanair, for example, charges £5 per person each way. That’s £40 return for a family of four – an amount likely to be vastly in excess of its own payment processing costs. They get away with this by allowing people to pay with certain niche card types for free. Yet that tactic is unraveling. Previously only certain specialist bank accounts offered these cards. Now the recent growth of pre-paid cards, which anyone can get and you load up with cash before spending, means the game has changed. For almost all budget airlines barring Ryanair, paying on a Visa Electron card is free. The cheapest pre-paid version of this is the Travelex Cash Passport card, which is free to get and just charges a small amount for top ups. The undoubted winner in ‘add-on’ charges, Ryanair recently changed its payment policy. Out went free-pay on Visa Electron, and in came free pay on pre-paid Mastercards. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was done because so many savvy people had got the pre-paid cards. The new card you need for Ryanair is the free FairFx Anywhere card. It charges just 1.5 percent of the transaction amount each time you use it. In other words, buy Ryanair tickets costing £200 and you’ll be charged £3 – far cheaper than Ryanair’s add-on charges. For a full breakdown of each airline fees go to www.moneysavingexpert.com/budgetairlines Don’t overload on baggage charges If you want to stow luggage in the hold, expect to pay £10-£40 per case return, and possibly only get 15kg weight limit. Take more and the excess cost is enormous: BMI Baby charges £10/Kg and Ryanair £20. Worse still, the allowance is done per case, so if you took two cases one weighing 10Kg the other 20Kg and the limit’s 15Kg – you’d still pay the excess on the heavier case. There are ways to beat this: - Take only hand luggage. No airlines charges for this (yet). Up to ten kilos is normally fine, and should be enough for a decent weekend away, but do check out size restrictions. More and more cases are being made to specifically fit within the limits and buying one is usually cheaper than the baggage fee. - Wear heavy clothes. If you are near the weight limit, put on your heaviest clothes and shoes to travel, eg, T-shirt, jumper, heaviest shoes, big coat (and stuff the pockets with socks!). A big coat could easily weigh 2Kg, which would cost £30 in excess baggage charges. - Pre-plan your packing. It’s usually substantially cheaper to book hold cases in advance. For example, on Ryanair, if you book in advance, the cost is £30 return for the first case and £70 for each additional case. But turn up at the airport and it sky rockets to £70 return for the first case and £140 for each additional case. So pre-planning and working out exactly how many cases you need is crucial. Home scales are handy for this. - Throw stuff away. Many items of travel clothing or things like shampoo actually cost less to buy per kilo than the excess charge. So if you’re overweight at the airport consider throwing them away and re-buying (though there is an environmental consequence). This is particularly important on the return journey, when you have bought things abroad. Avoid Check-in fees One of the more infuriating charges some airlines have is a staggering £80 per person per return flight for the `luxury’ of checking in at the airport. The easy way of sidestepping this is simply by checking in online first. This can be awkward on your return journey, as it may mean having to find an internet café, although some airlines allow you to check in for the return before you leave. Sitting together without paying more Many budget airlines have unallocated seats. In that case some airlines charge for pre-booking to make sure you sit together. There have even been stories of families being prevented from sitting together because they haven’t paid to do so – though that’s being clamped down on. There is a way to ensure seats together cheaply. Rather than fork out for priority boarding for all the family, which can be very expensive, pay for one family member and saving seats for the others once they are on board. How to find the 1p flights Budget airlines often take out massive adverts for their flight sales, promoting fares as low as a penny each way including taxes and charges. The problem is when you go to their website to try and book one, they’re scarcer than a nun at one of Jordan’s parties. There are two quick steps to beat this: - Know the sales terms. These sales are always very specific, such as only to certain destinations during a particular month. It’s crucial you are aware of those restrictions and keep them in mind when you search. - Use a special flight finding tool. Because I find this such an annoyance, a few years ago I had the free site www.flightchecker.co.uk built. Then when you see a budget airline sale advertised (or even if not), you can opt to search for, say, any flight under £10 including taxes and charges to Barcelona in August. You can even say “I’ll go anywhere” and see everything available at that price. It doesn’t include the added extras, so do ensure you beat those. CHOICE OF FOUR! – PLEASE CHOOSE DEPENDING ON WHAT SHOPS YOU HAVE NEAR YOU Free £10 eye test at Tesco Tesco’s free Jan - Feb in-store magazine has a voucher for a free eye test at Tesco opticians on page 114. Simply pick up your free Tesco magazine at any Tesco store and book your appointment by phoning 0845 601 3479. The voucher is valid until 28 Feb '10 – take it with you when you go. Free 5 days’ Fitness First membership Fitness First normally offers free 1 day trials, but I’ve blagged a free 5-day trial for my MoneySavers. To grab one, just follow the link at www.moneysavingexpert.com/gyms to get emailed a voucher. The offer ends on 15 Feb ’10. Nails Inc. 30% off treatments Get 30% off all Nails Inc. manicures, pedicures and treatments when you click 'n' print a voucher from www.moneysavingexpert.com/beauty. The voucher's valid until Sun 31 January on all services and telephone booking is recommended. Nine Lush items for £12 Lush is selling a nine-item gift set for just £12.50. The 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes' set contains over £17 worth of items including shampoo, facemask and moisturizer. Available from Mon 18 - Sun 31 Jan. |
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