September 5th - Airlines have been under attack for adding extra charges for baggage and seating. Is this fair?
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2023
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
They say “no” – all the charges are published and highlighted, and these are optional extras. If you’re prepared to travel with just a small bag and don’t mind where you sit on the plane, then the fare you see is the fare you pay.
My view: it’s perfectly fair to charge people extra for the extra cost of providing services. In the UK easyJet started that in 1995 when they started charging 50p for a cup of tea. When charges for luggage started in 2006, the cost of checking in a suitcase was just a couple of pounds – reflecting the cost of handling. But now the prices are ridiculous. In a couple of weeks I’m flying from Newcastle to Dublin. The flight is £17 but if I want to bring a decent sized piece of cabin baggage on board, I will pay £20 – more than doubling the cost. Charges for seating people together are also disproportionate.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. Well, today I'm going to be talking about hidden extras, or at least what some parts of the media are calling hidden extras. Let me explain if I may. There's quite a lot around about a new government consultation which is going to be |
| 0:24.1 | beginning very soon on Monday in fact and it is going to be looking at the idea that you are basically |
| 0:30.6 | when you book a travel product quite possibly going to be taken for a ride in the sense that you will end up paying an awful |
| 0:39.2 | lot more than you thought you were going to pay. Well, I don't think that is the case because |
| 0:45.6 | the airlines make it absolutely clear what you've got to pay. I have serious objections to what |
| 0:51.3 | they're doing, but let's go to the start of the story. The government |
| 0:57.8 | is looking at a wide range of industries, not just the travel industry, to see if pricing |
| 1:03.9 | legislation is up to scratch. And the rules that we rely on in the UK and we have since 2004 is the price marking order. |
| 1:15.6 | That's European legislation that basically just says you have, if you're selling something, to display the final selling price. |
| 1:23.6 | You can't leave off, for example, VAT. You can't, as Donald Trump tried to do briefly in his |
| 1:32.6 | termbury resort in Scotland, you can't suddenly add a resort fee. And you've got to make it transparent |
| 1:40.5 | about what people get in return for their money. The government says that they are |
| 1:47.5 | hoping for transparency, quotes, so consumers can make informed choices about the products they purchase. |
| 1:55.0 | Well, we're all in favour of that. I think transparency, that's very good. But why have airlines been under attack for extra charges, for instance, baggage and seating? |
| 2:07.1 | Well, that's because if you go back to, well, should we carbon date it? |
| 2:12.1 | Well, let's start in 1995 with EasyJet. |
| 2:16.1 | Suddenly they said, oh, yeah, we'll fly you for 29 quid from Luton to Glasgow, |
| 2:21.8 | half the price from Heathrow. But if you want a cup of tea, we won't give you a grand meal. |
| 2:28.0 | If you want a cup of tea, it's going to cost you 50 pence. And you same again for a biscuit as well. |
| 2:32.8 | The price has gone up a bit since then, I've noticed, |
| 2:35.2 | but the basic idea was what you, |
| 2:37.8 | you're only buying the flying and any extras should be extra. |
... |
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