Alternatives to Zoom for cheap flights across the Atlantic
September 1st, 2008 by Tim Uden
Last Thursday Zoom Airlines ceased operation leaving 4500 UK passengers stranded and leaving thousands more travellers out of pocket with 60,000 forward bookings. It has also left a gap in the market for cheap transatlantic flights.
Air Transat, Canadian Affair and Scottish low cost airline Flyglobespan operate similar routes to Zoom and will likely fill Zoom’s place in the market although a handful of European airlines including Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, Condor, Eurofly and Martinair also offer cheap transatlantic flights. However it will be at least a year before we start to see really cheap flights across the Atlantic on Ryanair.
In April last year, Ryanair announced that it would start flying between London and the United States with one-way fares starting at £7 (around £80 after taxes, fees and other charges have been added). It has been over a year since this announcement as we’re still waiting for cheap transatlantic flights on RyanAtlantic (Ryanair’s transatlantic subsidary), which isn’t expected to start operations until next year at the earliest.
Like their European bases, Ryanair’s North American bases are expected to be in small regional airports. RyanAtlantic’s New York flights will most likely use Long Island MacArthur Airport (Islip Airport) and TF Green Airport near Providence, Rhode Island or Manchester-Boston Regional Airport are likely to be considered as a substitute for Boston’s Logan Airport.
Those annoying airline credit card charges
June 13th, 2008 by Tim Uden
One thing that annoys me about low cost airlines is their deceptive pricing policies where prices are advertised exclusive of taxes, leaving you with no idea of how much your ticket will cost.
That’s one reason I am more likely to give preference to low-cost carriers that advertise all inclusive prices such as Flybe or Sky Europe over airlines like Ryanair that give away free flights and then rack up your credit card bill on taxes, fees, fuel levies, excess baggage fees and so on.
At least in Australia all domestic airlines quote all inclusive prices - they’re required to by law - although that still doesn’t stop them for charging for so called optional extras. Extras like credit card payment!
I think it is a bit cheeky to charge an extra $2 credit card fee when it is the only payment option, yet this is common practice. It would be understandable if there was the option of paying cash, direct debit or PayPal; but that’s just not the case, yet we are still charged a premium to pay using the only payment method accepted by the airlines.
At least Air Asia X, the long-haul offshoot of Malaysian cut price airline Air Asia, gives you the option to pay by PayPal. Air Asia X claims to be the first airline in the Asia Pacific region to accept PayPal. As a promotional offer they are crediting $50 on the first 4000 flights from Australia to Malaysia (Gold Coast and Perth to Kuala Lumpur) paid by Paypal before the end of the month.
I don’t think PayPal is the most convenient option for most travellers, in fact I would assume that credit card payment is more convenient for at least 90% of travellers, but it is nice that we get a choice so we can avoid another extra fee.