Ryanair vs easyJet
February 4th, 2009 by Tim Uden
I was recently asked to book a return flight for someone flying from London to Barcelona, which highlighted the disparity between airlines that advertise prices inclusive of taxes, fees and charges and those that don’t.
I needed to book a flight departing in the last week of February and returning a month later with one checked bag, one cabin bag and no insurance or in-flight meals.
Ryanair’s advertised price for the return flight was just £3.79 and easyJet was £36.92, but after adding taxes, fees and other charges easyJet emerged the winner with a total cost of £52.42 compared with Ryanair’s £77.46.
Here’s how it all breaks down:
With easyJet the advertised fare in inclusive of taxes and airport charges, but not checked luggage charges or credit card processing fees. The cost of flights was £22.99 for the London Luton to Barcelona outbound flight on 25 February and £13.93 for the Barcelona to London Stansted return flight. After adding a £6 checked luggage fee for each flight and a £3.50 credit card processing charge we get a total price of £52.42.
Ryanair is one of the few remaining airlines to retain the deceptive practice of advertising fares exclusive of taxes and airport fees. The outbound London Stansted to Barcelona Reus flight on 27 February was free (plus £28.17 in taxes, fees and charges) and the return flight from Barcelona Reus to London Stansted on 27 March was £3.79 (plus £17 in taxes, fees and other charges). Then there is a £4.75 credit card handling fee (for each flight) plus a £9.50 checked luggage fee for each flight, which brings the total to £77.46.
Both easyJet and Ryanair use Luton and Stansted airports about half an hour by train north of London. You can pay £19 each way to take the Stansted Express and £11.50 each way for the First Capital Connect train to Luton Airport; but if you book in advance you can get to Luton or Stansted for just £2 with easyBus. That means that both airlines tie for the cost of the return trip to their London airport (£4 return for either airline).
However there is a huge variation in the cost of getting to the airport at Barcelona.
With easyJet you fly into Barcelona’s main airport and it costs €2.80 (£2.50) to take the train from the airport into the centre of Barcelona. But if you fly into Barcelona with Ryanair you land at Reus Airport near Tarragona, around 90km south of Barcelona. The bus to central Barcelona from Reus Airport will cost you €12 (£10.85) each way or €21 (£19) for a return fare (as long as you return within one month). So Ryanair saves a few pounds by flying into an out-of-the-way airport and you end up paying £19 instead of the £5 you would pay if you fly into Barcelona’s main airport.
So all up Ryanair’s £3.79 return flight ends up costing £100.46 for the return fare including airport transfers and easyJet’s £36.92 fare comes to £61.42.
In other words, Ryanair’s cheap fares are just a sneaky way to slug you with all sorts of hidden fees and charges and more expensive fares advertised by competing airlines can often work out cheaper in the long run.
Free ferry travel for stranded Sterling passengers
October 31st, 2008 by Tim Uden
When Sterling ceased operating on 29 October, they offered no refunds and simply told stranded passengers to buy a ticket on another airline.
Ryanair responded with a Sterling rescue fare where Sterling passengers can buy a ticket on selected Ryanair routes for £100/€100/889 SEK/699 DKK/749 NOK including taxes. To take advantage of this offer, passengers need to show their Sterling ticket and travel by 7 November.
This is a rather pathetic appeal considering that Ryanair is famous for advertising free flights. Ryanair had a great opportunity to promote their business to a whole new customer base but instead blew it with its greedy £100 flights for Sterling passengers, when regular passengers (booking 14 days in advance with travel from 8 November) can fly the same route for £26.85 including tax.
easyJet is a considerably more generous airline than Ryanair and their Sterling rescue package lets Sterling passengers travel on easyJet’s Berlin-Copenhagen, London-Copenhagen and Milan-Copenhagen routes for £35 inclusive of tax until Wednesday 5 November. To take advantage of this offer, Sterling passengers from the UK should call the easyJet customer services on 0871 244 2366 and passengers from outside the UK should call 0044 870 6 000 000 and quote their Sterling booking confirmation number.
Ryanair’s offer is just nasty considering that it is almost four times the price offered to non-Sterling passengers; however easyJet has a better offer, especially considering how much more expensive flights can be at such short notice.
DFDS Seaways are offering a much better alternative to the airlines with free travel from the UK to Denmark for stranded Sterling passengers. Both British travellers and Danish residents holding valid Sterling tickets can travel free on the M.S. Dana Sirena between Harwich and Esbjerg until Thursday 6 November. Sterling passengers can contact DFDS Seaways on 0871 882 0890 for further information.
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.