VISA Electron...

The Woolwich used to - perhaps still do...are you trying to avoid the new Ryan Air payment charge perchance?!

Yes.

Marcus

Is it possible? I paid by debit card just a couple of days ago and was stung with two £8 charges for two return flights.

Someone on the HUKD forums managed it but it seems very hit and miss.

I was interested in their current fly for free or 1p deals but once you add taxes/airport charges and £24 to check in a bag, their fares aren't that competitive.

Good on you. That is one irritating company. Its so obvious what they are doing to make money, just in order to be able to say their flight prices are cheap. I'd rather deal with a company that can provide a proper price (that includes all fees, charges, fuel taxes, luggage fees, etc, etc), all in the initial quote. Its such a pain now to find the real cheapest deal, but people will still spend time finding it, so at the end of the day what is the point in their tactics? Its not big and its not clever what Ryan Air (and others) are doing.

No.

Woolwich don't exist anymore, except as a mortgage brand of Barclays.

But I think he's saying it's not.

By the time you have paid: taxes, credit card fees and luggage charges you're looking at 40 quid per leg or 80 quid round trip.

You should be able to get a similar fares elsewhere without the stupid headline pricing.

tim

Thank you. I shall apply for the Halifax one, I think.

Marcus

About 10 years ago, I had to fly to Berlin regularly on business. The BA ordinary class cost was £399 return.

How much would seem reasonable now?

If you're lucky...

Exactly. It really is pointless. People don't shop blindly any more when they use the internet. Consumers aren't stupid and do factor in all costs before buying a ticket. Their tactics are on a par with A&L topping the league tables for many products with all sorts of *'s and other footnotes.

As Tom Waits slurred, "The large print giveth, the small print taketh away"...

Depending on where you live in England, I reckon at that price, it'd almost be cheaper to drive!

Of course, flight costs have become cheap - I'm not denying that whatsoever - all I'm saying is that its tiresome dealing with the likes of Ryan Air simply because they hide the real cost behind an eye-catching nominal one in the hope that by the end of it, you're too tired to go elsewhere and get a flight from another company. Its a waste of everyone's time if they are really the cheapest.

I agree. It is tiresome, and I get the distinct impression that they're trying to avoid all the governmental regulations that I thought they were supposed to be following about giving the total price up front. At the moment they have this silly message on their website whenever you try to book anything:

"We regret, due to system performance issues, we have been unable to display the tax inclusive fare box on this page, since 25/06/2008. We are currently working with our suppliers, including Navitaire to resolve these problems and hope to restore the tax, fees & charges inclusive display shortly."

Oh yeah?

It certainly doesn't seem a priority.

But booking say, 6 weeks ahead, staying a Saturday night and committing to fixed flight you could get the same thing for 80 quid.

So apart from the Saturday night stopover BA could match FR's fares even then.

tim

I have to say it is very much harder to see through headline savings/lending rates than flight prices, so I can see that it has some merit for banks to do it.

tim

Barclays does (I have one) but you need to be insistent because they don't like to market it. I do two round trips a month on Easyjet and the VISA Electron does indeed save a little bit of cash when buying tix.