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Real Estate News Releases
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(EMAILWIRE.COM, July 02, 2009 ) Now this is a brilliant idea – I’m sure I’m not the only one who is left fuming when all of the extras are totted up and suddenly that budget flight isn’t such a bargain afterall –from check-in fees to baggage fees to wee fees, the flights masquerading as cheap are often not really saving you anything…
When booking a flight to travel to Spain, I headed for a budget airline’s website. Five minutes later, I headed away from said website. Swiftly. When selecting how many bags I wanted to check in, there was an option for ‘zero’, which I hit. The charge was £16. Yes, Yes, £16 to check in no bags. The same price to check in one. How on earth does that work?
Couple that with a seat reservation fee, possible ‘speedy boarding,’ fee, insurance fees and carbon offsetting fees and I may as well have gone with another, less ‘budget’ airline.
British Airways feel the same and is now seeking to expose the extent of low-cost airlines’ extra charges by launching a ‘value calculator’ on its website.
Log on and choose how you want to travel – from checking in to choosing a seat and eating on the plane. The calculator then pulls up the added extra costs courtesy of airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.
Whilst the price you get on BA currently includes everything, Ryanair charges up to a whopping £80 for checking in at the airport and £8 for priority boarding. Don’t even get me started on the putting a bag in the hold fee.
Richard Tams, Head of UK and Ireland sales at BA, estimates that passengers can pay up to £375 in extras on return Ryanair flights and up to £79 on easyJet.
“The no-frills carriers claim they are always cheaper. Our calculator shows they are not,” he said. The Air Transport Users’ Council has also welcomed the move.
Now, BA is hardly top of the pops right at the moment either – announcing pre-tax losses of £401 million last year and asking staff to work for a month for no wages. But what they are doing here – exposing these bargain airlines and blowing apart their ‘cheap’ offerings – is much needed.
We can only hope BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh doesnÂ’t go ahead with his threat to start charging for extras too, thus making a total mockery of this great new idea.
For the latest news on travel and tourism, and the property market in general, please visit http://www.themovechannel.com/news/travel_and_tourism/
-ENDS-
Notes to editors:
TheMoveChannel.com is a property website that was founded in 1999 as an online resource for buying, selling and learning about property. It now receives as many as 300,000 visits per month and advertises over 50,000 properties in nearly 90 countries, which are listed by over 500 partner organisations.
For further information, please contact:
Dan Johnson
Managing Director
www.themovechannel.com
0207 952 7650
TheMoveChannel.com
Dan Johnson
020 7952 7650
dj@themovechannel.com 
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