The Not so Low Cost Airlines

When flying to the Costa Blanca many of us choose the low cost (cheap flight) airlines such as Easy Jet, Ryanair and Monarch, These three companies compete with an enormous amount of effort to win our business by getting us to book their flights, but has anyone else noticed recently that yes their flight prices have come down a little bit, but this is just to open up the doorway to the real costs.

All low cost airlines have now got on the band wagon for hidden costs and this where they make their money, I am not talking about the fuel taxes and charges, I am talking about the Hold baggage fees, yes the charges they make to carry your cases in the hold. All sports equipment is charged at £16.50 per item per flight.

Easy Jet are just about the cheapest at the moment, they charge about £5.00 per bag checked in for one way, if you pre book your baggage online, if you book them in at the airport check in desk then the cost is £10.00 per bag each way.

The next cheapest is Monarch at the moment they charge £4.95 per bag checked in the hold per flight if pre booked online, paying for baggage to be checked in the hold at the airport will cost you £10.00 per flight or £8.00 if you phone the call centre and book your bags in. with golf bags and other sports equipment being charged at £15.00 per item per flight.

Ryanair are by far the most expensive for booking in baggage into the hold. Their charges are as follows. Each bag checked in incurs a charge of £18.00 per flight; if there is more than one person in the group travelling then each additional person in the group has to also pay a fee of £6.00 per flight to check in at the airport check in desk, all sports equipment is charged at £25.00 per item per flight.

You also need to be aware of the credit card fees for booking your flights.
Ryanair charges £3.00 per person per flight on any type of card except a delta card which costs you £1.00 per person per flight.
Monarch charge a fee of 50p per passenger per flight for a debit card and £1.75 per passenger per flight for credit card payments, if you pay by Solo or Electron then there is no fee on any bookings.
Easy Jet charge a credit card fee of 2.5% per transaction or a minimum fee of £4.95 and a standard fee of £1.75 for a debit card per transaction.
So as you can see the cheap budget airlines are not as cheap as it may first seem and I fully recommend that you look into your next holiday charges very carefully.

Please don't let this article turn you off from flying out for your nextCosta Blanca Holiday rental just be aware of the hidden costs that are involved when selecting who you are going to fly with.

Andy Woolfe writes articles about Costa Blanca Holiday Rentals & Long Term Lets on the Costa Blanca Region of Spain.