Goodbye to 1p Airfares

[Baz]

It looks like goodbye to the 1p fares as reported by the Office of Fair Trading on Friday.

Airlines and Travel Agents will be prosecuted or even shut down if they make misleading claims about cheap flights or holidays. An example quoted was a low cost airline advertising "Spring Sale" with one way flights from 99p.

This price excluded £10 for air passenger duty, £9.80 passenger service charge, £3.35 aviation insurance levy, a 33p wheelchair levy if required, £1.75 charge if paying with a credit card, a £3.50 fee for checked in baggage and a £5.50 excess baggage charge for each kilo over the 15kg allowance. This means that the 99p flight could be as much as £35.22.

Under the new rules all "fixed non-optional costs" such as tax, fuel supplements or a credit card booking must be included in the basic advertised cost. Because of the changes low cost airlines will have to make to their websites to comply,  these new rules they will probably start in August.

IMO it should have happened years ago.

Baz

[Teamedup]

Well GOOD, the worst offender of advertising flights and then them just adding and adding to the cost is KLM. I have written to them on several occassions as these are just surcharges rather than airport taxes and they have never had the courtesy to reply. And their add ons come to more than the whole of the Ryan Air thing including the flight.

 

EDIT just looked at a KLM flight I might want, looks like £80 return, with all their taxes etc etc it was going to be £167, so no, I personally would like to see what I am paying for immediately.

[Nelson]

Baz

Why do you think its a good idea that airlines are to be forced into hiding all taxes on behalf of the government.

I think that all prices (not only airfares ) should be shown before tax is added that way we know just how much of our money is going in purchase tax

regards colin

[AnOther]

[quote user="Nelson"]

Baz

Why do you think its a good idea that airlines are to be forced into hiding all taxes on behalf of the government.

I think that all prices (not only airfares ) should be shown before tax is added that way we know just how much of our money is going in purchase tax

regards colin

[/quote]Although I tend to agree the point with RA is that it's not just taxes which make up the total but their own surcharges and where inescapable these should form part of the base ticket price.

Does anybody actually believe they are flying for Free/0.01p/0.99p ? 

[Jc]

If you ever do owt for nowt,do it for thysen!!Seriously the government should not be able to change the law to camouflage how much they take;fuel,tobacco and drink are other examples.

[Baz]

[quote user="Nelson"]

Baz

Why do you think its a good idea that airlines are to be forced into hiding all taxes on behalf of the government.

I think that all prices (not only airfares ) should be shown before tax is added that way we know just how much of our money is going in purchase tax

regards colin

[/quote]

Colin, surely it is not a question of  hiding taxes, the price you see should be the price you pay, so it possible to make an informed decision whether to buy. BA have for some time  only showed the price you pay and are still often cheaper than the low cost airlines. So why should low cost airlines hide the costs as it is basically deceiving the public. I am sure you would not be happy if garages displayed the fuel costs without taxes and when you went to pay then added it on.

The 1p fares were an advertising ploy just to entice the public and it should never been allowed under the advertising code of practice and now the Office of Fair Trading have felt at long last the need to act.

Baz

[Dick Smith]

Of the £35, only £10 is a government levy, and that presumably goes to the airport, so how is all of this a 'hidden tax'? Surely it's a case of the airline hiding ITS charges?

[powerdesal]

Last years flight dinard to stansted was 1 c + E9.99 +E2.50 credit card charge, it wasn't hidden , it was quite clear on the web sit, all you needed to do was read it. Presmably most people booking on the net can read and have a modicum of intelligence?

[Nelson]

Dick the ten pounds tax is just that a tax which does not go to the airport but to the government there is also an insurance levy again going to the government (another disguised tax) then there is an airport passenger charge which goes to the airport why should these charges not be shown separaterly. I know that these flights cost more than 1p but alot of the £35 does not go to Ryanair.

P.S I dont really care as I always drive

regards colin

[Sunday Driver]

Surely the total price you are being asked to pay for the flight is what matters - that way, you can make an straightforward comparison between carriers and choose the best value flight for you.  What's included in terms of surcharges and taxes is irrelevant.

 

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="Nelson"]

Dick the ten pounds tax is just that a tax which does not go to the airport but to the government there is also an insurance levy again going to the government (another disguised tax) then there is an airport passenger charge which goes to the airport why should these charges not be shown separaterly. I know that these flights cost more than 1p but alot of the £35 does not go to Ryanair.

P.S I dont really care as I always drive

regards colin

[/quote]

I love the way people go on about hidden taxes - if it's hidden, how do you know about it? And why shouldn't the airport charge for their services?

It's a small, insignificant tax - get over it.

[Teamedup]

It isn't that they are hidden they just dishonestly in my opinion, advertise a price and then have so many add ons that it doubles and one has to chose a flight and go through all the palaver before one gets the bad news.......... yes, still going on about KLM, but they are the worst I have experienced so far.

And it isn't insignificant when,well from advertised airfare of £80 up to £167 with all the taxes.

I suppose that is the thing about coming from the north. KLM tantalizes me with their flights that are fairly local in France and with a stop at Amerstdam get me rather close to home in the UK. Those of you from the SE have so much more choice of airports and fares.

[hastobe]

I agree the headline price should be the actual price - including all taxes etc. It's misleading advertising.  Particularly the additional charges for baggage (even if you tick the 'no baggage' option with Ryanair another tariff is added to your bill!). Why - you haven't purchased any 'extras'?  And the credit card charge per passenger per flight is ridiculous - you make one payment - so why not one charge?  (Btw you can avoid this by paying with an electron card - we got one from our bank just to book flight tickets with!) 

It may only be a 'small' tax - but it's one of many new 'small' taxes - dressed up as something else by dear old Mr Brown.  Again - its misleading and dishonest.  Mr Brown doesn't want to be seen doing a U turn on his election promise  - so he introduces 'levies', 'duties', additional NI, freezes tax free bands etc - because of course these are not actually taxes are they?

However, in this case I agree with the taxes on flights / fuel etc.  I firmly believe that flight prices should be increased substantially to reduce the number of unnecessary flights taken.  However, I also believe that the additional funds raised should be applied to measures that mitigate global warming.

Kathie

[Nelson]

Dick I don`t think approx £15 out of a total of £35 is insignificant. You think RA should not be allowed to show fares before adding the extras and I think otherwise, as I have said before it doesn`t really concern me as when I go to my house in France I drive.

I will not post anymore on this topic as to allow you the last word which I know is coming.

P.S I have nothing to get over

regards colin

[Sunday Driver]

If a ticket costs £35 all inclusive, then it doesn't matter whether the tax element amounts to £15 or £34.99.  The flight will cost you 35 notes.  If Easyjet come along and offer an all inclusive ticket for £30, then the choice is your's.  Simple maths, simple decision.  The issue here is point of sale ticket pricing - how the ticket price is arrived at is immaterial.

 

[Andyphilpott]

Kathie - do you really believe that the extra revenue raised will be used by government to cut global warming? No chance. It is simply a means to squeeze more money out to be wasted elsewhere. Unless there is a dramatic drop off of air travel it will perhaps just mean flights not being as full as they were with people driving instead still creating pollution.

A different example of this is the refusal of the government to drop the tolls at the Dartford tunnel following a peition. (The tolls should have been dropped at te end of the initial concession period - that was the original agreement. they argue that to drop the tolls would mean more traffic using it and more pollution because of the congestion. They do not seem to have grasped that the tolls cause the congestion. Actually that is not true, they know but they prefer to have the money regardless.

(How do you know when a politician is lying --------------- they open their mouth!!)

Andy

[AnOther]

[quote user="Andyphilpott"]...it will perhaps just mean flights not being as full as they were with people driving instead still creating pollution...[/quote]In the hope that  Mr O'Leary isn't a visitor to the forum I wonder at what price people would actually start to consider alternatives to flying...?

Obviously it depends to a large extent on where you and how many people are travelling which could make make a car trip cheaper but lets say a normal couple and that Bergerac or Rodez is your local airport.

What would you pay ?

[quote user="Andyphilpott"]Dartford Tunnel...they argue that to drop the tolls would mean more traffic using it and more pollution because of the congestion...[/quote]What a load of tosh. If the Dartford fees were extortionate then perhaps some might seek to avoid them but at the levels thay are (£1 for a car) it doesn't take a calculator to work out that there is absolutely no cost effective alternative.

Incidentally I recall that many many years ago, when the barriers were first installed, the takings virtually doubled overnight as previously there had been no check on the numbers of vehicles coming and going and the toll booth staff had been operating a "one for you - one for me" fiddle and some were found to have siphoned off hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years!

[JohnD]

Kathie,

How do you define an unnecessary flight?

JOHND

[Valleyboy]

Isn't the usual definition "a flight that someone else is taking"?

[hastobe]

[quote user="Andyphilpott"]

Kathie - do you really believe that the extra revenue raised will be used by government to cut global warming? No chance.

[/quote]

I don't for one minute think that the government will use the additional revenues to tackle global warming - I was making the point that I think they should.

Most flights are probably unnecessary - to be frank.  We try to fly as little as possible and, when we do, contribute to environmental credits to try to counteract the environmental effects of our choices.  Sadly there are insufficient environmentally friendly choices available (trains being ridiculously expensive for example).   Simple ways of reducing the effects of travel are to travel less frequently  - but stay longer.

Kathie

[Coco]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]

Surely the total price you are being asked to pay for the flight is what matters - that way, you can make an straightforward comparison between carriers and choose the best value flight for you.  What's included in terms of surcharges and taxes is irrelevant.

 

[/quote]

I can be holier than thou on the global warming vs flying issue, I haven't flown for 20 years this summer.[:P]  However, I have thought about it a few times and I have certainly used the cheap airline sites to find the cheapest way for relatives to get to us.  I totally agree with SD - it's the price you pay that matters and makes it much easier to do comparisons.  A couple of years ago my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were coming to visit and on the face of it Ryanair Luton-Dinard looked like the best option (1p flight) but in fact it ended up cheaper for them to do Luton-Paris with Easyjet and then get a train to Bayeux!!!!  Easyjet had cheaper "taxes" so how can they be standard government taxes? And less surcharges, making their £5 (I think it was) flight cheaper in the long-run than the 1p Ryanair flight, even though the Easyjet one involved a train from Paris to Bayeux as well!