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Charging extra for bags and other incidentals wouldn't have been a problem if airlines didn't push it to the extreme and start running borderline scams. A famil

by paxys 1y ago

Charging extra for bags and other incidentals wouldn't have been a problem if airlines didn't push it to the extreme and start running borderline scams. A family I know was recently forced to pay €55 per ticket at the check in counter for the privilege of having an agent print their boarding pass. Of course there will be backlash.

rjh29 1y ago
It's been great for frequent travellers. Our cheap flights were subsidised by people who don't bother to follow basic instructions, or try to take the piss and take way too much on board hoping they wouldn't be caught. If the charges didn't exist the cost would just be spread out across all travellers.
- paxys 1y ago
  Yes, and that's a good thing.
  - rjh29 1y ago
    My comment was more about the fees. The law is actually relating to the carry on bags which are separate, sorry for being confusing. The EU law is good if the ticket price doesn't rise up, but I fear it will go up the same amount as the bag used to cost. It also removes the ability to optimise. Even if you pack light, buy clothes at the destination, or send your stuff by mail - you still pay for a bag. And as another poster said, it'll encourage people to take more luggage, which won't all fit in the overhead compartments.
    - attendant3446 1y ago
      Does it actually cost the airline more money to allow this? They already allow underseat luggage, where you can store even heavier bags. They were limiting the size of the bag unnecessarily (even though there is plenty of room under the seat for a bigger bag). I think they will raise the prices at first, but eventually they will find another way to extort money from passengers and having a reasonably sized carry-on bag will become norm.
- const_cast 1y ago
  I think the sheer level of opportunistic price gauging demonstrates that no, this isn't just the cost of things. They're trying to squeeze every penny. That means you, too, unfortunately.
  - sillyfluke 1y ago
    Yeah, as another frequent flyer I find the parent's comment borderline delusional. Things have way shittier across the board post-covid. Just the other day, I noticed an airline turn their economy tickets fron three tiers to six, in an attempt to decouple baggage allowance and flight change options. Being able to change your flight now cost 3x as much than it did before.
    - rjh29 1y ago
      Prices are up since covid but I haven’t noticed anything shittier, I fly in Asia though.
martinald 1y ago
Michael O'Leary actually explained this. They simply do not want people coming to the airport and having to print their boarding pass and want to incentivize people doing online checkin as much as possible. €55 is a rounding error to even Ryanair. If you didn't do this; and it was say a more reasonable €5 - or even free, you'd get a lot of people coming to the airport without a boarding pass. This is actually super expensive to offer, because it's not the cost of staff itself, it's the fact you need to rent a desk off the airport, and it turns out airport desk space is _not_ cheap. Flights are often very peaky too, so you might need 5-10 check in desks to cover the morning rush, which are then empty for the next few hours. Or don't and you get hammered in the press for huge queues and people missing flights because it took an hour to print a boarding pass. This EU legislation is also poorly thought through. As many have said I've often done same day or one night trips for work where I do not need anything past a backpack. Now a lot of people will take cabin baggage that could have otherwise took a rucksack, but the problem is a high density LCC airplane configuration does not have enough overhead luggage space for that. So now you need to check it in, which is expensive for the airline and time consuming for the passenger. It would be far simpler for them to require flight fares/price comparison sites to include one piece of overhead cabin baggage in the cost, with a discount available (but no ability to advertise that price until late in checkout). This would allow comparisons to work properly across airlines, which is what I assume was the end goal here. Either way it's not a big deal and I don't think should have been a priority for the EU.
- paxys 1y ago
  Nope, all bullshit. - The fee is absolutely not a rounding error to Ryanair. We are talking about tickets that cost €9-15. They rely on these extra charges to make their money back. - They already have counters at the airport. In fact you have to go to them to drop off check in bags and/or weigh your carry ons. - Mobile boarding passes already exist, and most other airlines use them. If it was really about cost savings Ryanair & co. would embrace them fully.
  - martinald 1y ago
    Ryanair already has mobile boarding passes and have done for I want to say at least 10 years? You honestly think Ryanair makes serious money from reprinting boarding passes? I doubt I have ever seen anyone at the Ryanair ticket desk at STN for example. That compares to the 50k+ passengers a day that go through STN on Ryanair. Baggage charges of course, as is with food, but boarding passes is not a money maker for them. Those counters don't typically print tickets, it's a different "ticketing" counter.

by paxys 1y ago

rjh29 1y ago

It's been great for frequent travellers. Our cheap flights were subsidised by people who don't bother to follow basic instructions, or try to take the piss and take way too much on board hoping they wouldn't be caught. If the charges didn't exist the cost would just be spread out across all travellers.

paxys 1y ago
Yes, and that's a good thing.
- rjh29 1y ago
  My comment was more about the fees. The law is actually relating to the carry on bags which are separate, sorry for being confusing. The EU law is good if the ticket price doesn't rise up, but I fear it will go up the same amount as the bag used to cost. It also removes the ability to optimise. Even if you pack light, buy clothes at the destination, or send your stuff by mail - you still pay for a bag. And as another poster said, it'll encourage people to take more luggage, which won't all fit in the overhead compartments.
  - attendant3446 1y ago
    Does it actually cost the airline more money to allow this? They already allow underseat luggage, where you can store even heavier bags. They were limiting the size of the bag unnecessarily (even though there is plenty of room under the seat for a bigger bag). I think they will raise the prices at first, but eventually they will find another way to extort money from passengers and having a reasonably sized carry-on bag will become norm.
const_cast 1y ago
I think the sheer level of opportunistic price gauging demonstrates that no, this isn't just the cost of things. They're trying to squeeze every penny. That means you, too, unfortunately.
- sillyfluke 1y ago
  Yeah, as another frequent flyer I find the parent's comment borderline delusional. Things have way shittier across the board post-covid. Just the other day, I noticed an airline turn their economy tickets fron three tiers to six, in an attempt to decouple baggage allowance and flight change options. Being able to change your flight now cost 3x as much than it did before.
  - rjh29 1y ago
    Prices are up since covid but I haven’t noticed anything shittier, I fly in Asia though.

martinald 1y ago

Michael O'Leary actually explained this. They simply do not want people coming to the airport and having to print their boarding pass and want to incentivize people doing online checkin as much as possible. €55 is a rounding error to even Ryanair. If you didn't do this; and it was say a more reasonable €5 - or even free, you'd get a lot of people coming to the airport without a boarding pass. This is actually super expensive to offer, because it's not the cost of staff itself, it's the fact you need to rent a desk off the airport, and it turns out airport desk space is _not_ cheap. Flights are often very peaky too, so you might need 5-10 check in desks to cover the morning rush, which are then empty for the next few hours. Or don't and you get hammered in the press for huge queues and people missing flights because it took an hour to print a boarding pass. This EU legislation is also poorly thought through. As many have said I've often done same day or one night trips for work where I do not need anything past a backpack. Now a lot of people will take cabin baggage that could have otherwise took a rucksack, but the problem is a high density LCC airplane configuration does not have enough overhead luggage space for that. So now you need to check it in, which is expensive for the airline and time consuming for the passenger. It would be far simpler for them to require flight fares/price comparison sites to include one piece of overhead cabin baggage in the cost, with a discount available (but no ability to advertise that price until late in checkout). This would allow comparisons to work properly across airlines, which is what I assume was the end goal here. Either way it's not a big deal and I don't think should have been a priority for the EU.

paxys 1y ago
Nope, all bullshit. - The fee is absolutely not a rounding error to Ryanair. We are talking about tickets that cost €9-15. They rely on these extra charges to make their money back. - They already have counters at the airport. In fact you have to go to them to drop off check in bags and/or weigh your carry ons. - Mobile boarding passes already exist, and most other airlines use them. If it was really about cost savings Ryanair & co. would embrace them fully.
- martinald 1y ago
  Ryanair already has mobile boarding passes and have done for I want to say at least 10 years? You honestly think Ryanair makes serious money from reprinting boarding passes? I doubt I have ever seen anyone at the Ryanair ticket desk at STN for example. That compares to the 50k+ passengers a day that go through STN on Ryanair. Baggage charges of course, as is with food, but boarding passes is not a money maker for them. Those counters don't typically print tickets, it's a different "ticketing" counter.