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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

FlyBE Bait and Switch

We just flew up to Edinburgh on FlyBE, which calls itself "the UK's number one low fares airline". Not that you could tell from the prices we paid. Each ticket cost nearly £300 return. But the fact the tickets were more expensive than a BA flight to most European capital cities didn't stop FlyBE treating us like we had paid £9.99 for the tickets. They still tried to charge £5 each for selecting a seat, £7 to check a bag, and more money for snack, drinks and so on. There was even an in-flight survey form that turned out to be a lead capture form for a direct marketer.

Now, I can cope with that if I am actually paying low prices for the flight. But when they have a tariff that charges premium prices for most flights, only offering "low cost" on the ones for which there's no demand, it feels like bait and switch. Either charge a premium price and offer premium service, or have a low, fixed cost and then charge for every damned thing. But variable (read: demand-driven, high) pricing with no service is just dishonest.

Labels: travel

posted at 3:53 PM (UK) | |