Ryanair to ticket passengers who try to cheat the baggage system

by Scott Carmichael on

Ryanair, the cheeky Irish low cost airline, has decided to hand out 30 Euro fines to any passengers trying to bring too much stuff with them in their cabin baggage.

When airlines started charging people for each checked bag, it was only a matter of time till passengers figured it would be much cheaper to just drag as much as possible into the cabin. And it was only a matter of time until the airlines noticed that not enough people were paying for their overpriced baggage service. Their solution? Ticket the passengers!

Checking a bag will cost between 10 and 20 Euros, but anyone caught trying to sneak too much into the cabin can pay the 30 Euro fine, or stay home, because not paying the fine = no travel for you.

The system appears to be pretty well planned, as it does not seem like you are able to check the excess cabin baggage once on board – which should force people to just pay the checked bag fee instead of trying to take a chance the flight attendant won’t notice your massive bags.

I’m really not sure what to make of this, on the one hand I’ve seen plenty of people drag far more on board than they should, and on the other hand I’m annoyed that airlines have started charging for checking bags, which has always been a free service included with your ticket.

The list of fees Ryanair charges their passengers is massive, but to actually start handing out a “fine” when you try to cheat things is just plain miserable.

I bet that some American airlines are probably looking at this new development, and I’m sure some of their bean counters have already been crunching the numbers to see just how much cash they could make off us poor passengers.

(Via: Independent.ie)

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5 steps to smarter packing

Fly in South Africa – and pay by the minute

by Scott Carmichael on

An upstart airline in South Africa is working hard to find somewhere to rent their planes and clear regulatory hurdles for their planned routes. Of course, upstart airlines are nothing new, they appear (and disappear) every month.

Airtime Airlines is different though, and grabbed our attention thanks to an innovative new pricing method.

The airline has taken a cue from the mobile phone industry, and plans to sell prepaid flight time, where passengers pay by the minute.

Basically, passengers will buy “air time” in advance. Flight time will cost 5 Rand per minute (about 53 cents) and the airline is quick to point out that the predetermined flight time is what you pay, regardless of any delays on the ground.

Of course, with just 3 routes (Durban to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth), the entire scheme sounds too wacky to succeed. If the whole prepaid plan doesn’t sound complicated enough, they are making things even harder by implementing fluctuating “top off rates”. The current rate of 5 Rand per minute could go up and down, depending on promotions and a host of other factors.

At the end of the day, the whole thing will result in fluctuating airfares, just like on every other airline in the world.

Still, upstart airlines are what shake up the industry, and we really need innovations like this to remind the legacy carriers that they are not going to get away with poor service and bad airfares forever.

(Airtime Airlines, via Wired)

Wegolo.com: My new favorite low cost flight-booking engine

by Abha Malpani on

From next week, my traveling schedule is exciting but ridiculously hectic. Madrid-Seville-Madrid; then Madrid-Dubai-Muscat-Dubai-Madrid, then Bristol-Darlington-London-Madrid, all within the month of June. I’m short on time at each destination so want to fly where ever I can to save time but don’t want to break my bank either.

Madrid is not a very well connected city for cheap flights, the only budget airline here is Vueling, but the places it flies to is limited. Also, trying to go to individual budget-airline websites and booking on multiple sites is just a pain in the neck, so after a few hours of being depressed looking at my possible flight bills, I was thrilled when I found Wegolo.com.

It’s awesome because it searches 75 airlines that are ONLY budget airlines, to your destination. It gives you all flight options, you can search dates before and after your selected dates, and it completely omits traditional airlines — so all the options it shows are the cheapest possible. Because of the number of airlines it searches through, it’s easy to book multiple flights from multiple destinations without having to get off the site — it just makes things so much easier!

All information is updated in real-time, there are no hidden costs, all airlines they search have: e-ticketing facilities, you can buy with Visa, MasterCard and American Express, and booking confirmations in English. I’m quite relieved to find this site! Do check it out.

Making Sense of Budget Airlines

by Iva Skoch on

Everyone talks about how great (or terrible, depending on who you ask) the budget airlines are but who has the time to figure out who flies where? Only in Europe there were about 200 budget airlines at one point–EasyJet, RyanAir, SkyEurope, GermanWings…–every country now appears to have a few.

I was just searching for some good deals on flights from Prague to Portugal and my friend suggested I try www.whichbudget.com, a site designed to help you determine which airlines fly to a particular destination. It is not limited to Europe, either. They cover 125 countries. Very helpful, I think.

So, I was able to find that Smartwings.net flies cheaply from Prague to Faro, Portugal but they don’t fly the dates I need to fly. Gotta love budget airlines! It seems they are only worth it if you are completely flexible.

(Although last week, I booked a ticket from Prague to Athens on Skyeurope.com for $40 one-way. So I shouldn’t be complaining too much.)

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