Holiday ‘extras’ eating into holiday budget!

Ryanair. I am not an expert. Only fly once or twice a year nowadays! But I do have a current Ryanair booking that gave me the option of free seats at the back of the plane.

I once booked a hotel in Portugal in December which had an indoor & out door pool

I was looking forward to using the indoor pool

On arrival at the hotel, the reception advised that there was a daily charge, per person to use the indoor pool.
I was so annoyed, I refused to use the indoor pool.
There was no info about this extra charge when I booked.

To be fair you know it costs to book seats together on almost every airline so you should have factored that in.

We always take our own food so you should have factored that in too.

I’ve honestly never heard of charging for aircon so I’d complain or choose different accommodation next time.

Haven’t come up against that much tourist tax yet but YANBU.

£6 drop off also wow.

What country are you saying is "broken", because it sounds as if this is all about a holiday abroad!

Where are you staying, where there is an extra charge for aircon per day ?

There’s a travel blogger, Noel something. He booked the cheapest flight on Spirit and added all the extras. It was more expensive than Business with everything included.

OP, look at what you actually need and eat, and find the package that fits. The budget price is never the price. The cheap often comes out expensive.

I wouldn't pay for food (I would bring my own) or seats or AC unless you're in a mega hot place (currently in Spain and have not needed AC at night).

cheapest ones are currently £10 (£13 for the ones at the back) and £30.50 for the front!, it’s a short flight and no little children so we will take the gamble I think.

Which airline? None that I know of don't have seats for free

For me, these aren't things that eat into holiday spends, they are part and parcel of going abroad. You pay for flights and accommodation including the above (although definitely not the food) and they sort out your spending money.

Some seats cost anywhere between £3 and £20 something to reserve but some were free (the seats at the back!).

@ColinOfficeTrolley

its the opposite of swanky, decent hotels don’t charge, never actually stayed anywhere with an extra cost for aircon.

• £22pp each way to get seats on the plane next to each other - won't yu survive withut each other for a couple of hours?
• £8.50pp each way for a bit of food on the 4hr flight - take your own or just wait.
• £8 per night AC for the hotel room - AC is an extra charge?
• £8 per night tourist tax - sadly unavoidable
• £6 to drop us off at the airport for less than two minutes! that's not a big amount for several people

But you booked a cheap hotel which charges for aircon? I’ve never been charged. We sit wherever, but always get seats together, i take food from home and an empty water bottle I fill at the airport, and as for the pick up fee, we get dropped 10 minutes walk away, the farmer has even put snacks on sale now due to so many using his turnaround each day! We grabbed apples he had grown last time we flew for 50p each!

Surely you just take your own food for the flight?

I do understand though. Especially as you only see these things when booking so we decide on a holiday and accommodation is £x and flights £y and we think “great that’s in budget” then you go to book… realise you need to book seats on plane, extra luggage as standard allowance is teeny, linen hire, towels hire etc. and it’s suddenly loads extra! I think they do it cuz the headline prices draw you in.

It’s a 4 hour flight, you can cope without sitting next to each other and you can absolutely avoid purchasing plane food.

We had to pay for air-conditioning at a not all that swanky hotel in crete 7 years ago. Apparently that was quite common.

The trick is to know the expenses, budget for them, and save accordingly. I've not travelled for a while & restarted this year, DC in tow, and do find that there are a lot more basic services with everything else being an add-on.

You can minimise some of it though. You don't need to buy food on a short flight, you can take snacks or sandwices. We'd also pay only for hotels that don't bolt on costs like air con as it rarely turns out cheaper.

I've just booked once in a lifetime long haul tickets. I naively assumed that the huge amount we paid would get us seats together, but no, we had to choose and pay for England to dubai then dubai to Sydney and then back again. At least meals are included.

You shouldn’t need food on a four hour flight.
A few weeks back in Spain I took the bus from the airport to the hotel, 2 euros rather than 35 in a taxi.
Unless you have young kids can’t you sit separately on a plane.

@User748937744 can you let me know how you got free seats, we fly next month but only have a paid option?

I hope you have a good holiday OP despite the extra cost.

Hear me out: holidays abroad are not a necessity. I’m also struggling to understand what these expenses have to do with “the country being broken”.

I actually wish it was more expensive for the basic flight and you could get a reduction if you didn’t care about where you sat etc.

For a 4hr flight take a small snack in your bag and eat before boarding, we always buy water for the plane from boots at the terminal or I have a colleague who always took an empty water bottle and used the filling station after security. You can take a packed lunch if money is tight - I can’t imagine getting much in the airport for less than £8.50pp.

Drop off fees are ridiculous, but we usually park and walk to the terminal or take the train/tram.

I have never had to pay for air conditioning in a hotel before, but I would have included that along with parking etc in my holiday budget and not spends.

Only essentials on the list for me would be Aircon and tourist tax. But if you're paying €8 per night, you must be staying somewhere pretty swanky

Definitely do not buy food on the flight!!! Take your own snacks or get a meal deal from boots.

Bus if your don’t want to pay for taxis, it’ll likely be pence.

AC, it’s not essential, maybe see if you can cope without if money is tight? It wouldn’t be my choice but needs must.