What are the airlines going to fleece you for next?

[CeeJay81]

We are off on holiday in December and Jet 2's latest email is asking me if I want too guarantee our handluggage? Yes that's right for £6pp we can guarantee our hand luggage fits on the plane😯. I thought the reason they had measurements for these things was too make sure everyone's does fit on. It's not Ryanair/EasyJet, not that that should make a difference. It's a package holiday. With several posts discussing seat booking charges, am I being unreasonable for thinking this is just one step too far?

Same here. We use Jet2 a lot and usually have hold luggage so they'll nearly always put our cabin wheelie cases in the hold for free.

Saves having to get them through security, drag them round the airport and find space in the locker.

But if we were hand luggage only we'd just take our chances, we've rarely had to wait more than a few minutes for hold luggage anyway.

The £6 is pretty much a stupidity tax, see how many people will pay the fairly unnecessary fee.

Unless you are going to visit say an elderly relative who cannot travel or are going to a funeral, you have a choice. Even then, look at the other options, even if it means a different airport and a train journey or hire car.

Don't support the nasty Mr O'Leary.

They charge for the tea as well.

Yet another thread on ancillary pricing in just a few days and now another airline has its name in the MN spotlight…I’m beginning to get suspicious.

TBH if posters (or their parents or grandparents) had kicked up a fuss about this when “menu pricing” started becoming commonplace thirty years ago, and maybe boycotted the airlines using it we wouldn’t be where we are today….but people couldn’t help themselves when they saw the low base fares on offer.

As for consumer protection and maybe the politicians getting involved: I know it’s not great entertainment but to get a clear picture it’s worth taking look at the financial reports of the airlines and seeing how much profit they make per passenger over the year…per capita it’s not a lot so reducing the airlines’ ability to raise cash via ancillary means will increase basic fares.

Passenger planes are already fitted with an 'emergency oxygen system', I suspect that someone will suggest that if you want to breath clean air whilst travelled you can pay to use that system - the alternative being the plane flooded with a combination smell of flatulence and B.O. 🤢

Oh dear, I hope I haven't given some cheap airline another money making idea! 😱

Going against the grain a bit it seems but why do you need your case in the cabin with you? You are guaranteed a rucksack type bag which fits under the seat for no charge, why do you need a case as well in the cabin on Jet2 who only fly short haul?

I've flown Jet2 on my own with 2 small DC several times and easily got everything we need for a few hours flight - phone, books, sweets, wipes, tissues, money, colouring and pens, teddies, Lego, overpriced meal deal from airport - in a rucksack.

I've often thought boarding and disembarking would be a lot quicker and more pleasant without 50 hard shelled wheeled cases being hefted around people's heads and legs, and once you get through passport control the baggage is usually there in a few minutes so it's not like having hold baggage keeps you from leaving the airport any quicker. And Jet2 is package so you get 22kg hold baggage each included, which is loads. I genuinely don't get why you need a case in the cabin with you and would enjoy the experience much more if no one brought their case in the cabin at all.

Exactly @Nameychangington. Plus for many Jet2 flights, a lot of passengers are on a package, so take a hold case and a small bag, leaving more room for the flight only customers to put their trolley cases in the overhead lockers, making the £6 even more unnecessary.

So for the OP, just because they are offering you this 'service' doesn't mean that you have to take it. Just view the email as 'would you like to voluntarily give us an extra £6 pp per flight for likely no reason at all' and ignore it.

As an aside, we've never paid to choose our seats and have always been together with Jet2. There is only 2 of us and we do fly outside the school holidays, but the flights are always full or only one or two empty seats.

Why?

We have flown with Jet2 loads of times. I really rate them as a budget airline. They regularly get voted best budget airline.

Last time we flew abroad it took so long to get through immigration and passport control that our luggage was waiting for us. So taking hand luggage (which is impractical for us anyway) wouldn't have saved any time. It was included in the price as well.

Even claiming they can guarantee your bags on the plane is a bit of a fudge.

I accidentally ended up with ‘speedy boarding’ on easyJet recently because I wanted to take the pram on board (which I had to pay about £50 for).

If you pay to take on a ‘large hand baggage’, they give you speedy boarding in the hope you can fit in on I guess.

Well… on the way out we were checked into a gate and then it was a free for all (so irrelevant), and on the way back we were let through first but then… made to sit and wait on a bus until the entire flight was through.

So utterly pointless anyway. Initiatives created in the office that are not enforceable on the ground.

It’s because they don’t want to wait at baggage reclaim if they don’t have any hold luggage. Sometimes that can be a long wait (hours in some cases at big airports - Gatwick I’m looking at you).

As well as stuff I use on the airports and flight, in my hand luggage, I have:
. Medication - just in case suitcase goes missing
. bag containing cables for phone, Kindle, iPod, powerbanks and USB plugs.
. If flying to a place where its hot and unable to check into room not straight away (such as holiday I just been to) - a pair of shorts and a pair of trainer liners.

I think Jet2 has capacity for about 150 (170 for their larger planes) cabin sized suitcases in the overhead lockers. This means they hope and pray that at least 40 (55 on larger planes) passengers don't have cabin suitcases.

We fly most regularly domestic with BA and it seems absolutely standard now that they forcibly take wheely cases off you at the gate to put them in the hold, unless you're a bronze cardholder or above.

But you can put all those in your small cabin bag, that you will always be able to take on the plane with you.

East Midlands, my friend's DS flew back from Turkey - it was not Jet2. Got back at around 3am, Went to the luggage reclaim and heard the truck pull up to the loading area. Then nothing. Waited about 30 mins. This was the only flight in arrivals.

Then DS and about 6 others climbed through the hatches and pulled all the luggage off the trailers and another 6 distributed the cases across the floor and carousel belt.

Last month flew back to Birmingham and luggage was put onto belt no 6 - its tucked away from the others. Someone accidently knocked the emergency stop button when they picked up their suitcase off the belt. The button is badly positioned IMO. We could only access half of the belt area as rest had full length of barriers (no idea why). Took about 30 mins to get the belt going again. There was a gap between the barriers where could see at least 40 pieces of luggage -and security stopped someone trying to get to their case - which was the nearest bit of the belt to the barrier.

Then have seen passengers who are the first to stand once plane lands, first on the terminal shuttle. I took my time and in passport control, looked where the impatient idiot was - about 50-60 people behind me. Then his suitcase didn't arrive before mine.

I don't know but I bought UK train tickets recently and the price was eye watering - getting a jet off the ground for some of their prices seems reasonable.

@PCOSisaid When it comes to Ryanair I simply would not go if they were the only option. I once had the misfortune to fly with them on business from Manchester to Palma and swore that if that was required in future I'd rather drive to Barcelona and sail across. The only upside was that I was moved to an exit row seat by the crew, by virtue of being one of the few sober people on board what appeared to be the Magaluf Express.

That said, I've got no problem at all with easyJet, rarely fly Jet2 as they don't serve where I want to go but when I have they've been fine. BA short haul are basically easyJet in a more muted colour way now; and likewise fine if you have low expectations.

Slightly off topic, but I simply can't understand why there aren't new plane designs with the majority of the storage in the cabin rather than underneath. Since the low cost airlines want to minimise the number of people who check-in luggage to reduce their time on the ground it seems like the simplest solution. Lower the floor of the cabin enough to be able to put wheely cases on their side in the overhead lockers, and have a couple of racked storage cupboards near the entrance which can take cases, pushchairs and wheelchairs. And please board people at the back of the plane first to speed the process up!

Plus there's £26 return in taxes on flights. The cheapest ever flights we took were Lanzarote for £30 return with hand luggage only (this was just before COVID and you still got both cabin bags so no extra luggage required for a week away).

At the time, the price after taxes was less than what it cost to get a return bus to our nearest town less than 2 miles away so no wonder airlines need to sell extras to make a profit.

But we never pay to sit together, never buy food and drink on flights (if we want food for the flight and CBA bring it with us, a £5 Boots meal deal from the airport is fine) or anything from the 'Skyshop' so others must be spending a lot more in order for the airline to balance the books.

Jet2 fly daily to Palma from all airports they use so it's unlikely you'd 'have' to go on Ryanair if you didn't want to.

But in my experience all flights to Mallorca or Ibiza are full of the party crew. We went on Jet2 from Liverpool to Ibiza on a Monday morning and despite the crew ruling the cabin with an iron fist and making everyone put their airport booze in the overhead locker (and checking this) it was still fairly rowdy. There was an announcement on disembarking thanking everyone for their good behaviour so fuck knows what it would be like if left to their own devices.

@Bjorkdidit Yes I know there are other options, I fly to Palma regularly, but not usually with Ryanair or from Manchester. My point was IF that was the only option, I'd rather drive.

Typically I fly from London either BA or easyJet and have never encountered anything like that Ryanair flight.

Perhaps there's more business travel between London and Palma than purely holiday travel.

You’d need an engineer to really look at the lowering the floor idea but I know it’s part of the load bearing structure on many aircraft and there may be issues if it’s not at roughly mid height, spanning the actual diameter of the fuselage barrel, or very close to it. Having the floor at max diameter gives max width> max number of seat abreast…lower the floor and you lose width.

Also if you drop the floor/reduce cargo hold height you reduce compatibility with the current specifications worldwide for the containers used for hold loading of bags etc on many aircraft…There are a few other issues I can think of but those will do as three reasons for starters.

As for:” have a couple of racked storage cupboards near the entrance which can take cases, pushchairs and wheelchairs.”

That would take out space for seat rows….the accountants won’t like that. Over the years that’s led to reduced storage for crew kit, reduced/removed wardrobes from the front of some shorthaul types.

We’re now at the stage galley stowage and certainly toilet size has been reduced on some recent aircraft, all done order to get more seats in, all done to reduce prices or at least keep them low.

We’ve had a couple of hols with jet2. They were fine. Have you had a different experience?

The Russians had planes designed so that passengers would board directly to the cargo deck, stow their cases on racks there, then go up a flight of stairs to the main deck for the flight. This was for remote airfields that didn't have ground crew. But I bet Ryanair would have a good look if Boeing offered it as an option.

Budget airlines seem to be increasingly inventive in what they can charge extra for, probably a charge for using the loo or the steps to get onto the plane or maybe an extra cost for being bussed to/from the plane, nothing would surprise me, having said that have always found jet2 ok, though they do seem to have a real issue with being on time

We flew Jet2 recently to Tenerife, in that flight you got free 23kg luggage in the price, we only wanted HL as don't like checking bags, as people had checked baggage, there wasn't many with cases as HL, I think on the whole queue us and about 6 others. Might be worth seeing if the flight has free baggage and making a call as to how many might have HL