Holiday ‘extras’ eating into holiday budget!

[Revolutioniser]

First world problem, I know. And not a surprise either. But still annoying having to pay:

• £22pp each way to get seats on the plane next to each other
• £8.50pp each way for a bit of food on the 4hr flight
• £8 per night AC for the hotel room
• £8 per night tourist tax
• £6 to drop us off at the airport for less than two minutes!

£300 of the holiday spends gone already!

Genuinely think it’s this kind of bloody thievery that makes people think the country is ‘broken’.

I don’t begrudge the tourist tax, to be fair. But the rest of it… ARGH!!!

Yeah - it’s amazing how it all adds up! If you want to cheer yourself up, find Fascinating Aidas song, “cheap flights” on YouTube, about Ryanair I imagine as they’re Irish but it’s very funny and true. Bit sweary though if you’re easily offended.

Most of the Ryanair extras are easy to avoid. I'm going for a weekend break in a couple of weeks. Return flight Friday to Sunday to Mallorca in August booked 2 weeks in advance for £120.

I did look at London but the train, hotel and food and drink while there would all easily have been double and today is anything to go by, the weather could be crap.

Read all about it: Mumsnetter outraged that food and parking costs money.

I think what reflects on Britain is that so many people either don’t understand or won’t accept that they get the cheapest possible price if they don’t mind where they sit and don’t need any extras and then show massive obnoxious entitlement when they don’t get the extras other people have paid for for free. I saw an appalling display of this from a woman on a flight to Crete this July who literally stood in front of the cabin crew and said you won’t be taking off until you move our seats because my child won’t sit down, so sort it or we’re staying here. I don’t know why anyone would cause that level of unpleasantness for the sake of £40 but there you go. I thought it was a pity they didn’t call security and have her removed personally.

Feel the same - just checked in to easy jet. Am travelling alone so could care less where I sit and yet I still have to pay a minimum of £8.99 each way for the standard seats. Also discovered a 8Euro per night tourist tax in the welcome email today. I wouldn’t mind if it had been pointed out at the time of booking but I have had to find £100 I hadn’t planned upon. Also a 4hr flight, but will be going to Pret at the airport to buy something rather than pay £10 for airplane food…

Somewhere 'swanky' wouldn't be charging you for aircon 🤣

It’s not being outraged as such, but just a sad fact that the price you see online or in the window of the travel agents isn’t what you actually end up paying ( most of the time anyway!) ..
People have a right to feel ripped off , especially as I am old enough to remember free nuts and sweets and food on planes as part of the same price. I know that was a long time ago though and those days are gone.

Always worth checking if the airport has a water fountain and then you can get water for free. We do this at Gatwick, saves on single use plastic as well. Many countries have safe tap water as well so you can then use your bottle while you're away as well.

Tourist taxes will be everywhere soon. It’s not too bad at the moment and has to be factored in, but it’ll go up and up to a point where it’ll put people off going completely, which is its point ( in my opinion anyway )
It should also be made clearer at booking what it’ll be.

You don't have to pay for seats on any airline. You just skip past the seat selection part and it will choose for you for free.

DP and I never pay for seats on any of Ryanair, Jet2 or Easyjet and are nearly always together. Only time I've ever paid for seats was when I was taking a relative on her first ever flight, which was on Ryanair and I did want to make sure we were next to each other.

This is ridiculous. The country is not broken because you can not afford snacks on a plane flight. 🙄

But that’s the Op’s point. The price of seat included you sitting next to the people you booked with. Even on budget lines .

It’s only recently that you need to guarantee this by paying an additional fee. And it’s fine to say “budget” for it but you can’t know how much these additional costs are until you’ve gone through all the pages and ignore the advertised price. They change price for each flight.

@Revolutioniser food on a 4 hr delight is a want not a need . You are making a choice and that money doesn’t Need to be spent.
4hrs do you all have to sit together ?
what age is everyone ?

Feel really stupid now!! Didn’t realise I could skip it!

However, at least now I have a window seat - not had one of those in 20 years as both my kids are autistic and like those seats, so I’m regarding it as a treat this time. I will be back in 10 days to start an AIBU thread about being asked to move seats by a family who haven’t paid/booked and the row on the plane when I politely decline, having paid for my seat 🤣

I think Pret at the airport could easily cost you £10!

The airline I work for starts filling from seat 1A, 2B, 2C etc. However, if someone has booked a seat, they get that seat.

So for a party of three, it could be that the first available seat for "free" is 4D... then everything else is booked until 11A, then everything else is booked until 15B. So whilst it looks like we have purposefully split a party up, they are in the closest possible seats to each other without paying.

This is not RyanAir, who I believe do it deliberately.

Rather than thinking of all those extras as eating into your spending money, you have to factor them in as the actual cost of your holiday as you know you will pay these charges at the time of booking.

• £22pp each way to get seats on the plane next to each other - surely you just pay this at time of booking and factor it into the cost of the flight? how many of you are there - we usually just sit with a kid each separately to save on seat costs.

• £8.50pp each way for a bit of food on the 4hr flight - can't you bring a packed lunch from home?

• £8 per night AC for the hotel room - the AC - are you even sure you need it yet?

• £8 per night tourist tax - nothing can be done factor it into the cost

We never pay for seats next to each other,.always still end up next to each other

Flight food is grim anyway - just bring some snacks /sandwiches?

Love that you think this country is broken when talking about a holiday outside this country

Absolutely agree with @Bingbopboomboomboombopbaam . Holidays abroad are not a necessity and holidays abroad have nothing to do with “Broken Britain”, what a bizarre analogy to use.

Plus, surely your allocated seats/transfers are included in your budget for the holiday itself, not part of “spends”?

Food for flight/at the airport, just takes backs and a packed lunch with you. It’s probably better food and saves you loads of money. You don’t “have” to buy food on the plane for such a short flight.

You need to factor all the costs in when budgeting for your holiday and if you can’t afford the extras, don’t go, it’s simple. Holidays are a luxury, not a necessity.

Genuinely think it’s this kind of bloody thievery that makes people think the country is ‘broken’.

Eh?

These are unfortunately pretty standard on budget flights/ holidays, and are designed to give you choices.

tourist tax should however be included in the price unless it’s been introduced by local authorities after you initially booked the holiday

The things you are quibbling over are less than a tenner each! If the budget is so tight you are concerned about £6 for a drop off, why not just holiday in the UK? Foreign holidays aren't mandatory. The flight food is also not mandatory, just have a coffee and a Boots meal deal at the terminal. I've also never encountered a hotel where you need to pay extra for the aircon, had no idea that was a thing.

We've been paying for air con in Greece for over 20 years. Turkey and Spain, no. Occasionally we haven't needed the air con, but when it's 30+, then yes. That's always factored in to the cost.

Tourist tax isn't that much.

Paying to sit together is annoying. Especially as on a package, that was always free. And it's totally a money spinner. I have bigger issues with plane seats though. I'm 5'9. I just need more room and a higher headrest so I can actually lean back.

Food thing.
It might be a 4 hour flight, but if you live 1 hour away(or more) from an airport, it could end up like this:
11am leave house.
12pm Airport
3pm fly
7pm land (or 9pm. Greece etc)

That's a long time to not eat.

You can't always bank on eating at the airport (mad busy/ long security/ traffic jam etc).

We've always taken a picnic with us.