They've more bolt-ons than Frankenstein. Outrageously, budget airline ‘extras' include taking bags, checking in and even paying.
Yet be it Ryanair, EasyJet, Flybe or BMI Baby, this guide has tricks to beat those nasty charges, from special payment routes to baggage allowance busting.
In this guide
Best Buys: Avoid card fees
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Travel Money Checklist
The five facts everyone should know
If you only remember five things about this, make them:
Ryanair check-in's free with 'all taxes & charges' sales
Ryanair regularly has ‘including all taxes and charges' sales. The beauty of these is that with these sales, you don't have to pay the £6 each way online check-in fee or its £2 each way EU levy, though you have to pay it with all other fights.
With all others, even those that look very cheap, you pay for check-in. Be sure to read all terms & conditions first.
You can pay for free - if you're in the know
Most Budget airlines charge up to £12 per person return if you pay by credit OR debit card.
Yet the majority let you pay free with Visa Electron cards, probably because so few people have them. Nab one by opening a basic bank account or using a special online payment system. For Ryanair it's its own Ryanair Cash Passport prepaid Mastercard. See best buys in Avoid card charges for details.
Hand luggage only is a must
Each stowed bag costs £10 - £70 return. In most cases, you get a free 10kg hand luggage allowance, so take full advantage. (Thomson Airways' limit is a mean-spirited 5kg.)
Putting five pairs of underwear on is probably pushing it, but if you're ‘hand luggage only' wear your heaviest clothes (multi-layered), and jam coat pockets with heavy items such as books. More hand-luggage only tips below.
There is a quick way to find £1 sale flights
Budget airlines commonly promise a million seats for £1, yet try to book and they're nowhere to be found. The FlightChecker's a tool we built to beat this. It's designed so you can ask, for example, ‘find any £10-and-under including taxes and charges Rome flights in August'.
Online check-in can save £100s
With most airlines, you can sidestep fees by checking in online first, though Ryanair usually charges £6 if you do it online.
Always print your boarding pass before you go. If you've printer problems, it can be cheaper to find an internet cafe than pay the fee for not bringing the boarding pass – £40 per person each way on Ryanair. More tricks to avoid check-in fees below.
Budget flights can be a penny
There should be a law against the hideous range of add-on charges, but as politicians won't sort it, we need to take matters into our own hands.
Budget airlines can sell flights for miniscule prices because that's all you're paying for: just a flight. Make no mistake, they are no-frills; the only extras you get are the charges companies include to claw back the cash.
Yet while hidden costs make the blood boil, don't forget:
Book the right way and you can sometimes still fly for a total of less than a tenner each way.
Though if you're not careful, it could cost you big. A very extreme example of the total additional fees charged is, for a family of four on a Ryanair £1 each way sale return (including taxes an airport charges) to Europe, in June, paying by debit card, taking two suitcases in total (not pre-booked) and forgetting to print boarding passes … £288!
That's £12 for debit card payments (£48 total), £40 for each person's suitcase in its peak period (£80) and £40 for boarding pass re-issue (£160) one-way (we'd hope you wouldn't make the same mistake coming back!).
How to find 1p flights
Of course, the starting point is to find the cheapest possible flight, yet the tool to do that depends on how flexible you are.
- Know exactly when and where you want to go?
Budget airlines aren't always cheapest, so use a screenscraping comparison site that zips your details to scores of budget airlines, normal airlines and brokers to find the cheapest quote.
The top picks are Skyscanner* for speed, Travelsupermarket* for breadth and Kayak* for gadgets. Full info and more tips are in the Cheap Flights guide.
- Want to find all the £1 sale flights?
Budget airlines commonly promise a million seats for £1, yet try to book and they're nowhere to be found. The FlightChecker is a special tool we built to beat this. For example, opt to ‘find any sub-£10 including taxes and charges August' Barcelona flights' or just set a price and pick 'I'll go anywhere'.
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Hidden charges and how to beat them
When booking any flight, it's worth watching for hidden extras. Yet budget carriers are connoisseurs of confusion and have come up with all sorts of ingenious fees to ensnare unsuspecting flyers. Don't think ‘includes taxes and charges' means everything is included.
Always check to see if the price includes costs such as air passenger duty and tax, commonly £30-£50. Then, of course, there will be the other optional charges too.
Ryanair also has a £4 per return, 'EU 261 delay/cancel levy', to cover the cost of compensating customers for cancellations and delays. You don't pay this for Ryanair's ‘including all taxes and charges sales', but it's unavoidable on other flights.
Outrageously, budget airlines consider paying as an ‘optional extra', with charges applying whether you use credit OR debit cards. Worse, elsewhere credit card extra charges are a small percentage of the transaction; budget airlines usually charge a set amount per person each way.
Ryanair's debit card charge is £6 per person each way. Doesn't sound huge, but adds up to £48 per rtn for a family of four.
How to easily get a card to pay for free
Most airline booking charges do NOT apply to those paying on Visa Electron cards, a specific type of card few have for their bank account. However, Ryanair now charges £12/return trip for Electron payments too; using a Ryanair Cash Passport prepaid Mastercard is the only way to avoid its fees.
We suspect offering one free payment option is to make it easier for airlines to call debit and credit card charges ‘add-ons'. They know few people get the Electron card from their bank.
The way to pay depends on the airline, and each has its own pros and cons. Though if the flights cost more than £100, pay on a credit card to get extra protection. See the Section 75 guide for full info.
For Ryanair:
The Ryanair Cash PassportCosts £6 and has a minimum top up of £150
Update 1 Nov 2011. You can now only avoid Ryanair's admin fee for the privilege of paying by getting its OWN Cash Passport prepaid Mastercard. (Previously you could beat it by using any prepaid Mastercard.)
The Ryanair Cash Passport prepaid Mastercard costs £6 to buy, although it sends a £6 Ryanair travel voucher with the card.
How to use the card
It’s free to top up the card online with a debit card. The minimum top-up's a huge £150, though you can spend this at any shop that takes Mastercard, not just on flights.
Don't be tempted to use the card on your hols, as foreign exchange loading is 5.75%, double a typical debit card's.
Beware inactivity fees - don't leave money on the card for too long!
It's a bit dangerous to use this card to store cash until your next Ryanair flight, as after six months' inactivity there's a £2.50/month fee. However, you can avoid this fee if your balance is zero, so if you won't buy more Ryanair flights within six months it's best to clear the card.
Before 31 March, the best way to do this is spend the balance at UK retailers, as there's no charge. After that, ideally try to spend the balance all in one go on something you would have bought anyway - a big supermarket shop, for example - as it charges 50p per transaction. Alternatively, you could withdraw the cash from an ATM, for a higher £2 fee.
You can also call customer services to donate the balance to UNICEF, ie, if you've a few pence left.
It also comes with a multitude of other charges:
- Minimum load. You have to add a minimum of £150 onto the card each time you top it up.
- Inactivity fee. If you don't use the card for six months, you're charged a £2.50 monthly fee unless your balance is zero.
- Exchange rate fees. Purchases abroad cost a whopping 5.75% commission on top of what you spend, so a £100 purchase in euros will cost £105.75. Prepaid cards usually come with a 3%ish commission charge.
- Spending fees. From 31 March 2012 you'll be charged 50p for using the card to pay for a UK purchase, although until then UK purchases are free.
- Cash withdrawal fees. There's a £2 fee when withdrawing money at an ATM. You're charged £4 for getting cash out over the counter.
- Negative balance fee. If you are in debt on the card (because of inactivity fees), you're charged £10, after a 30-day warning.
All fees are applied to the Ryanair prepaid card balance, so will only affect you if you need to use it. The card’s press office says it does not store customers’ debit or credit cards details, so cannot apply fees to them. See a full list of charges.
What if I'm booking Ryanair today and don't have its prepaid card?
Prepaid Mastercards take time to get. If you're booking a Ryanair flight today, a few tricks may help:
- Pay with Ryanair gift vouchers – saves in some cases
Ryanair gift vouchers are usually emailed instantly. There's a £5 fee per transaction - less than card payment fees. It's fiddly though: you can only buy in batches of £25 and there's NO CHANGE, so whether you save depends on the ticket cost.
As an example, if return flights for two cost £48, you'd normally pay £24 in card fees. Buy a £50 gift voucher for £5, factor in £2 lost change, and you'd save £17.
But watch out! As they only come in £25s, unless your flight comes to a £25 mark or just under, you will have to pay partly by card and thus still stump up payment fees. If return flights for two came to £52 and you used a £50 gift voucher, you'd pay £2 with a debit card and pay £24 payment fees.
- Buy via Travel Republic – saves, but there's a risk
Eagle-eyed MoneySavers may have spotted that if you book flights via travel broker Travel Republic, you avoid Ryanair's fees (though you do pay Travel Republic's own £1-£2ish card fee). It's cheaper than booking direct at Ryanair with a normal card.
The big catch is Ryanair says: "Ryanair does not authorise any other websites to sell its flights. Ryanair reserves the right to cancel any bookings made other than directly through Ryanair.com." So there is a risk; better to stick to Ryanair's rules.
For all other budget airlines - Visa Electron:
If you're flying with a budget airline other than Ryanair, you'll need to get your mitts on an elusive Visa Electron card. It used to be possible to get prepaid Electron cards like the Mastercards above, but sadly these have become an extinct species. You now have two alternative options:
Bag a basic bank accountFree but fiddly way to get an Electron card
Specially designed Basic Bank Accounts have limited features and are intended for poor credit scorers, as they don't perform a credit check like standard bank accounts. However, anyone can apply if you have identification.
The benefit here is that some give Visa Electron cards, which you can then use when buying budget flights. The Halifax Easycash basic bank account can be applied for online, and issues Electron.
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Pros
- Totally free
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Cons
- Hassle and time taken setting up new account
- Not accepted on Ryanair
EntropaySpecial online payment system
Online payment system Entropay works a bit like Paypal; you sign up and pay money onto it using your debit or credit card. Then you can use your Entropay 'virtual' card details to spend online, and most budget airline flights treat this as an Electron transaction.
There's a 4.95% charge for loading money onto it, but this is still far less than most will pay to book budget flights on a non-Electron card.
While MoneySavers generally report positive things about it, a small minority has experienced glitches, including Entropay taking 30 days to recredit money if it was taken but didn't track. Entropay is a newish system, so if you have feedback please do post in the Entropay discussion.
Beware dormancy charges
Never store money on the account. If you don't use the card for six months it charges £2.50. It's only taken from your Entropay account though, ie, not from your current account (.
To avoid a charge, top up with the exact amount you need, or spend the money in the account before six months is up.
You can use the card at online stores such as eBay, so consider buying something small to avoid the fee. See Entropay fees and further charges.
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Pros
- Totally instant and free to open
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Cons
- There's a 4.95% loading fee
- Can experience glitches and downtime
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Beat baggage fees
If you want to stow luggage in the hold, expect to pay £10 to £70 per case return. Plus the weight allowance budget airlines allow can be lower than elsewhere at 15kg – 20kg.
Airlines will ambush anyone who goes over the limit, for example, BMI Baby charges £12/kg and Ryanair charges £20/kg for excess baggage. See the chart below for full airline-by-airline details. There are ways to cut the cost though.
Wear your luggage!
You usually get a free 10kg hand luggage allowance (though Thomsonfly's is a miserly 5kg), so take full advantage. 
To help minimise weight, wear your heaviest clothes and shoes.
A big coat could add 2kg of excess baggage, up to £40. Once you're on the plane, take it off and stow under your seat.
Then again, you could take it to the extreme. For an ITV Tonight programme Martin wore a special US survivalist jacket on a Ryanair flight. This jacket contained a laptop, two books, a towel, passports, a T-shirt, socks, magazines and much more. Even though it was heavier than hand luggage, they don't have rules to stop it … yet.
This was a 22-pocket US Scottevest, yet it ain't cheap, so check your closet or try a camping or army surplus store. One thing to look out for is a jacket with a ‘poacher’s pocket’, a deep lower pocket at the back, where hunters keep game.
For a cheaper option, 'Rufus Roo' is a specialist big-pocket jacket that costs £29.95, plus £3.50 delivery. We asked forumites to road test it. Typical feedback: "Fits in a lot of stuff – more than I expected. No hassle through check-in or security" and " It isn't the most stylish, but it's very lightweight". See full reviews & pics.
Pre-plan your packing
It's usually cheaper to pre-book cases online in advance, so decent planning is important. Think carefully about minimising the number of cases you need to take, though bear in mind strict size restrictions.
Luggage is for losers!
For short sojourns, hand luggage to go in the cabin is the way forward; so far, no airline charges for this. It'll save you hanging out at the baggage carousel too. In most cases, you do get a free 10kg hand luggage allowance, so take full advantage. See the chart below for the different allowances.
Stick to carry-on rules
You must carry liquids and gels in individual, 100ml-maximum containers. You're allowed to carry more than one 100ml container, ie, you can decant sunscreen into two 100ml bottles. All liquid containers must be in one transparent, resealable bag.
Use the scales at home
Always pop cases on the scales at home first. If you've no scales, a cheeky trick is to nip over to any empty airline's check in desk and weigh the bag on its built-in scales; they should work whether the desk is open or not. Cram the excess into your hand luggage.
Balance the weight out ... allowances often aren't pooled
Many budget airlines are cracking down on members of the same family pooling allowances, eg, don't assume if you take an 8kg bag, your hubbie's can weigh 22kg. And if you're with a young child, often they won't be allowed to take their own suitcase.
Leave space for the way back!
Most people return home from a holiday with more than they took (see the Cheap Travel Money guide for getting the best rates if you're going to spend). If you plan to shop, leave space in your luggage for the return.
Throw stuff away
If you get to the airport and your cases are overweight, consider whether it's worth paying the excess or throwing the goods away. Many common travel clothes or items cost less to buy per kg than a £20/kg excess charge! Though, of course, there's an environmental consequence to this that needs factoring in too.
Avoid fees for check-in
One of the more fury-inducing ‘add-ons' is the luxury of checking in, up to a staggering £80 per person, per return, if you need help at the airport.
Check in online
With most airlines, you can sidestep fees by checking in online first. Yet Ryanair (£6/ew) even charges for online check-in (excluding its ‘including all taxes and charges sales'). Even with Ryanair though, check-in's a darn sight cheaper online than if you do it at the airport.
Always print your documents
Once you've checked in online, always print your boarding pass before you go. If you've printer problems, it can be cheaper to find an internet cafe than pay the fee for not bringing the boarding pass (on Ryanair, it's £40 per person each way). Note that Ryanair online check-in closes four hours prior to departure.
| Online check in per person per return | Airport check in per person, per return | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryanair | £12 (1) | £80 (2) | |||
| EasyJet | Free | Free | |||
| BMI Baby | Free (3) |
£22 (4) | |||
| Flybe | Free | Free | |||
| Jet2 | Free (5) | £16 (6) | |||
| Thomson Airways | N/A | Free | |||
Sit together without paying more
Some airlines charge to pre-book seats and ensure you sit together, usually about £10. There are ways to get around this:
- Turn up early
If seats are unassigned, turn up for your flight as early as possible and lurk by the boarding entrance to boost chances of grabbing a prime spot. If seats are assigned at check-in, do it online early to ensure you sit together. 
Find the best seats online
Check the plane's layout on Seatguru, which shows the best and worst seats on different airlines' planes. If there is a choice of seats at check-in, you can pick the good'uns.- Do you need priority boarding?
Priority boarding simply means you'll be first on the plane to pick seats. Ryanair and EasyJet don't allow you to reserve a seat when you book, instead they offer priority boarding for £5 and £9 each way respectively.
One trick's to pay for priority boarding for just the biggest, burliest member of your party, who then gets on and saves the seats for you.
Some MoneySavers with families say priority boarding's worth it, others reckon it's still a big free-for-all and priority boarders don't always get on first. Remember these are generally short-haul flights lasting a few hours, so unless you've kids it's not the end of the world.
Food, drink and plastic bags
Of course, no-frills means not a sausage once you're on board. On most budget airlines, you're looking at upwards of a fiver for a sarnie and a cup of tea.
- Take your own grub.
Keep costs down by taking your food on the plane and buying drinks from the terminal shop before boarding. 
Stock up on plastic bags.
If you're taking make-up or liquids, put them in a clear plastic bag, or you may be charged £1 for one.
Don't book on the phone
All budget carriers charge for telephone booking, as much as £16. They also use premium rate numbers if you need to contact them. Use online services if you can.
Airline-by-airline extra charges
While the big catches above are common to all budgeteers, true to form, each has their own charging pecadillios to get a final snack on our cash. This is a quick guide to each, plus the Flight, Currency & Car Hire board has a wealth of expertise if you're stuck.
Ryanair cost-cutting
Unsurprisingly, the company with the lowest flight costs is the add-on charge king, so it pays to be uber-cautious. Especially important here is checking in online, spotting ‘taxes and charges' sales and avoiding its expensive travel insurance.
See the full Ryanair booking tips notes.
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You MUST check-in online and print your boarding cards
You MUST check-in online with Ryanair and print your boarding cards, as it doesn't offer airport check-in anymore. Forget to print or take them with you, and you might as well charter a private jet, as it'll cost a mammoth £40 per person each way to get them reprinted at the airport, even if it was a sale flight.
A family of four faces a shocking £160 bill on top of their ticket price each way in this event. If your holiday is shorter than 15 days, print off the return pass at the same time as the outbound to save the hassle of finding an internet cafe abroad.
Online check-in costs £6 (unless it's an ‘including all charges' sale), is open 15 days before you go and shuts four hours before your flight's due to depart.
- Look for all taxes and charges sales
Ryanair regularly runs £6 and under flight sales, some of which include all taxes and charges. The beauty of these is you don't have to pay the £6 each way online check-in fee, though you have to pay it with all other fights.
- Select 'no travel insurance required'
Some airlines pre-tick an insurance box, automatically adding travel insurance to your basket. While Ryanair does not automatically include insurance, you still need to be careful.
The airline asks you which country you live in for the purpose of buying insurance. From the drop-down menu then displayed, ensure you click 'no travel insurance required'. If you click United Kingdom, you'll be charged.
You can get far cheaper travel insurance elsewhere (see the Cheap Travel Insurance guide). - You can usually amend name mistakes for £10
Ryanair charges £110 per return to change the named passenger. However, the airline's uncharacteristically sympathetic to innocent errors, for example if you book a Ryanair flight under the name Matt, rather than Matthew, as shown on your passport.
If you enter an incorrect nickname, typo or old maiden name, call its helpline and it will usually amend for a £10 admin fee.
However, if you want to a change a passenger, say, Ariel Hassle to Justin Credible, it charges £110 to alter the ticket (£160 at the airport). Ryanair's press office says this fee's to stop travel agents buying up the lowest priced seats and reselling them.
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Ryanair Cost Cutting Discussion
EasyJet cost cutting (including insider info!)
EasyJet has fewer strings, but at times its pricing isn't that much cheaper than traditional airlines. Huge savings on fees are still possible, especially card charges.
See full EasyJet booking tips notes.
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Debit card is better than credit
EasyJet is one of the few airlines that makes a distinction between booking on a credit and debit card. Of course, the Electron card is free, but the second best option's debit, not credit, card.
While the debit card fee is £8 per transaction, the credit card is £8 PLUS either £4.95 or 2.5% (whichever's more).
However, if the flights cost over £100, pay on a credit card to get extra protection. See the Section 75 guide for full info.
- Bag a sale flight
EasyJet also runs flight sales, typically between 10% and 50% off. It's first come, first served, so if you spot one, act quick. -
Tips from an anonymous EasyJet insider ...
The following are tips from an anonymous senior EasyJet steward, who secretly slipped Martin a sheet of paper on a flight a few years ago.
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Pick the best airplane seats
The top rows to sit in depend on which plane model you're flying on; the number should be on the front of the plane.
Airbus A319. The best rows are 1, 10 and 11
Airbus A320. The best rows are 1, 12 and 13
Never sit in rows 14ABC onwards, ie, the seats on the right past row 14, as two extra rows have been added in, so there's much less space. Likewise, never sit at the back on late night flights, as the crew congregate there, so you'll stay awake.
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Frequent flyer? Buy an annual speedy boarding pass
If you're a very frequent EasyJet traveller and want to guarantee where you sit, buy ONE EasyJet Plus membership, which gives unlimited speedy boarding. This costs £119/year, compared with the normal cost of £18 per return flight, so is only worth it if you take enough flights to cover it.
Once the speedy boarder is on the plane, they can save seats for the rest of the clan.
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Pick the best airplane seats
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EasyJet Cost Cutting Discussion
BMI Baby cost cutting
Despite its cute name and logo, BMI Baby's fees are not so sweet. Especially important here is checking in online and sticking to the luggage allowance.
See the full BMI Baby booking tips notes.
- Check-in online
Turn up at the airport and check-in is £11 per person each way, costing a family of four £88 return in total. However, you can't check in online if you want to check in suitcases or have infants.
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Call the right customer services number
Some MoneySavers suggest BMI Baby's customer services are harder to get on the phone than the Prime Minister. If you need to rebook following a flight disruption or a schedule change to your flight, the press office says the best number to call is 0844 245 00 55 (10p per minute).
If you still don't have any luck, read the Flight Delays guide to find out how to claim compensation.
- Don't confuse it with BMI
BMI Baby is based in the Midlands and is the low-cost arm of BMI, but don't get the two confused, ie, some folks have googled 'BMI luggage allowance' and got caught out.
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BMI Baby Cost Cutting Discussion
Thomson cost cutting
Thomson Airways is the flight-only arm of Thomson holidays. Thomson tips include sneakily getting extra legroom without paying extra and beating its stringent baggage rules.
See the full Thomson booking tips notes.
- Extra legroom without the legwork
One of Thomson's optional add-ons is extra legroom, at £20-ish per passenger per return journey. Unless you're especially long-legged, this is a waste of cash. Instead check Seatguru's aircraft seating plans at home, then check in early and request a prime seat. - Only take 5kg hand luggage
Watch out for Thomson's miserly 5kg hand luggage allowance (max. dimensions: 55cm x 40cm x 20cm). This can make it hard not to avoid checking a bag, so it's especially important to wear your heaviest clothes and consider taking a specialist big-pocket airline jacket.
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Thomson Airways Cost Cutting Discussion
