Originally Posted by spotwelder
I am not too worried about anything, merely trying to stimulate debate.
1. baby will have to change its header as it is not the only airline with tiny fares, BMi has them too.
2. the advertising of the airfare should really be the fully inclusive price. Hello, I would like to go from London to Glasgow. I would like to fly but not pay for the airport. I would suggest that it is difficult to go without using an airport or heliport! The insurance surcharge is a joke. Do they split out the cost of the insurance on the ticket. No, so why put a difference in there. It is actually just another cost item for the airline.
The fuel surcharge is a similar joke. I have not booked bmi recently. Do they do the Ryanair trick of charging extra for anything other than a very unpopular card which few have? (BMI card excluded). Is the credit card charge actually reasonable for the cost that the retailer is incurring.
If, for example, the fare and taxes and and and were £100, then the credit card charge of 4.85 would represent 4.85% addition. what do airlines end up getting charged by the credit card companies? Any idea anybody. This could be interesting as a cross subsidy issue. If the airline is charged an average of £3 but passes on a £4.85 to the punters, there is a hidden airfare subsidy of £1.85 per pax. Very naughty.
Must have a word with Sir Michael when his Baron pulls up next to my aircraft at Shoreham one day soon!
I am not convinced by 1. This is just an advertising slogan. Should KLM be required to remove references to 'The reliable airline' on the ground that it cannot establish that it is the only reliable airline (ignoring the jump of faith required to actually believe that they are actually reliable
)
OTOH, I could not agree more on 2. and the joke about surcharges of all kinds. But then, which carrier is not guilty of comparable tricks? Which full service carrier does not impose fuel surcharges and passes these off as 'taxes and fees' and which LCC does not impose a surcharge for cc usage? There might be one or two in each category, but they most definitely are the exceptions.