BOOKING a flight is not what it used to be.
There was a time when Islanders could log onto an airline’s website and within a few clicks be booked onto a flight anywhere in the world.
But those days are long gone. Nowadays the traveller is bombarded by extras. With every click come options to reserve your seat, pay for a larger luggage allowance or buy travel insurance.
And when you finally arrive at the booking page with all the weariness of a marathon runner limping over the finish line, you find that you are charged extra for using a credit card.
Fair Play doesn’t like extra costs, hidden or otherwise. So we have found the best prices for flights to London with some of the biggest airlines operating out of Jersey.
We chose to look at flights on Monday 9 February.
In the current economic climate, airlines are becoming desperate for business, and this is reflected in an increasing number of good deals.
All the airlines we looked at, with the exception of Aurigny, are offering some excellent prices – if you ignore the extras.
The cheapest deal is with Bmi, which is offering a one-way flight to Heathrow on 9 February for just £30.40 if you book through internet search engine www.kayak.com or £39.50 if you book direct through its website.
Unlike its low-cost sister, BmiBaby, it doesn’t charge to check in bags, but it does hit you with a rather hefty £4 credit card supplement. Unfortunately, the airline’s Heathrow service comes to an end on 26 March.
British Airways offers the second-best rates, with a total price of £41 for a one-way flight to Gatwick and, just like Bmi, it doesn’t charge you to check in bags.
Aurigny can be congratulated on many aspects of its online booking service. It is quick, simple and, unlike some of its competitors, it doesn’t charge you to check in your bag and only charges you £1 to pay with your credit card.
However, all this pales into insignificance when you consider that the price of its service from Jersey to Gatwick via Guernsey is a whopping £124, with a total cost of £136.70.
But these are just the basic prices. Some of the airlines listed above offer optional extras which can send your final bill soaring – so be careful when you click.
Flybe offers travel insurance at £2.98. In fact, it chooses it for you and the customer must remember to de-select it or it will automatically be added to your bill.
Flyers can also reserve their own standard seat for £6, or one with extra leg room for £15. Customers who choose the insurance and extra leg room will see the cost of their flight jump from a very reasonable £45.48 to £60.48.
If travellers weren’t satisfied with paying £136.70 for the short hop over to Guernsey and then the UK with Aurigny, they can spend an extra £2 to reserve their own seat. Bmi, meanwhile, offers single-trip insurance at £5.04, with an option of paying £15 to check in oversized luggage.
British Airways can be congratulated for offering very little in the way of extras. All we were offered was the option of paying 80p to offset the carbon emissions of the flight. All money donated goes towards UN-certified carbon emission reduction projects.
Article posted on 2nd February, 2009 - 2.54pm
9 Article Comments
This has to be the most confusing article I have ever tried to read.
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Flybe charges £3 to use a debit card but as I only book for 1 person I can’t say if they make this charge per person regardless of it being on one card transaction though I suspect they do as they used to do this when they charged 80 pence a leg per person on one card.
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some of these so called cheap airlines do everything they can except dangle you upside-down by the ankles to grab your money.
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airfare charges
if you use debit/credit card on one booking they will charge you £4 per person
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I booked a return flight last week to the UK, the flights weren’t that bad… even with taxes they were ok… but an extra £24 added on so I could check in with one bag… Disgusting…
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This is a confusing ill informed article.
The overriding factor on price of flights is how far in the future and at what time of day they are booked for.
This can make a difference of Flybe £9.74 Jersey to Gatwick 7 am in 5 weeks time to £115 tomorrow at 7 am.
If you travel with hand baggage only why should you pay the same as those that want to take hold bags.
Biggest rip off is for a 6 stone lady who sits next to 30stoner who is flubbing all over adjacent seats and has paid the same price
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As I travel several times a year to Jersey to visit my family and friends I have become very irritated at all the add ons.I have a Flybe credit card although when I tried to use it the other day I was told that I would still be charged £7 even though it was their own card!!Apparently other people have complained and they are looking in to it!I declined to use it and in fact have chopped it up!Regarding the comment from PJG about hand baggage I have noticed an increasing amount of people who have obviously tried to avoid paying for a bag and have stuffed all their worldy possessions in to a bag that is far too big for hand luggage.This recently resulted in a huge hold up at the departure gate as umpteen people were taken aside and had to attempt to prove that their bags would fit in to the appropriate sized container(this was at East Midlands)Obviously when they checked in no-one had bothered checking the size of the hand luggage.As for paying to choose a seat I have never seen anyone standing on a flight so I fail to see why anyone would bother with that one!
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I’ve never had to pay on my credit card or even for luggage I go to skyscanner.co.uk or com and the price comes up inclusive so you know whats what, that is mostly useing the flybmi .also B A have never charged me to gatewick
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I have just booked flights with bmibaby for a short break in Jersey in April for my wife and I and 6 of our friends – a party of 8 in total. The “base” price from East Midlands was £49 per person – a good deal I thought. But like you say, by the time you have added the extras, the cost builds up. The thing that really griped me was the fact that the charge for booking by credit card was £7 per person – not per booking – so I ended up paying £56 for one credit card transaction – how on earth can they justify this ??!! The only way to avoid a charge for credit/debit card was to use Bmibaby’s own Mastercard – well, we’ve all got one of those, haven’t we !!!
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