Cheap flight extras that TRIPLE  the cost of your budget break

Extras such as ‘speedy boarding’, cabin bags, hold luggage and meals can inflate the price of a budget flight. 

All these add-ons may cost you triple the advertised fare. And if you forget to print your boarding pass, it can cost £40.

It can be a bewildering experience when you book a low-cost flight online, involving endless clicks to add checked-in luggage and cabin bags to what at first appeared an enticing price.

Then there’s the question of whether to pay more for a selected seat and if ‘speedy boarding’ is worth getting. 

Meanwhile, on long-haul flights, should you shell out extra for a meal or take your own food?

Hidden costs: Advertised fares for budget airline flights in June were found to almost triple when checked-in bags and other basic extras are added

All the boxes you ticked soon add up and may leave you wondering if you might have been better off booking with British Airways, Lufthansa or another flag-carrying airline such as Air France or KLM.

MoneyMail conducted a snapshot study of routes this summer, with departures on July 15, a peak holiday date. 

It revealed that advertised fares on budget airlines can almost triple when checked-in bags and other basic extras are added.

For example, an EasyJet flight from London to Nice in France leapt by 62 pc with a checked-in bag included. The flight advertised at £38.99 increased to £116.47 with add-ons.

Little wonder that Ryanair is back in profit for the first time since before the pandemic — with revenue per passenger up by 30 per cent and a third of profit coming from ‘add-ons’.

‘The most significant add-on of all is bags,’ says Nicky Kelvin of The Points Guy, a travel advice website. 

This was borne out in our snapshot survey, which revealed that the price of a flight to Paris is advertised with EasyJet at £57.99, but if you want to check in luggage and take a bag on board you’re looking at £151.96.

Nicky advises passengers to think carefully about whether to purchase ‘speedy boarding’, as it may not get them on the plane any quicker. But even experts like him get caught out.

Extras: A flight to Paris is advertised with EasyJet at £57.99, but if you want to check in luggage and take a bag on board you’re looking at £116.97

On a recent trip from Tel Aviv in Israel to Sofia in Bulgaria, with Wizz Air, he paid for ‘speedy boarding’, yet found himself merely being taken to a corner of a transfer bus ahead of the rest of the passengers. 

Once there, the other passengers joined the bus. ‘It was a complete waste of money,’ he says.

Airport location is also a hidden-cost consideration when flying out. ‘Budget airlines tend to fly from more difficult-to-reach airports. Stansted may offer cheaper flights, but if you live in the Home Counties, the cost of transport to get there can add up.’

He also warns that cheaper prices offered by budget airlines using airports far from city centres often require expensive transfers. 

For example, Ryanair flies to Bergamo and refers to it as ‘Milan Bergamo’, yet Bergamo is another city 27 miles from Milan — where most passengers are heading — requiring a train journey of more than an hour.

Confident: Ryanair chief exec Michael O’Leary (pictured) said fares are only going one way, as demand continues to outstrip supply

Further charges are paid for by passengers who turn up at the airport without a printout of their boarding cards or an electronic version on their phones. 

Budget airlines typically charge at least £40 for anyone who does not check-in online ahead of time and so has to do so at the airport.

Traditional carriers, however, are beginning to pick up budget airline habits. 

British Airways used to advertise its standard economy as the lead-in fare, but it now has an economy category below standard economy, which it refers to as ‘economy (hand luggage)’.

For the BA flight on July 15 from London Gatwick to Nice, the difference between ‘economy (hand luggage)’ and standard economy with a hold bag included, referred to as ‘economy (checked baggage)’, is £27. 

This is the extra amount to be paid for 23kg of checked-in luggage.

Tamsin Cocks, editor of Business Traveller UK magazine, is also wary of budget airline ‘speedy boarding’: ‘I was recently flying back from Tivat in Montenegro with EasyJet and it was all just a swarm of people going to the gate.’  

It had been impossible to tell who was a ‘speedy’ passenger and who was not. 

• Tom Chesshyre is author of How Low Can You Go? Round Europe For 1p Each Way (Plus Tax).