Trifter

Flight for a penny to Malaga? Sound good? Well by the time you have booked in a suitcase, picked a seat, added priority boarding, and paid by credit card, your penny flight has leapfrogged past the £100 mark. Which leads one to think: Is this all a big con?

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Far from it. Ryanair have a huge following of loyal customers which has enabled them to post £100M profits despite a worldwide recession. It’s very easy, if you take the time to understand their booking system, to get flights that genuinely cost you as little as £10 with all extras accounted for.

So how do they make a huge profit if it’s possible to buy tickets so cheaply? Well, a flight from Manchester to Malaga costs the airline around £3500 in operating costs (around £2000 in fuel and £1500 in extra costs to the airline, wages, airport handling charges, advertising, etc) This means that on a Boeing 737-800 with 165 passengers, they only need to charge each customer £40 to make a profit of around 33%.

The reality of course, is that they make much more money than this, as around 75% of those who use the airline’s website to book tickets have no idea how to, or when to book, to get the cheapest deals.

Book a weekend flight at short notice and you could easily end up paying £400 a ticket one way, the whole trip ending up costing more than with BA.

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So here’s a step by step guide to grabbing a Ryanair bargain.

1. Fly weekdays if you can, and avoid school holidays : There can be a massive difference to the price of a ticket flying on a Thursday or Friday. On checking the price of a ticket to Malaga before writing this article, a Friday flight stands at £28 all inclusive, or £312 for the same flight on the Saturday. It’s not rocket science which to choose, is it?

2. Never take a suitcase : Ryanair, and other airlines, charge for each case booked in. This figure currently stands at £26, so if two of you are going, you have already paid £52 for the privilege of putting a box of PG Tips in your case, an item which can be bought from any supermarket in Spain anyway! Baggage allowance for cases is only 15kg with Ryanair, and the case can weigh 3kg on its own. Far more sensible to take hand luggage, which can take the form of a trolley case, provided the dimensions do not exceed 55×40x20cm. You should easily be able to take a weeks worth of clothing in one of these, and with the limit being 10kg, you will be able to take almost as much as in a suitcase.

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3. The “penny” flight : With Ryanair, flights that are priced in exact pounds sterling are not subject to additional taxes and charges. This means that a flight priced at £0.01 will end up costing you about £100 when charges are added, but a flight costing £25, will cost you just that, nothing to add! This is a tactic employed by the airline, as there will be a psychological pull towards the penny flight, but for those of us in the know, always book a flight that is priced in exact round pounds. This will save you an absolute fortune.

4. Use an Electron Visa card to book : Unless you are booking with an Electron card, the final step of the booking process will add £10 per flight, per person, as an additional credit card charge. The company is allowed to class this as an optional charge, due to the existence of the Electron card, which very few people have. These can now be obtained free of charge from Travelex, and even Post Offices, and are not subject to credit status. They function as a prepaid credit card. You transfer or load money on the card, and use it on a “Pay as you go” basis.

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5. Always check in online : This is soon to become mandatory, but it makes sense with an airline that has a 20 minute turnaround policy, and functions like a bus service, not to bother going to check in desks. If you are playing by the rules and only taking hand baggage, there’s absolutely no reason to check in at the desk. With such a quick turnaround there may be insufficient time to check in at the airport and make your flight on time. Arrive about 90 mins before the flight, and go straight to passport control. The “speedy boarding” that is an optional extra, is a complete waste of time, providing you follow the above guidelines. There is no reason why you and your partner cannot sit together if you get there in plenty of time.

So that’s it! Wasn’t difficult was it? The next time you hear someone moaning and groaning about Ryanair’s famous extra charges, point them in the direction of this article. Happy Holidays!