low cost more expensive then full service

[cnc]

look at that! http://blog.idealo.co.uk/

After adding up all the surcharges for a typical family, budget airlines cost on average £29 more per seat. In this in-depth price comparison of low-cost airlines and established network airlines, Idealo.co.uk found that booking a flight for your family with the latter is the cheapest way to go, even when excluding additional services and luggage allowances you’re likely to find on the non-budget airlines. Is a new name for “low-cost carriers” in order?

your turn now FR lovers

[airazurxtror]

No wonder that Brussels Airlines is deep in the red if they sell their seats still 29 pounds cheaper than Ryanair !

[OO-ITR]

No wonder that Brussels Airlines is deep in the red if they sell their seats still 29 pounds cheaper than Ryanair !

so you admit that Ryanair rips off his customers and not to forget the tax payers...

[andorra-airport]

your turn now FR lovers

FR or any other low cost airline works fine to me, if you play with there rules. And are willing to accept it. They give you choice: if you want (and accept to fly without all the bells and whistels) you can fly dirt cheap. That choice is not given by the normal airlines.

Flying with a family with all the extra add-on's is expensive with the low-costs. Thats where they make the money. In that case just take the cheapest airline on offer. I do not see the point.

[OO-ITR]

and accept to fly without all the bells and whistels

maybe you can start reading the article. It specifically is mentioned that the calculation is based on a simple situation so no bells and whistles like you are talking about.

[Air Key West]

Come on, guys, is it really interesting, useful, necessary to have again a discussion we had already a thousand times on this forum ? We know who is pro LCC and who is against LCCs (I won't mention any names). Take a deep breath, relax and "fly Zen Airways"

[Flybe]

maybe you can start reading the article. It specifically is mentioned that the calculation is based on a simple situation so no bells and whistles like you are talking about.

Say what you want, he is correct though. I'm no big fan of Ryanair (I always end up on the middle seat at the back, as I'm too lazy to queue when boarding), but if you're willing to travel with only 10kg of handluggage, etc... their prices are hard to beat.

A week ago, I purchased tickets to go to Sicily in June. As it's for only 1 week, handluggage is enough. I checked SN, and Ryanair. Ryanair won handsdown, with even less than half of the price of SN... and I am talking final price here.

Low cost have their merrit, and if you know how to travel with only the basics, you will hardly find better prices with full service airlines.

Kind regards,
Flybe

[OO-ITR]

good for you...too bad the journalists of this article didn't come to the same conclusion...

[andorra-airport]

and accept to fly without all the bells and whistels

maybe you can start reading the article. It specifically is mentioned that the calculation is based on a simple situation so no bells and whistles like you are talking about.

Hey OO-ITR, I did read the article, but I do not agree with you (in a friendly way, don't worry).

quote:

"The outbound flight will depart on Friday, July 13th and return on Monday, July 16th
Each family member will check one bag
The two adults and child will each check one bag of 20kg
The infant will check one bag of 10kg
The family will check one foldable pushchair and one car seat for the infant
The family will guarantee that they can sit together (i.e. via seat reservations or priority boarding).
The family will pay for the tickets with a credit card"

That may be a simple "family" situation to you, but a LOT of "bells and whistles" towards a low cost airline. And yes, you pay full price if you want to fly with them on those specific conditions.

But again, I do not see the point. Nice, no? If LH seems to be the cheapest for a family. But LH can not bring me for 20 euro to Southern Europe, while low cost airlines give me that possibility if I play there game.

And other people don't want to play that game, fair enough. But don't complain then, that a low cost airline is expensive.

[OO-ITR]

Hey OO-ITR, I did read the article, but I do not agree with you (in a friendly way, don't worry).

oh but you don't have to agree with me...don't worry. I was just reading this unbiased article

[Flanker]

It's all bias.

Let's make a random booking simulation for 2 people who want to go from the Central Station in Brussels to Madrid Barajas.
Dates, randomly chosen:

DEP Morning June 14th
RET Evening June 17th.

1 hold luggage each, coffee on board is paying for both airlines.

Ryanair 188€ fare +50€ for luggage, +booking fee 24€ = 262€
SN = 486,18€

The journalist has a point. He proves how the media can manipulate you.

[OO-ITR]

God I love this foe feature

[regi]

I started by reading the article.
And immediately I had a bad feeling: this was an excercise aimed to find the result been "proved", not at random.
a typical British family. What is that? ( I assume that member "Comet" is best placed to give here some comment )
a car seat? Euh, hold on a second. You don't take car seats with you. You get them from the car rental company, sometimes for free. ( Avis asks 39 € but at LEK (?) I get it for free )
Return on Monday: yeah, well done Mr. Idealo Blogger. I would like to see the travel times of that LH flight. Great for that typical British family with a child and baby. Arriving in Berlin with the latest flight. By the way: which typical British family travels to Berlin with 2 small children? "Look here, Grandad dropped some bombs here, great isn't?"

The article mentions London. I do not know if Flanker or the Idealo journalist have ever been to Luton or Stansted. I have. And when I speak with my business relations in Luton or Milton Keynes, nobody says he/she's from London. Good heavens...
Any departure from those airports should not have been included in this survey. I consider under London airports only the ones inside the Orbital, being Heathrow and London City. Gatwick excluded as well. And don't argue about this: because in the same ideology of that journalist who regards Gatwick, Luton or Stansted as London as Heathrow, a family from Stansted could depart from Gatwick, a distance of about 120 km. So no Ryanair and Easyjet...and so no automatic Ryanair bashing.
The stress factor :
Yep, I have mentioned it already myself as a major deterrent of flying LCC. But let us look at this "typical British family" departing from Heathrow and queuing for...3 hours. Great with a nagging child and a smelly baby. See article here under ( I know, it is from the Daily Mail. But a similar article was posted also on more stiff lipped websites )
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rvice.html

The worst of this entire article is that the test was NOT performed ! The journalist just found some figures on his screen but didn't fly at all. So he should never have mentioned the stress factor.
Imagine that Jeremy Clarkson compares 3 cars without driving them. That would have cost him his job at the BBC.

And as a final personnal note: being a family father myself with maybe a bit more travelling experience than the average Belgian daddy, I don't even bother to look for seperate tickets to touristic places. I just pop in at the local Neckermann shop and get the best deal to Djerba, Hurghada or Tenerife , tickets, transfer, hotel. Departing from the real Brussels airport or Ostend-Bruges (that name )

And as second final note:
Look Flanker: I do like SNBA more than Ryanair. But I eventually fly Easyjet more than SNBA. And I like Nokair more than Airasia. But I do prefer Thai Airways. And I take Kulula, but like South African more but prefer 1Time.
Confusing? Read it again. Keeps you busy.

[FlightMate]

while it's true that, sometimes, flying a "major" will be more affordable than a low cost, most of the time, it will be impossible to beat the low-cost incredibly low priced tickets.
If you´re flexible with dates/hours, you can't beat ryanair prices.

The problem is that in people's mind, Ryanair and the like will always be the cheaper option.
It's not necessarily true.

What B.air could have done (and still could do), is flood the market with some very very cheap tickets, starting at 10 euros for example.
So that in people's mind, they could be seen as being as cheap as ryanair. You don't need to offer all you seats at 10 euros, but why not 5/10 per flight?

Because, honestly, prices starting at 100 euros is not cheap in people's eyes. (although being not expensive per se)

[regi]

What B.air could have done (and still could do), is flood the market with some very very cheap tickets, starting at 10 euros for example.

I brought here already the story that we flew SNBA to Tempelhof for exactly 1 € - all included ! ( strangely enough also airport tax ?!?)
But that was a exceptional occasion.

Marketing: I have my doubts about flooding the market with those cheap tickets. I booked TG for 679 € in July while the normal price is > 1000 € . Just depending on the right day. I have spread the word and the result is that several people complain about TG and/or their travel agent because they cannot get those cheap tickets.
Meaning: by offering a limited amount of cheap tickets, you create unhappy customers.
And it is not funny when you have to hear from your neighbour how clever he was and got a 10 € ticket, while you booked the same ticket 1 month earlier for 500 €. If there is something that chases away customers, it is the feeling that you get ripped off.
The LCC companies can do that ( marketing cheap tickets and create by such disgruntled passengers ) because that kind of passengers accepts the price issue.