Avoid budget airline fees

Budget airlines may have rock-bottom fares, but if you're not careful, you could get charged an extra £30 just for checking in a bag at the airport. Here's a guide on how to avoid these, plus other tips on budget travel.

Over the past decade, budget airlines have revolutionised short-haul travel. Low cost flights have really taken off, as Brits enjoy the idea of getting no-frills air travel at a fraction of the price.

However, sometimes ‘budget’ doesn’t always mean low cost, and many of them will slap on extra charges for things you take for granted with more mainstream airlines.

Despite this, budget airlines say they remain committed to providing travel at affordable prices. But is this actually true? Or are the budget carriers simply stinging you in other places in an attempt to recoup their losses?

Here’s how five of the budget airlines size up against each other. The end column shows the extra charges incurred should you pay for your ticket using a debit card and need to check in one bag  at the airport:

As you can see from the table, budget airlines make a lot of extra money from baggage and card handling charges.

The worst offenders are Ryanair and Flybe, where you can pay £80 to £100 in extra charges should you wish to bring one bag, check it in at the airport and pay with a debit card. In fact, these extra charges can end up costing more than the flight itself. And that's not even at peak travel times!

It's also worth noting that Ryanair has the least generous baggage allowance, and will charge you the most if you exceed it.

Avoid the charges

Luckily, there are ways to avoid most of the charges, if you’re prepared to put in a bit of effort.

For example, you can often reduce your fees by more than 50% by opting to check in a bag online. In fact, you’d be crazy to use a budget airline and check in baggage at the airport, particularly Ryanair.

And if you opt to only take on hand luggage, you can often avoid the baggage fees completely, for example on jet2.com and again, on Ryanair.

Similarly, if you pay for your ticket using the right type of card, you can usually avoid a booking fee. As the table above shows, most airlines will accept Visa Electron free-of-charge, while Ryanair won't charge you if you use a pre-paid Mastercard.

The trouble is, it's not very easy to get your hands on these types of cards, as there are only a few of them around:

Bearing with the bare essentials

If you do plan to avoid extra baggage charges by only taking hand luggage onto the plane, bear in mind size and weight rules for these items.

Three of the five budget airlines listed above will let you take up to one bag weighing 10kg on board, as long as it has dimensions of no more than 55x40x20cm, although Jet 2one stipulates it should not be in excess of 46x30x23cm and Flybe specifies dimensions of 50x35x23cm.

If your bag exceeds this, you may be forced to check it in, meaning you will have to fork out for the inflated fees of checking in a bag at the inflated ‘airport check-in’ prices.

You should also know that you will not get any complimentary food or drink while on board, so if you decide that temptation is too great to bear, be prepared to fork out cuisine prices for some rather ordinary food.

Alternatively, pack your own food (bearing in mind airport rules on liquids and what you can bring through security), which will cost you much less than anything you buy on board.

For more info on rip-offs in the airport, plus some great tips on to avoid them, check out Avoid These Airport Rip Offs! And if you plan to travel on Ryanair any time soon, read Beat these Ryanair rip-offs as well.

Shop around

The final thing to remember before choosing your airline is to shop around. Search price comparison websites such as lastminute.com and Skyscanner, which look at both budget airlines as well as the main players to get the best price for your flight.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal choice and the type of traveller you are. Are you a business person carrying hardly any luggage? A couple just going away for the weekend? Or are you taking your family (and quite a few suitcases) away for a budget holiday?

All these questions are extremely important when it comes to travelling no-frills, and hopefully these few tips will help guide you the next time you're booking a flight. And whatever you do, don't just book blindly, as if you do, going ‘budget’ can end up costing you more than you bargained for.

What do you think?

What's been your experience of budget airlines? Do you think they are value-for-money? How about the fees? Are there any we haven't mentioned that really get your goat? Tell us what you think!