The Old Hack

Expat Brits in France have a love/hate relationship with the airline that enables us to travel back to various parts of our native land.  Not that there is only one airline.  Easy Jet, Air France, British Airways and others all offer flights, but the predominant provider is one which is often in the news and whose proprietor never misses an opportunity for television time to tell us all how wonderful he and his organisation are.

By now you will have recognised the airline of which I speak.  Offers of discounted flights arrive in the inbox with monotonous regularity, but rarely fall within the areas to or from which we wish to travel.

A couple of weeks ago, Mrs Old Hack and I arrived at our local airport to take a pre-booked flight to Liverpool.  It hadn't been a particularly cheap flight, but it was convenient to our needs and because I had booked it some weeks in advance I had probably saved a little on the deal. 

A new innovation offered by the airline is the facility to book baggage in online.  Previously, of course, one bag per ticket holder was allowed within the price, but now each bag checked in must be paid for.  I decided to take advantage of the facility to check in on line.  the cost was thus 10 euros per bag as opposed to the 20 euros per bag which would have been charged had I opted for the "check in at airport" option.  Not a huge saving, admittedly, but as another retailer keeps reminding us: "Every Little Helps."

Arriving at the airport in plenty of time to check in for our flight, we produced our bags and e-ticket reference, had our bags weighed and expected to be handed our boarding tickets. No such luck.  "You will need to pay 40 euros at the desk before I can give you your boarding passes."  "And why is this?", I enquired, "as I have already paid 20 euros for each bag to check in online?"  Because, I was politely told, only certain airports offer the check in online facility, and apparently our local airport is not one of them.  Could I reclaim the 20 euros I had already paid?  No.  Could I have a discount on the 40 euros required of me at the airport desk?  No. 

So by trying to save myself 20euros I ended up spending 30 euros per bag.  This is the same airline who refused to refund me a flight last year which I could not take because of one of its planes from another destination being stuck on a runway so that I could not take off.

Will I be using this airline again?  Yes.  Simply because I often do not have a choice.  Will I take advantage of their online check in "saving" again?  Not likely.  My advice - check with the airport before trusting this bunch of charletons.  What looks too good to be true usually IS too good to be true.