By the end of the year, all airlines in the European Union must advertise fares which include taxes and fees that passengers must pay. In other words, “all taxes, unavoidable charges, surcharges and fees will have to be included in the advertised fares airlines offer.”
According to the BBC, airlines who don’t will not be allowed to advertise.
Timothy Kirkhope, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), tells the BBC that because the airlines have been less than forward about their fares, it costs passengers a lot of money. Currently, when people see a price advertised, then go to book it, the fees aren’t disclosed until later on in the booking process. By this time, people feel that since they’ve already gone through half the booking process, they are half-obliged to continue with it.
Robert Evans, Labour Party MEP agrees.
“They see an advert, a headlined figure, but when they actually end up paying for it, it’s a lot more than that because there are extras that hadn’t been made properly aware to them at the beginning.
“They might see it’s a 99p advertisement but they actually end up paying £99,” Mr Evans says.
The Association of European Airlines (AEA) are all for the change. David Henderson of the AEA says that the airlines welcome the change because they realize that passengers have had enough when they find out what they see advertised isn’t what they’ll end up paying.
Is there a catch to all this? Yes there is.
The rule only applies to “unavoidable costs” mentioned earlier. Any “extras” such as bag-checking, preferred seat selection, or priority boarding fees do not have to be disclosed in the advertisements.
So while it may be easier to find out how much you’ll be paying to get on the plane, there will still be those other fees you may want to include in your calculations.
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A step in the right direction…now let’s take the walk.