Vinisud 2010 - a whinge about airlines

I've just gone through the less than pleasurable experience of booking a return flight from Manchester to Toulouse, for a trip to Vinisud in February with my friend and fellow wine merchant Bernard Caille. Vinisud is a huge (by which I mean enormous) wine trade fair, held every 2 years in Montpellier. I'll write more about Vinisud itself  in future posts, but for now, I just want to have a whinge about so-called "budget" airlines.

Having done extensive research on the Internet, our choices of airlines/flights/airports (unless we wanted to pay through the nose with one of the national airlines) was either Luton to Nimes with Ryanair, or Manchester to Toulouse with BMI Baby. For a variety of reasons, the main one being that we get the best part of a day longer for the trip, we chose BMI Baby. It was also - on the face of it - about 20 quid cheaper. A per-person fair of £13.04 for the outward journey and £3.04 for the return journey looked perfect - a total of £32.16 for 2 people, return. Unfortunately, "taxes and charges" of £43.90 for the outward journey and £39 for the return journey bumped the total up to £115. Still not bad, I grant you. But then there is the charge for using a card. Or, to be more precise, a charge for using any card (be it credit or debit) other than a VISA Electron card. Now, I ask you, who on earth actually has a VISA Electron card? I've got lots of cards, but none of them is a VISA Electron. Which is exactly the point. I believe the law stipulates that airlines have to offer at least one "no-fee" payment option. And they know full well that hardly anyone has a VISA Electron card - least of all, the sort of person that might want to fly to the south of France in February!

So I was faced with the option of using a debit card (for which they pay a maximum of about 30p) at a charge of £10, or a credit card (cost to them of less than 2%) at a charge of £15. For some strange reason, I chose the latter, making for a final total of £130.06 all-in, for 2 people. Now, I'm a reasonable man, and I appreciate that £130 is not particularly expensive, for a 2,000 mile round trip for 2 people. But why entice customers with so-called "cheap" fares, only to hit them with actual fares that are 4 times the price? It may not be illegal, but these sort of disingenuous practices certainly leave a sour taste in the mouth, and I wish the Government would do something about it. After all, if I'd taken the option of actually booking seats (a further £30) and the non-cattle departure lounge at the airport (another £30) and baggage for the hold (maximum 15 kilos for another £30), it would have come out at almost 8 times the advertised price.

Frankly, I think I'll just go out and buy myself a Lear Jet - it might work out cheaper!