Fees for hold baggage aren't normally hidden, they are there during the booking process. This is regarding credit and debit cards fees where the companies are currently charging much more than it costs them to process the cards.

luci

Cate may have a point, luggage fees may be jacked up to recover some of the lost profit from card fees being regulated.

Looks like I've misunderstood what the legislation is going to do, I took it to mean that fees for hold luggage would have to be included in the price given at the first stage of the booking process. I agree with the credit/debit charges being too high, Easyjet charge £8 for booking with debit card, mine is a Visa. I'm hoping that the legislation will be worded to stop budget airlines introducing 'Administration' charge to stop them doing what Ryanair have done.

I think ryanair will add the admin fee on to the actual cost of the flight

so pre 2011 flight cost £50, and after 2012 flight will now cost £60, and the reason, they can no longer charge a admin fee, and maybe they will add on a few pounds here and there for other service, printing a boarding card £150

and therein lies the big problem. The people who drafted this rule were only really looking at the abuse of card charges (and not just by airlines), they didn't look at the other charges airlines sneak in. And they didn't predict how some companies will try to get the money by other means. A couple of years ago the CAA did a study of the excessive "admin charges" levied by airlines when you try to get your goverment taxes refunded if you cancel a flight (even if it is a non refundable deal you are entiled to the tax back) - so far nothing has come from that work.

Good point there Steve that excessive credit card charges are a problem in other areas as well as airlines. Hopefully, the Office of Fair Trading will look at the sneaky charges airlines add to the cost of flights and get the law changed so that all fees have to be made clear. The £9 per bag per flight that Easyjet charge is reasonable, in my opinion.

CAA publishes airline fee comparison table

The Civil Aviation Authority has published a table listing the charges levied by the top airlines to make it easier for passengers to work out how much extra they will have to pay for services such as baggage check in and in-flight meals.

The price comparison document, published to coincide with the peak booking season, includes everything from the cost of reserving a specific seat to checking- in sport equipment and arranging for text confirmations.

The CAA said it was designed to ensure passengers have all the information they need to choose the best flight.

Chief executive Andrew Haines said: "Our table allows passengers to easily compare the optional fees that airlines charge and it's important to consider those charges alongside the ticket price and the extra charges that could be applied before making their booking."

Transport secretary Justine Greening added: "Consumers want to know that the price on the label is what they'll end up paying. But many air tickets seem to come with unexpected charges for everything from choosing a seat to just ‘booking' the ticket.

"I hope this new information from the CAA will help, which is why we are legislating to give the CAA even more powers to ensure transparency for consumers. Ultimately, however, it's time that airlines were far clearer cut with passengers about these add-on charges in the first place."

The fees and charges comparison table is part of a series of resources being made available to help UK consumers through the 2012 peak holiday booking season, said the CAA.

This also includes the online Passenger Portal - a one stop shop of information and advice for consumers to use before they book, ahead of their departure and after they return should they experience any problems during their travel.

As part of this, the CAA will shortly publish further advice and guidance for consumers on what to look out for in booking terms and conditions.

The aviation authority said it had also worked to ensure all airlines operating in the UK now comply with their obligation to display clearly all unavoidable fees, taxes and charges upfront in their booking processes.

The price comparison table is available at http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?pageid=12677

With permission from Travelmole

I've noticed something new there, the CAA say taxes are non-refundable if you don't travel. That didn't used to be the case. So does this mean the Government are now taxing people who aren't travelling or are they allowing the airlines to pocket the APD of no-shows? Sounds like a sweetener to the airlines, increase the tax and damage their business but allow them to cream off what used to be refundable.

Sounds more like a piece of pragmatism to me, Steve

We all know that there are certain airlines that charge you so much as an administration fee to refund the taxes etc that it effectively deters anybody from bothering once they discover that the 'refund' was going to cost them more money than the refund itself was worth. I think that all the above does is recognise that they couldn't oblige the airlines to refund the taxes to you in any meaningful sense. The Government could of course have introduced legislation that would cap the level of admin charge levied but it looks as if they have no stomach for that regardless of what else they have or haven't decided to cap. And you can bet that O'Leary would soon find another way of extracting money from his passengers

SM

CAA had previously said that passengers who cancelled were entitled to tax back and a couple of years ago published a chart (like this one) into the charges airlines made to handle the refund, at that point they seemed to be trying to get the charges limited. I did try reading the latest HMRC guidance notes for airlines but lost the will to live - so did a word search on "refund" and it isn't there.

It would be a good question to put to O'Leary next time he mentions APD - what do Ryanair do with APD collected from no-shows?

I've noticed something new there, the CAA say taxes are non-refundable if you don't travel. That didn't used to be the case. So does this mean the Government are now taxing people who aren't travelling or are they allowing the airlines to pocket the APD of no-shows? Sounds like a sweetener to the airlines, increase the tax and damage their business but allow them to cream off what used to be refundable.

Steve ... I noticed that earlier on the CAA page and emailed them for clarification. No reply as yet.

David

Steve ... still no reply from the CAA. But I have just noticed that the page has in fact now been edited, although for me at least, I'm not sure that it actually provides any real clarification. Instead of saying that airlines are not obliged to refund taxes, etc (as it did yesterday), it now says that there is no legal authority obliging airlines to refund taxes, etc. :
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?pageid=12677

David
EDIT: I am now in contact with the CAA policy adviser responsible for the information, I will update later with any further clarification that is received.

Following on from my last post ... after further exchanges between us, the CAA acknowledges the mixed views and information available on this issue, but advises that it is the opinion of its lawyers that there is no legal authority obliging airlines to refund taxes when passengers cancel their tickets.

David

So what does happen to the money? There is clearly a signficant amount of money sloshing around here with the number of actual cancellations and people who just miss flights and have to pay again.

And going back to the subject of hidden charges that weren't banned , what about the "admin fees" in the region of £20 to confirm that you didn't fly and can't have a refund of either fare or tax - something which you'd need for an insurance claim but the insurers won't pay for.

Steve ... individual airlines may currently be refunding the tax, as per their own booking conditions, subject to what they feel is an appropriate administration fee for processing that refund. If the administration charge exceeds the amount of tax, then obviously no actual refund will take place, and the administration fee probably acts as a deterrent to many passengers to even bother applying for a refund. But the CAA's opinion is that there is no legal authority obliging the airlines to refund the tax. Obviously there is a lot of opinion to the contrary on the web and it will be interesting to see whether those airlines currently refunding tax are already aware of the CAA's opinion, and if they now start to amend their T&C's accordingly.

David

Flybe have tweeted this today.

Wonder if in part is a change in the law regarding hidden charges, but it sounds really good.

sounds good in theory - I notice there's still a charge for booking with a credit card though.