Booking your low-cost flight? Watch out for the 'tax' on carry-on baggage
At least let them tell us that for those 30-40 euros, on the plane we will find someone to carry our trolley to the seat [...].
Wizz Air
Ryanair
easyJet
At least let them tell us that for that 30-40 euros, on the plane we will find someone to carry our trolley to our seat and place it in the overhead compartment. So much they are coming to demand, for flights in the now upcoming high summer season, the three major low-cost airlines operating in Italy (easyjet, Ryanair and Wizz Air) to 'allow' us to carry hand luggage on board. No, the management of the three 'big' ones does not believe that we go on vacation with toothbrush, toothpaste and a change of underwear: they know very well that one takes a minimum of luggage on vacation.
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That then, asking for money to carry hand luggage on board is the very contradiction of the principles on which low-cost airlines were created. That is, offering low fares to fly (and even those, if you don't book more than a month in advance, are now a mirage) and charging for all services: from catering on board to boarding checked baggage, which requires the use of a handling company.
But where is the 'service' if we drag the trolley (yes, the 56x45x25cm one) all over the terminal, from there on the plane and then (space permitting) place it by the force of our arms in the overhead bin? There isn't. The trolley 'tax' is in addition to the seat choice tax, which varies according to Where you sit and the space you have available. Aspect, the latter, which we have already discussed in another article in The Flight Club.
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But whether, in the case of seat selection, the expense is only a few euros or is even optional in the sense that, in the absence of seat selection, we will be assigned one 'randomly', with hand luggage you don't mess around.
Booking, for example, a flight between Milan Malpensa and Bari on the weekend of June 24-28, the British low-cost company easyjet comes to charge a whopping 38 euros, to be added to the 'standard' fare. That becomes 76 if the flight is round trip.
On the same route and on the same dates, Ireland's Ryanair charges 20, 08 euros one way and the same on the return, which, however, also includes choice of seat in specific available rows and priority boarding. While Wizz Air, which does not fly between Milan and Bari, asks 73 (round trip) for the 'Wizz Priority' option, which includes in addition to the trolley also check-in and priority boarding.
The effect of these surcharges on the final ticket price is considerable. Departing with easyjet from Malpensa to Bari on June 24 and returning on the 28th, the ticket price goes from 261.48 euros for round-trip flights in 'standard' fare to 326.45 euros if you add hand luggage on round-trip and two standard seats. With Wizz Air Between Milan and Catania on the same dates it goes from 154.98 euros to 245.64 euros. With Ryanair, the final cost of travel rises from 261.57 euros to 301.72 euros (ticket searches were conducted on the morning of June 19).
