Airlines are catching passengers out with pricey add-ons – and some people are trying sneaky tricks to avoid them

Booking a flight used to be a matter of choosing a destination, the desired flight dates and the class in which you wanted to sit. It was incredibly easy.

However, additional costs and options have made things much more difficult now that so many options are designed to increase the cost of your flights.

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Airlines offer people the option to pay for things like extra baggage, the seat they want to sit in, and in some cases, no one to sit next to them.

All of these additional options, or “extras” as they’re called, can be very expensive, depending on which one you choose – and they can also make booking a flight a rather complicated process.

A study published by the Telegraph this month found that passengers can pay up to 32 different fares for the same Ryanair flight.

However, this benefits the airline as in some cases the extras cost more than the initial cost of the flights.

Air travel analyst OAG’s John Grant said The Telegraph: “It has undoubtedly proven to be a very lucrative form of revenue generation.

“Some low-cost airlines are now generating more revenue per passenger from ‘extra revenue’ than from actual fares.”

These extras mean that passengers on budget airlines end up paying almost the same as on more expensive airlines like British Airways.

Research published by this is money have shown that flight extras can sometimes triple the cost of the original flight ticket – which is roughly the price of a flight on a more expensive airline.

They wrote, “Extras like ‘fast boarding’, carry-on bags, checked bags and meals can add to the price of a cheap flight.”

“All of these surcharges can cost you three times the advertised rate. And if you forget to print your boarding pass it can cost you £40.”

As part of their research, they showed how an easyJet flight from London to Paris dropped from £57.99 to as much as £151.96 when ancillary services such as checked baggage and seat selection were selected.

The same route on British Airways cost £167.88 with all surcharges already included in the price.

While this flight is still a bit more expensive, some pay the extra simply because they know exactly what and how much they’re getting when they book, rather than having to choose their extras.

It is therefore up to the low-cost airlines to keep costs down when booking their flights by not choosing too many ancillary services, if at all.

One way to achieve this is to bring your own food, rather than paying for a meal on the plane — with snacks allowed in carry-on luggage.

Flying carry-on only is another way to cut costs, as is not paying for a seat—if you can handle being away from family or friends for the entire trip.

However, some people try to use devious tactics to get the add-ons without paying for them.

Many people have filmed themselves on Tiktok smuggling extra carry-on luggage onto a plane in a pillow, which most airlines allow as part of a passenger’s carry-on luggage.

However, some people get caught and end up simply having to pay the airport fees.

This recently happened to a woman who tried to carry six kilos of clothes on a plane instead of packing them in her suitcase.

Meanwhile, this Ryanair flight attendant revealed the hilarious truth about Tiktok’s carry-on hacks

And this is the perfect bag to buy as carry-on.

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