Note: This page is designed to give more background information on my post about budget airline Flybe and its highly dubious website.
Using the Flybe website: Example
Selecting a random flight (in this case Manchester to Milan Malpensa on Tuesday 21 September 2010), I am taken through to a page showing prices of flights a day either side. The cheapest is on Monday 20 September – a flight for £49.17.
Well, it’s £49.17 until I click to select it. Then, in the side panel, £30.82 of charges is added on – taking the total to £79.99.
Insurance and checked baggage
Continuing from there we come to another screen, where we are encouraged to opt in to buy insurance. This is annoying, but at least it’s opt-in. Below that, however, it is assumed that I will be taking a 20kg bag at the cost of £9.99. I have to deselect this – opting out, rather than opting in for an avoidable extra charge.
Seat selection
From here, I’m taken through to a seat selection screen. A seat has already been pre-selected for me, which is jolly kind. Oh, hang on, it costs £6 to pre-select a seat, so how do I choose to not have a pre-selected seat?
There’s nothing to click for this option – although it turns out that what I need to do is click on ‘Choose New Seats’. Unless I ‘Choose New Seats’, I will be charged for the one I’m given, or the one I switch to using the seat plan. This is weasel wording at its finest, clearly calculated to make people think they’ve no option but to pre-select a seat. Again, this avoidable extra is opt out rather than opt in.
To be fair, if you click continue, a pop-up will then ask whether you want to accept the seats or continue without seats. This is almost certainly an attempt to sneak around the regulations on opt-out extras.
[...] The problems with the Flybe website [...]