To check out the website, I chose a flight at random (Manchester to Milan Malpensa on Tuesday 21 September). On first sight, the website is very easy to understand. The prices for flights for each day are shown. On Monday 20 September it´s £49.17 – no one offers a lower price.
Great, I click the button and “Expelliarmus” – or whatever – £30.82 are added in the side panel. Charges unheard of until now. The price now now sums up to £79.99
Don´t take risks – but take baggage
Right on the next page we are nudged to buy insurance, but it is an opt-in. You don´t have to buy it. However, it is naturally assumed, that no passenger flies without a 20 kg bag (for the price of £9.99. You´d better not use this website when you are in a hurry, for you have to carefully opt-out the bag to avoid the charge.
The arranged seating
Now it gets even more tricky. On the next screen (seat selection) I find, a seat preselected just for me. Now , isn´t hat nice? And only £6 extra charge. How can I avoid to sit on a preselected seat?
To cut short the unravelling of this mystery – what I had to do was to click on “Choose New Seats”. If not, you have to pay for the (kindly and costly) preselected seat. Same happens, when I use the seat plan. I admire the designer of this website how he (it must be a he) makes people believe they have no choice but to accept the pre-selected seat.
To give the full picture, if you click continue you do get offered the choice. Do you accept the seat or do you want to continue without seats – adorable, how they tiptoed around the opt-out regulations.