I'm spending
several weeks in Scotland running a field course and thought I'd take a quick
35 minute plane flight to Northern Ireland to see family. So I booked a
reasonably priced $150 ticket with British European. However, on checking in my
bag of clothes and kit for the field course, I was told there would be an
excess baggage charge : $ 180 plus a $60
fee for changing my ticket. I face an additional $180 to take my bag back to
Scotland. An extra $420 on top of the $150 flight. $6 per minute in the air.
The airline has me over a barrel. What can I do, I have to take that luggage?!
So I found out
that the "B.E." in the slogan "fly B.E." stands for
"bogus extras". Listening to the litany of extra charges was a bit
like the song "master of the house" in Les Miserables, with an extra
charge for sleeping with the window shut. You can't find these charges online
because of course, that would require their website to actually function.
After having had
the various extras and penalties explained to me, the service representative
said to me "now you've learnt something". Yes, never, ever fly
British European Airways again.
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