Passengers are mislead by the enticing offers airlines are launching

If you’ve flown for 15 or 20 euros, congratulations; you just joined the lucky few. Buying a ticket at those prices must have been quite an odyssey, or a stroke of luck. Why is it so complicated?

Airlines are holding two aces up their sleeve when they launch these enticing offers. Number one: that ticket they’re offering from Madrid to Milan at 20 euros will end up costing 50 or 60 euros, because when you’re ready to make the final reservation you’ll see that the final price didn’t include airport taxes, handling charges, fuel supplements, or VAT. For this reason, flying for 99 cents, as some low-fare airlines have advertised, is impossible.

Number two: there are perhaps only two or three 20 euro tickets on a plane that seats 200. That is, enough to justify the existence of that great song and dance advertisement on T.V., the radio, or in the written press. That’s what Arnaldo Muñoz, general director of Easy Jet for Southern Europe, hinted at last week when asked about the average percentage of “bargain” tickets airlines advertise. He didn’t give any figures. He only said that that was the “airlines’ big secret”.

For many people, this situation is frustrating. For example, last Friday on Iberia’s web site, there was a window with offers to various destinations at ridiculous prices: 5 euros on the peninsula, 19 euros to the Balearic Islands, or 10 euros to Lisbon, among others. However, it did not tell you how to access those offers, and in the end when you opted to search using the habitual engine, it ended up costing 99 euros to fly to the Portuguese capital.

This is just one more example of why "many people feel tricked", according to the spokesman for Federation of Consumers in Action (Facua) , Rubén Sánchez, who claims that this is false advertising that they have been complaining about for several years. To Miguel Gallo, Directing Partner at Daemon Quest, it’s not false advertising, but rather "conquest marketing", for customer obtainment, which is used by companies that must position themselves against the competition.

Iberia’s web site offers low-fares for Spain and Europe, but it doesn’t say what to do to access them

We’ll have to wait to see the opinion of the European Commission, which is considering introducing a regulation for this type of advertising. For the moment, Iberia said last week that from now on the published ticket prices will be final; that is to say, they will include the different charges that were previously listed separately. What will Clickair do?