Cabin bag and seat selection fees should be included in upcoming crackdown on hidden airline costs, says Which?

Consumer watchdog Which? carried out a snapshot analysis of 15 "ultra-low cost" flights with budget carriers easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air

A consumer watchdog is calling for airline cabin bag and seat selection fees to be included in an upcoming crackdown on additional costs, after it found these can make flights shoot up by as much as 300 per cent.

Which? carried out a snapshot analysis of 15 "ultra-low cost" flights with budget carriers easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air and found that in some cases a flight would cost four times more than the headline fare once fees for seat selection and a cabin bag were added. This potentially added hundreds of pounds to a booking for a family, the consumer group said.

Which? found the worst offender was a return flight from London Luton to Lyon in France with Wizz Air, which was listed with a headline fare of just £29 per person. But choosing the airline's "Wizz Smart" fare, which includes a 10kg cabin bag, standard seat section and priority boarding, sent the price soaring to £124 per person - over four times as much and a shocking increase of 328 per cent.

The airline, which has been ranked the worst airline for delays three years in a row, charged the most for additional extras on average. With Ryanair, around half of the final fare was usually made up of additional fees in the examples checked by Which?.

For example, a Ryanair flight from London Stansted to Nantes was listed with a headline fare of £33, but selecting its "Regular" fare, which adds seat selection and a cabin bag, along with priority boarding, sent the price up by more than double to £84, or a rise of 155 per cent. In an example from easyJet, a flight from Birmingham to Belfast went from £46 to £114 once these extras were added, an increase of 213 per cent.

Which? is now calling for the Government to ensure that additional airline costs are included in laws cracking down on sneaky "drip pricing" tactics that can increase the cost of a flight by hundreds of pounds. Drip pricing means charges that are added or 'dripped' onto the advertised price, usually later on.

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 is due to come into effect this coming April 2025 and should put an end to this practice. However, it is currently unclear whether add-on charges beyond unavoidable booking or transaction fees will be regarded as covered.

For many consumers, paying for cabin bags or seat selection is essential - but these extra charges are often not included in the headline price. This makes it difficult to compare the true cost of flying with different airlines.

Which? is now calling for the government and regulators to make it clear that the price of any extra fees or add-ons are shown to consumers upfront at the start of the booking process so they can easily compare the real price of their flights. It is also calling for a ban on charging parents to sit next to their children on flights.

Ryanair currently forces parents travelling with under 12s to pay for a seat next to their children, costing £8 when Which? checked - though Ryanair says prices start from €4. Other airlines do not always guarantee that parents can sit with children, which may prompt travellers to pay to ensure their family can be together.

Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy said: "Sneaky dripped fees can hugely change the final price people pay for goods and services and this is particularly true with flights, where the difference between the advertised price and the final fare can easily reach hundreds of pounds for a family. Which? is calling on the government to ensure that additional fees for add-ons like seat selection and luggage are made clear at the very start of the booking process, to ensure travellers can easily compare the final price they’ll pay with different airlines. Unfair charges for parents to sit with children on flights should also be banned."

A Wizz Air spokesperson said: "As an ultra-low-cost carrier, we allow passengers to choose which services they wish to purchase so we can offer the most affordable travel opportunities in the entire industry. Optional add-ons are not required to fly, and we believe that customers should be offered the choice and flexibility to choose the right products."

A Ryanair spokesperson said: "We don't charge 'parents' to sit with children. Rather the child seats are provided free of charge when they sit beside one parent, who must reserve a seat for a fee of €4." An easyJet spokesperson said: "easyJet customers only pay for the ancillary products they want so we aim to provide customers with choice and this enables us to keep fares low. Around a third of easyJet’s customers choose to only pay for the fare and free under seat bag without adding any extras at all and our algorithm will always aim to sit families together."