Laurence Dollimore
AER Lingus has defended another increase in the cost of checking in a bag when travelling to and from several European destinations.
It will now cost an extra €10 per bag on flights to and from Spain, Italy and Greece.
It comes just four months after the Irish airline imposed the exact same price hike.
It will now cost €35 per bag each way, meaning a family of four travelling to and from Spain would have to fork out an extra €280 just for their suitcases, compared to just €120 last year.
A spokeswoman said the cost of checked baggage is now determined by the distance travelled with the three categories labelled Near, Mid and Far.
“New baggage fees have been introduced for bookings made from March 28th.
“While guests travelling to mid and far destinations incur higher baggage fees, guests travelling to near destinations in fact are paying 40 per cent less when compared to baggage fees at the same time last year.”
Over 30 destinations qualify as ‘near’ including all UK destinations, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
“Guests travelling on these routes total nearly six million annually and make up over 58 per cent of our short haul guests total. These ‘near’ guests will pay just €15 for 15kg bag. Guests travelling on ‘mid’ routes to the likes of Alicante, Lisbon, Rome etc. will be charged a higher fee or €35 for 15kg bag. Equally those travelling further afield to ‘far’ destinations such as Corfu, Pula, Lanzarote will pay €50 for 15kg.”
“While guests travelling to mid and far destinations incur higher baggage fees, guests travelling to near destinations in fact are paying 40 per cent less”
Right – and guess which guests don’t take hold luggage anyway? Right – the ones travelling to “near” destinations. What a con job!
Bravo James Pike and it is not only Aer Lingus with some wonderful Cons. Book a return flight with Iberia and if you don’t use the outbound because of whatever, they cancel the return flight. I know because it happened to me!