There’s No Such Thing as an Airfare for 50p

The growing tendency of airlines to 'give
with one hand and take with the other' can be seen most prominently in
Britain and Europe, where flights are sometimes given away completely
for free.  Oh sure, you have to pay the taxes.

But then there are all the other charges
levied as well – a charge to make a booking, a charge to make a payment,
a charge to get a boarding pass, a charge to check luggage, a charge to
recover the insurance costs of the flight, of course charges for
anything you eat and drink, and so it goes.  Even various types of
gambling on board to try and separate you from more of your money.

Add it all up and the total cost of the
'free' ticket gets close to what you'd pay for a regular ticket that
included some of these essential items to start with.

This strategy is how airlines such as Irish
Ryanair manage to have amazing low prices but still generate impressive
profits.

Not everyone agrees that this strategy is
fair, and now an Irish folk singing group (well, actually, I'm not quite
sure how to describe them) has expressed their disagreement with this
concept in a song.  In a manner reminiscent of the 'United Broke My
Guitar' song, they do an excellent job of lampooning the concept.

Oh – one word in particular you might
mishear is 'feck' – it is truly a different word to the 'other' word of
similar spelling, not just an Irish pronunciation.