I have just had to book some flights with a well known operator based in Leeds for a jolly boys outing in February next year. There are 12 of us travelling and it struck me as to how much this particular operator would stand to make if none of us actually read the terms of the Package Deals before we clicked next, next, next…

The flights cost £135 per person with a 10kg allowance for hand luggage, here are a list of the extras i was offered and had to click NO to:

• 22kg suitcase allowance £15 each way, so if i want to take clothes with me it costs an extra £30
• Airport check in £20 each way, stand in a queue for an hour and get a piece of paper telling me which seat to sit in an extra £40
• Horrible in flight meal £6.50-£11.50 each way
• Pre booked seat £10 each way, so an extra £20 to pick where i sit on the flight even though every seat is the same (extra leg room seats excluded)
• Single trip insurance £10, which if you read the fine print means you are no better off than travelling with no insurance. I do recommend travel insurance but you can find much better cover for a better price if you look around.

So, an extra £123 per person, thats £1,476 of pointless expense just from our group alone.

The one that really took the biscuit was the offer of discounted car hire, at the end of the process I was offered a 20% discount on car hire for my trip with their preferred supplier, a supplier that we at Indigo also use. I was intrigued to see what kind of deal was on offer so I followed the instructions.

For our 3 day trip to Budapest I was offered a small city car for £85.92 including my discount for being a customer of this particular airline, a tad expensive I thought.

I did exactly the same quote on the Indigo website and was offered the same car with the same terms with the same supplier for £51.93.

Why are airlines allowed to get away with this? Someone who doesn’t travel regularly or know a bit about the industry like I do would have been taken for a ride here.

My advice, when booking Package Deals like flights, car hire or holiday insurance speak to someone who knows more about the subject than you may do. Dont get suckered in by flashing images offering you discounts if you ‘Book Now’ and read everything before clicking ‘Next’.