Tag Archives: Morocco

Finding hidden cheap flights on Ryanair.com

Posted on by
Reply

My brother and I have been talking about going to Morocco for a while, but we’ve never got round to booking. There’s an element of being cheapskates here, especially as Morocco is Ryanair’s only non-European destination, and it falls within the higher tax band. My cunning plan was to skip this tax difference by flying out through Gibraltar, and then taking the ferry.

This was as much about enjoying the journey as it was about keeping Gordon and Alistair’s mitts off my cash – sure, I don’t want them to have any more of it than necessary, but there’s no point in paying more for something just because you think it is taxed less.

So the Ryanair price ‘index’ isn’t quite down to zero at the moment – the confusing ’80% off our best fares’ doesn’t really mean much, when their cheapest fares are 1p – so are they now going to split the penny and offer me a flight for 0.2p? What the best deal actually meant was that the cheapest flights to Europe started from £3 – but their flights to Marrakech in Morocco were advertised at £34, from either Luton (much easier for my brother) or East Midlands (Coventry is fairly even between the two, but Luton is actually easier to get to on public transport).

So when clicking through to the results page, they have flights going down to £9.99, where the taxes and charges add up to £43, but they also have flights at just £10, and that is all you pay, full stop. Is this a glitch – I somewhat doubt it, that’s not Ryanair’s way of working. Is it a bargain – yeah, and return flights were also available a week later for just £10.

My brother had to get back to work a few days beforehand, and I have a concert to go to which made the £10 deal impossible. This is where Ryanair’s seemingly low fares suddenly rack up – the £9.99 flight working out at £45 with all the charges. So, time to head over to Easyjet to check out the price of that flight back from Gibraltar – £51 all in. For £6 more, I’m getting to enjoy flying out and back through different airports, and my Morocco trip should now include Casablanca aswell as Tangier. There will be a few extras for the train up to Tangier and the ferry to Algeciras, but for me that’s all part of the fun.

Happy travels!

*Note – ‘all in’ includes mandatory taxes and charges – in this case, I paid no fee for online check-in. Both of us are travelling without hand luggage, and I paid using my Co-op Visa Electron card.

7 Ways to Beat Air Passenger Duty Rises

Posted on by
Reply

    Yesterday, Air Passenger Duty on short haul flights went up by £1, but much larger increases were imposed on long haul and premium service flights. These taxes are set to rise again in November 2010 – and even if a change of government looks likely, there is little to suggest that the Tories will reverse this policy.

    This list was due for a little bit more embellishment, which I’ll try and get round to later in the week, but in the meantime, here are the key suggestions:

    1. Take a Private Jet – you will pay no taxes at all this way.
    2. Let Michael O’Leary pay your taxes – can’t afford a private jet? Look out for Ryanair’s special offers when they pay the taxes for you.
    3. Island hop around Scotland – ‘public service obligation’ flights in the Scottish Highlands & Islands are exempt from duty – and the views are simply stunning.
    4. Take the ferry or Eurostar to Paris or Amsterdam, and fly long haul from there – or even hop over to any European hub on a budget flight, and then continue from there. APD stings you much harder on long haul flights.
    5. Offset the tax by saving on duty free, or not paying other airline hidden charges – ok, so the government sees air passengers as an easy target. Chill out, and enjoy some savings on duty free. The best deals might be at your destination – shop around to see, but even though there aren’t any duty free allowances on short haul flights to EU destinations, these aren’t the ones with the highest taxes. Why not get the best of both worlds and fly via Switzerland or Norway – short haul destinations which also have a duty free allowance. If you don’t have a Visa Electron card by now, then you really can’t whinge about air passenger duty if you are booking flights with a low cost carrier like Easyjet or Ryanair. The taxes aren’t usually avoidable, but the card handling fees always are.
    6. Go all the way by train- this is easier than you might think, and thanks to the new Eurostar links to the continent, you’d be amazed how far you can get in a day from London – and think how much more you see on the way. Don’t fancy a long journey home by train? At least the return flight won’t be taxed so badly, as APD is only levied on the outbound journey – Alistair hasn’t thought out a way of taxing people to come in to the UK yet, but don’t encourage him too much!
    7. Take the ferry to Morocco (from Gibraltar) – ok, so the ferry fare will cost you about as much as the tax you will save, but Gibraltar is a great place to land, and why not add a ferry trip to your African adventure?