Hurrah. Great news. In fact, the loyalty scheme was the reason I previously booked all my flights with Jet2.com. Now I had enough for a free flight!
I went to the website to check it out. And sure enough, no mistake:
But then there's always catches with these things. I checked the email again and found this in the small print.
FREE applies to base fare only. Ok, what is the base fare?
I tried a few days in Prague, flying from Edinburgh.
The base fare is £26.99 each way. So if you had to buy this flight, instead of getting it free with your loyalty points, it would only cost £53.98. Not too shabby, really.
But of course that's just the base fare.
You must then add the other fees Jet2 insist upon charging you. They charge you to check in and charge you to take your luggage with you and charge you to select a seat (mandatory, as far as I can tell) and charge you to book the ticket and then charge you to pay for it. They will also give you a couple of microwaved ready meals for £12, if you can bear that. I couldn't. This was all getting out of hand.
They call this "drip pricing" and it puts the costs up a bit:
£103.53. Your cheap airfare has suddenly doubled, which would be annoying if you didn't have the loyalty points to get the flight for free.
Doesn't bother me, because I have a free zone one flight:
Except, hang on... didn't it say something about applying to the base fare only?
And the base fare is only 2 x £26.99 = £53.98. Annoying. My free flight doesn't seem to be free any more.
£103.53 - £53.98 = £49.55.
My free flight now costs £49.55.
*Big grump*
Well, I suppose half price is better than no loyalty discount. So with wild abandon I clicked on the "Spend my Points" tab. I'm going to Prague in March for less than £50! That's still a good deal, even if my loyalty points aren't worth as much as I was told they would be. Of course I choose exactly the same flight I've already priced.
But then this happens:
Hang on, hang on...
Why is the base fare now 99p? It wasn't 99p a minute ago, when I checked the cost of the flight. Just to make sure, I went back and checked it again.
Yep. £53.98.
Some sort of weird glitch? Anyway, back to the "Spend my Points" tab.
Huh? There's definitely something funny going on here. If I want to pay in cash, the base fare is £26.99 each way. However, when I want to use my loyalty points to pay for the flight, the base fare drops to 99p each way.
*Bigger grump*
So how much is my free Jet2.com flight actually going to cost me now? Remember, it originally cost £103.53.
I went through the motions.
So, £103.53 if you pay by cash. But if you use your hard earned loyalty points to get the flight for free, it costs £101.48. A deduction of £2.05.
£101.48 for a FREE flight.
It seems I have been mislead. Jet2.com tell you you can save up your loyalty points and use them for free flights. They do this so that you will think it is a good deal and book through them. But by changing the base fare when you attempt to book your free flight, they ensure that your flight is not actually free at all.
8 comments:
Wow. I knew they were bad, but doesn't that just take the biscuit? That should probably be considered false advertising.
I was just looking to spend my flights and found exactly the same thing - what a con! This should be stopped as it is very misleading.
We have had exactly the same problem when we tried to book our free flights with je2. Compared with a similar flight with easy jet we found that easy jet still worked out cheaper even when using the so called jet2 point scam.
This is false advertising.
Jet2 is one big con. They charge a booking fee to use a debit card which doubles if you use a credit card and have the nerve to charge the customer to print their own boarding card!!!
Thanks for that. I was on the verge of booking. You have saved me time and money.
I just googled to find out how much my 295 Jet2 points are worth. Found this.
So its a con. Not surprised. It'll be covered by the small print no one has the time or IQ to read and understand.
But, to be fair...
--I paid with Visa Debit for free.
--I need no hold bags so, no cost there.
--I didn't make a seat reservation...if you click continue without, it gives you a yes/no, click no and bob's your uncle.
Finally, I am flying to Prague for £32.99. Taking a traing to Berlin for £25 where I fly back for £45 (on Lufthansa with free hold baggage so might buy a jumper out there!).
Cost about the same as your trip :)
Hi Pritchard,
I don't object to the flights being cheap. I just object to Jet2 lying and saying that they would be free.
Nice on. I just warned my Dad who is an octogenarian and coming over to visit in April thinking his 600 plus points worth going to Manchester instead of a 15 min drive for us to get him at Blackpool Airport. Have a feeling his points are virtually worthless in any event. Thanks for the heads up...
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