Saving money can get expensive
As promised, here's a chance to learn from my mistakes!
Travelling in Europe can be much cheaper than covering similar distances in North America thanks to an extensive rail network and numerous discount airlines. But don’t let the advertised ticket prices fool you, especially when it comes to the airlines.
My recent round-trip Ryanair flight from Toulouse to Seville was pegged at a possible low price of just 46€ ($68 Canadian), but it ended up costing me 219.34€ ($324). The Basic Fare was advertised at a 23€ each way, but that rate was only good for specific days. For my return date, I had to take a more expensive ticket, at 73€. So we are already at twice the advertised low. Then I opted to take a second bag (max 10 kg) on board, otherwise you are limited to a bag small enough (40x20x25cm) to fit under the seat. Ka-ching, add another 27€ each way for that upgrade. Running total, 154€.
For an extra 10€, I could have gone for the “Plus” package, which would allowed me a much larger bag, 20 kg, but as check-in luggage rather than carry-on. But my second bag was less than 10 kg, so why waste the money, I thought?
Here’s why: Ryanair has a similar weight limit for carry-on bags as other discount airline such as Wizz and easyJet, but it has the smallest size limit. They have metal stands at airport check-in counters that they may ask you to fit your bag into, to prove it meets their criteria (55 x 40 x 20 cm).
My bag was about 2 cm too tall. I’d have had to rip off the wheels to get it to fit. And since it was a hard case, I couldn’t just squeeze it into the size-testing stand.
To paraphrase the lawyer in OJ’s murder trial, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit … the extra charge.”
“But your honour…” I told the check-in staff that I’d brought the same bag back and forth on a Ryanair flight to Bucharest just 6 weeks earlier with no problem. “Which airport,” she asked?
“Marseille.” She nodded, like I’d just told her I’d bought an Apple Watch from a Senegalese guy at the Marrakesh medina. “Ryanair has very strict rules,” she explained, as if she didn’t work for Ryanair but was just letting me know how nasty they were. “If you get to the boarding gate without changing your bag to check-in, they will charge you 70€ or won’t let you take it on the plane. If you modify your package online now and check it in with me, it will only be 32€. You can take the chance they won’t check, but Ryanair is very strict in Toulouse.”
“But I took the same bag to Romania and back just a few weeks ago!” She looked at me like Judge Merchan must look whenever Donald Trump’s lawyers raise the same groundless objection for the 30th time.
“It’s up to you. You can take the risk, but it will be 70€ if they stop you.”
“Do I get a refund on the cabin baggage upgrade, since I don’t need it anymore?”
“No. This is an add-on. You can’t cancel services you already ordered.”
So now we are up to about 207€. And since I didn’t want to run the same risk on the return flight, add another 32€. It was either that or buy a new bag while I was in Spain and throw out a perfectly good bag that’s just a little too tall for Ryanair, but fine for everyone else.
Then there was an 11€ “fast-track” charge I added when I thought I might be stuck in line at airport security while the plane flew back to Toulouse without me.
Say what now? After all my whining about how important it is to show up at airports early, why was I stuck in line at the last minute?
Well, that’s thanks to the Firefly budget car rental agency that was part of my Ryanair experience. I showed up at the airport check-in with the tank 80% full. I knew they’d charge me a marked-up price for the missing gas. But I didn’t know they also wanted a 50€ service charge on top of that. So to avoid that surcharge, I had to leave the airport, drive down the highway to the nearest gas station, fill the tank, continue down the highway until I could safely do a u-turn, return to the car agency, complete my check-in, then run to the Ryanair counter. Total lost time, about 30 minutes.
And of course the Ryanair lineup was huge (see top photo). And slow. They made sure I had plenty of time to panic as I imagined the chain reaction of missed connections that would ruin the next three days of my travel itinerary and cost me a pretty centime. Naturally, about 10 minutes after going online to buy the fast-track, a Ryanair employee called out, “anyone here for the flight to Toulouse? Come to the front now!”
My relief was immediate, my chagrin as well when I got to security and the normal lines were just as fast as the fast-track. In fact, I couldn’t see a fast-track and was damned if I was going to take 10 minutes to find it.
Of course, no one at either the check-in or the boarding counter gave a shit about measuring bags. This is Spain, after all, not France. They will get around to it mañana.
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I decided to rent a car for the Spanish part of my trip as an experiment, a trial run before I travel down the Atlantic coast from Belgium to Bordeaux in the next few weeks. My clear conclusion: don’t do it unless you are camping or are continually on the move from motel to motel. I wasn’t using the car at all while exploring Sevilla, Càdiz, Málaga, or Granada, but I was paying a fortune to park it, up to 25€ a day.
In all, I spent 240€ ($356) on parking alone, and another 108€ ($160) in gas. The car was 408€ ($604) for 14 days. Total cost, 756€ ($1,120), an average of 54€ ($80) a day, almost a third of it for parking.
The only bright side was that while I was parked, I wasn’t using any gas (which is very expensive here). The two places I visited where the car was useful were the more remote towns of Setenil de los Bodegas and Ronda, but it was so hard to find parking in Ronda that I ended up returning to the highway to continue on to Málaga after an hour of circling hopeless like a hapless hawk. (I just went Ronda and Ronda. Pun fully intended.)
As well, the Spanish backroads and highways that I travelled rarely had safe spots to pull over and appreciate the stunning views, which was the other potential perk that had convinced me to rent a car.
No more. The upcoming trip will be by train, bus and BlaBlaCar. Maybe I’ll rent a Yugo scooter for small trips to the countryside, but no more paying precious pesos just to park my ride.
Speaking of which, thanks for your company on this little side trip. Next up: Adventures in Andalusia. Stay tuned for some great stories, pictures and videos.
Meanwhile, here’s a spicy taste of Spain, a free concert put on at my Sevilla digs, the La Banda Rooftop Hostel. The singer’s name is Ángeles Rusó and her Instagram is @angelesruso.