1. Go to the Budget Airline’s site.
2. Site is down because they are having a sale and the site cannot cope.
3. Come back to the site another day when the sale frenzy is over.
4. Find and book ticket.
5. Next screen: Airline asks you to choose their bundle.
6. Select flight only. Dowan bundle.
7. Next screen: Airline asks you to choose Luggage options. Skip luggage because you are Hand Carry only.
8. Next screen: Airline asks you to choose their overpriced food.
9. Skip food, it’s only a three-hour flight.
10. Next screen: Airline asks you to choose your seats.
11. Spend a few minutes looking for way to skip choosing seats because you don’t want to pay. Finally find the button. Continue without choosing seat. You will chance it because it’s only a three-hour flight.
12. Next screen: Payment Page. You notice your flight price is $20 more than you expected. You begin your CSI.
13. After a few minutes, you realize the extra $20 is the travel insurance. Which was automatically added without you selecting it. And you had to scroll down to find it. You deselect the Insurance option. Warnings of Hellfire and Dire Consequences are shown. You ignore said warnings because you already have your own travel insurance. You deselect the Insurance.
14. You notice a checkbox to get an SMS alert on your flight. It costs $2. You laugh at the sheer audacity of the airline to charge for a stupid SMS.
15. Payment Page again. This time the price of the flight is exactly what you saw when you first booked it. Nothing extra. Nothing more. Nothing less. You choose payment options.
16. Credit Card: $10 to $20 per person per flight.
17. eNETs: $8 per person per flight.
18. Post Office or SAM or 7-Eleven: $5 per person per flight.
19. You choose the cheapest option because you want to save money. Then realize you can’t because that requires you to book 14 days in advance. You can only choose the credit card option.
20. You give up and book a full-service airline out of sheer frustration because it sucks to be nickel-and-dimed, and to have things like travel insurance foisted on you without your knowledge. Also, you realize that often, the full-service airline is only a few bucks more by the time you add the options of a LCC Airline. And why do you have to pay to pay for your ticket???
21. Curl up and cry.
