A United Kingdom consumer-advocacy group is commending Monarch Airlines for dropping what it deems was an unfair debit card fee associated with ticket purchases. But whether Monarch’s move prompts other airlines to drop their similar fees remains to be seen.
Budget-friendly Monarch eliminated the debit card fee, which was 3.5% of the sale, on June 1. It now will charge a flat £10 (US$16 or 11 euros) booking fee for credit card purchases.
“By abolishing debit card fees and introducing a flat fee for using credit cards, we are doing everything we can to be transparent and fair to our customers,” Conrad Clifford, CEO of parent Monarch Group, said in a press release.
Monarch did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Which?, the UK-based consumer group that has been critical of airline-booking fees, hopes other airlines follow Monarch’s lead.
“The cost to businesses for taking payment by debit card is a matter of pennies, so there’s simply no justification for excessive fees,” Rochelle Turner, head of research for Which? Travel, said in a press release. “We’d like to see others follow in the footsteps of Monarch and stop using processing costs to boost their profits.”
In March, Which? filed a complaint with the Office of Fair Trading seeking to investigate card surcharges, especially those imposed online by airlines and providers of tickets for movies and other events (
Since Which? submitted the complaint, the agency has launched an investigation regarding unfair debit and credit card surcharges. The office plans to publish its findings at the end of June, a spokesperson told PaymentsSource in an e-mail.
But the results of the investigation might not be enough to force change within the UK’s low-budget airline industry, Megan Bramlette, director at Auriemma Consulting Group, told PaymentsSource in an interview.
The British regulatory environment at the moment is undergoing changes, according to Bramlette. “That being said, [the Office of Fair Trading] can give guidance and say they’re not in favor” of the fees, she said.
“It would be hard to ban surcharges,” Bramlette added.
More transparency regarding surcharges is likely to happen, Bramlette said. “The fees are always going to be there because that’s how these low-budget airlines operate,” she said. “It’s their business model.”
With the investigation ongoing, at least one low-cost airline decided to raise fees.
EasyJet Airline Co. Ltd. has raised its debit card-booking fees three times during the past seven months. Consumers paying for flights using a debit card now pay £8, up 45% from the £5.50 the airline charged in October. Credit card fees, which have not changed, are £12.95 or £8 plus 2.5% of the flight cost, whichever is higher.
EasyJet waives charges for passengers using partner cards such as Visa Inc.’s Electron card and MasterCard Worldwide prepaid cards.
EasyJet did not respond to a request to comment on Monarch’s decision.
At the time of its most recent fee increases, an easyJet spokesperson told PaymentsSource the company “is transparent about its card charges, breaking out the different costs in the booking process so consumers may see the low fare for the flight and the different options for ticket purchasing.”
