easyJet and the small print

We are used to having to look at the small print in airline adverts and e-mails but an e-mail from easyJet caught my eye this morning. This was an offer for a flight to Belfast. The new Titanic Experience opens next week so this e-mail was linked to that. The price was £26.49. Actually from £26.49 so you automatically think that there is a catch somewhere like its only applicable if there is an “x” in the month or there are just two seats at this rate.
No, the catch this time was that the price was based on four people flying on the same booking.
I haven’t seen this little devious ploy before (readers will no doubt correct me if this has been going on for some time) so I looked at the home page of the easyJet website to see if it was there as well. Sure enough. It was.
If I clicked on the link in the e-mail it shows I can fly to Belfast from ten different places in the UK all at a price based on four people flying one way at a price of between £23 and £31. In fact for a flight for four from Manchester to Belfast on the 17th April I could pay just £160.92 (which includes the admin fee and the credit card charge) or just over £40 each. And that’s cheaper than the promotion so take no notice of the e-mail. There are deals that are cheaper.
But what of this price based on four people? Would it be that different if just one person flew? So I fed in details again for exactly the same route and exactly the same time. The fare quoted was £46.98 return which was slightly higher because I couldn’t divide the admin and credit card fees by four people as before. But the base fare is exactly the same so there was no “real” difference in the fares at all!
Incidentally the e-mail said flights to Belfast from Manchester (for our party of four) started from £29.49 each way. Just using the booking pages I’ve beaten that price by £12 each person!
So the deal in the e-mail isn’t much of a deal at all. Even allowing for the small print.