Here's a great example of why the cheapest option is usually not the best  - Have you flown with Ryanair recently? Wow !

Remember the old Apple saying - "We've got an app for that"? - Ryanair's should be "We've got a charge for that".

I must admit we fly with them when we want a cheap short break because we'd rather spend our money actually on holiday rather than on the travel. So at Ryanair's prices you can't really grumble at the no - frills experience. 

But here's the thing - there are loads of low cost airlines these days but none that I'm aware of are so expert at dragging every extra penny they can out of you no matter how unpopular it makes them. 

Every step of the way there's an upsell. It begins during the online booking process and continues on the flight where they try and flog you something every ten minutes. 

They make it very difficult to get through the process without accidentally ending up paying for extras that you didn't want.

We're off to Tenerife next week and flying with Ryanair. When I tried to print off the boarding passes today though I was in for a shock. They wouldn't let me! 

Apparently back in February they decided to change their set up so that you can't print boarding passes anymore than 7 days before a flight. You can't even print off the outbound flight pass if the return is 7 days or more after it! 

Unless - You pay extra for an allocated seat ! 

So you have 2 choices. Either wait till the day of departure and print the passes before you leave (as long as you're only going for a week or less) Or the one Ryanair would prefer - you pay them to print your passes for you !! they've reduced the cost of this but it's not cheap. 

You can also get an app and download boarding passes to your smartphone. If you have a flat battery though Ryanair will let you plug your charger in - "there's a charge for that" though lol!  

Ryanair don't seem to spend a lot on marketing - and no wonder! 

Anyway - the point is that you get what you pay for in life. Ryanair will get you where you're going. You might be uncomfortable, irritable and broke by the time you get there but that's the deal - that's what the owner will tell you if you have the nerve to complain.

Where am I going with this? 

I guess its the blatant dishonesty of the whole hidden costs idea - especially when it's obvious that some pretty devious planning is behind it. People travelling are out of their comfort zones, particularly when travelling by plane. 

I think this is taken advantage of by companies like Ryanair. They work on the fact that people wont think too much about paying extra here and there if it seems to make the journey easier. 

Personally I'm a fan of complete honesty. I really hate ulterior motives, angles and hidden agendas.  Just lay it on the line please. 

With SFM there are no hidden costs - no constant enticements to buy add ons or pay for the new features they constantly add. 

That's why they have an application process - so that you can actually talk to them and ask whatever questions you like. If you don't like the answers (for any reason) they just give your money back with no question. 

That's an honest "boarding pass". Very rare in the online world.