Pringles – I do like them. But if you asked me to pay 9p for each individual potato and wheat-based crisp, I’d say you were having a laugh. Yet that’s how much you’ll pay if you buy a pack onboard an Easyjet flight.
On an Easyjet flight, Pringles go for £1.80 a 40g tub. The last pack of that size I ate had 20 crisps inside, so I make that 9p each. If you were to buy your snack from Asda Direct before you set off on holiday, the same size tub would cost you 50p, less than a third of the Easyjet’s price.
Easyjet’s not alone in charging these prices, as the tubs go for much the same price on Ryanair, and £1.50 on Monarch, Thomas Cook and Thomson.
The price of drinks and snacks
No one expects a bargain when you buy snacks or drinks on a plane, as everyone accepts there are a lot of overheads involved and knows the airline is going to capitalise on having a captive audience.
But can they really justify this sort of differential from supermarket prices? When Which? checked airline prices against comparable products in online supermarkets in January, we also found 40g packs of Kettle Chips at £1.50 on Monarch compared to 62p at Ocado, and 50g packs of Mini Cheddars at €2 (or around £1.60) on Ryanair compared to 69p at Ocado.
You can’t take bottles of water through airport security, but we compared prices there as well, just to see the difference. A 500ml water bottle of water can cost as little as 39p at Ocado, but you’ll pay €3 or around £2.50 on a Ryanair flight.
I’m a sucker for convenience, and in the past I have happily handed over my cash for onboard snacks on no-frills flights. But now I’ll be stocking up beforehand and squirreling them away into my hand luggage.
How do you feel about airline food prices onboard flights? Are they justified in the mark-up they impose, or do you feel fleeced if you stump up for a snack? And what’s the most expensive snack price you’ve seen in the air?
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