It’s irritating that many airlines, such as Jet2, don’t include airport taxes and the like in their prices, but most of us have come to accept it. What I don’t expect is the cold-hearted exploitation of those less familiar with the internet when booking tickets.

The Jet2 booking process is an absolute minefield, only instead of being blown-up, you find yourself £50 worse off. I work in web marketing. I know how important usability is and I know for a fact that Jet2 do as well, which means that they know exactly what they’re doing in turning their flight booking process into a booby-trapped labyrinth.

The best flight booking process is straightforward. There are minimal clicks and you can add in all the extra stuff that you might want, seeing the charges as you do so. Jet2’s flight booking process includes most of the extra stuff by default and you have to remove it.

Some of Jet2’s extra charges are really needless as well. I don’t want holiday insurance selected as standard. If I need holiday insurance through Jet2, I will add it.

The real killer is the seat selection charge though. This is the point where the website’s malicious design becomes most apparent. You can choose what seat you want when you book and Jet2 charge you for that, which is fair enough. However, it’s really, really hard not to choose a seat.

At one stage in the booking process, you’re confronted with a picture of the plane seating. If you click ‘continue’ there is a pop-up with text and then a green ‘yes’ or a grey ‘no’. Years of using the internet have taught you to click yes. Unfortunately, the question at the very end of the text is: “Do you want to select remaining seats?” – so the correct answer is actually ‘no’.

Perhaps even worse is the baggage check-in section if you opt for hand baggage only. The pop-up asks (if that’s the right word): “It’s 25% cheaper if you select checked-in bags now” – to which you’re supposed to answer yes or no. The correct (cheaper) answer is no, which doesn’t actually make sense because it’s not a yes or no question.

Furthermore, it’s not 25% cheaper to check bags in than not check bags in. It’s 25% cheaper to let Jet2 know at this point that you’re intending to check bags in rather than doing so on the day. If you’ve no intention of checking a bag in, it’s obviously more expensive. This is wilfully misleading and expoitative. Also, again you have to select ‘no’ to proceed without parting with further cash.

I booked some flights with Jet2 this week. Obviously, they were fairly cheap. At least they were advertised as fairly cheap.

I was quite alarmed to see that the ‘taxes and charges’ were about £90 for two tickets. I checked the information and it turned out that Jet2’s extra charges covered pretty much anything and everything: baggage, choosing a seat, checking in offline, insurance.

No matter, I thought. I’ll just remove all that crap. I’m web-savvy. I’m not falling for their tricks. But no, apparently THESE extra charges were extra extra charges. Having gone through Jet2’s viciously money-grabbing booking process and selected NOTHING, I then found that this £90-odd quid remained. Presumably they’re airport taxes and so forth, although it isn’t really explained anywhere.

Assuming this is airport tax and the like, I can just about cope with it. What I can’t cope with is Jet2’s booking process. I also bridle at Jet2’s assertion that any form of checking-in warrants an extra charge. In what way is it ‘extra’? How the hell am I meant to get on board the plane without checking in?