The nasty, hidden costs of extra leg-room

A sign at Monarch airlines check-in desk said: ‘Extra leg-room €31’. I decided I needed extra room and paid the money.
When everyone was seated on the plane, I struck up a conversation with the couple next to me. They, it seemed, were given the ‘extra leg-room’ free of charge – presumably to fill the seats.
I was furious enough to write a letter to Monarch about their unfair system. It wasn’t the money, it was the principle.
To charge idiots willing to actually pay their way and then give the seats left over away for free is, in my view, an unacceptable practice.
Either give extra legroom on a first-come, first-serve basis or make them pay extra only.
The upshot was that I received a cheque from Monarch for the €31 that I had paid for the extra room. I deposited this into my bank account and my bank credited my account with the money.
All was well until last week, when I received a phone call from my bank to say that Monarch’s bank had not honoured the cheque and that they were debiting my account for the amount plus €15 in bank charges (which, by the way is another unfair practice. The bounced cheque was not mine bt I had to pay for it!).
Monarch has lost my trust. Be warned: cheap isn’t always best.

Julie Karavis,
Larnaca

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