One great way travellers have been keeping their travel costs low is by taking full advantage of the cheaper fares offered by budget airlines such as Air Asia. They were even happier when Air Asia started offering FREE seats offers to all their destinations. It wasn’t too long before Malaysia Airlines jumped on the bandwagon as well to widely advertise their Zero Fare seats as the competition was simply too great for them.

However, zero fares may be a thing of the past if Malaysia Airlines succeeds in convincing the Government to regulate advertising of all air fare prices in Malaysia.

What does this mean for travellers?

How many times have you clicked excitedly at the “Zero Fare” or “Free Seats” advertisement and booked your ticket only to realise that you still have to pay a few hundred or thousands for taxes, surcharges and miscellaneous expenses?

The new all-pricing system will ensure travellers can make well-informed decisions and proper comparisons against airlines to determine which is the cheapest fare for their needs. Budgeting for travel will be much easier with these new fares as travellers will know exactly how much to budget for and not be subjected to additional hidden costs which may blow their budget.

Singapore Airlines has implemented this very successfully and it is wonderful to know that the fare you see advertised is exactly what you have to budget for. It is rather interesting to note that this was proposed by Malaysia Airlines as everyone is aware that their fares, taxes and surcharges are always higher than the budget airlines. Hence, they probably might not benefit from this all-pricing fare system!

Nevertheless, it is a great system for consumers and hopefully it will be implemented soon to help travellers make better informed financial decisions.