Ban scratch cards on low cost airlines, please!
By Tristan Cano on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

It’s not always easy to have some ‘sit back and relax’ time when flying with no-frill budget airlines. Flustered already by the time you find a seat, high-volume pilot announcements are followed by the cabin crew safety dance and what generally tends to be an unnecessarily noisy food and drinks service.

Ban scratch cards on low cost airlines, please!

No frill budget airline experience

Then the Duty Free parade begins, apparently a final opportunity to bag J-Lo’s latest fragrance, some sickly toffee flavoured vodka or 200 Lambert & Butlers for your Gran. When you thought there could be nothing else standing between you and a spot of the old shut-eye, its scratch card time!

Scratch cards and no-frills airlines

I obviously missed the memo when this unholy alliance between scratch cards and no-frills airlines was forged. However they are clearly a perfect match made in the darkest depths of hell and earn the airlines huge ancillary revenues each year.

Guilt inducing scratch card references

What is more, passengers are encouraged to be generous with their scratch card purchases by guilt-inducing references to the charities that will benefit. But despite the hard sale, as little as 1% of the airline’s profit from scratch cards will go to charity, which compares most unfavourably with National Lottery scratch cards for example, where 28% of revenue is donated to good causes.

I also wonder how often someone actually wins the £10,000 cash prize or ‘dream holiday’. Two words incidentally, no doubt uttered regularly during budget flights with the words ‘ruined by this airline’ latched onto the end of them.

Never any scratch card winners

I may be overly cynical, but the only scratch card prize I’ve ever seen anyone win is another flaming scratch card. Moreover I just do not see why their sale has become an acceptable ritual on low cost flights, taking advantage of passengers’ good will as well as their hard earned money; and most importantly of all, getting between me and my slumber.

What are your thoughts on scratch cards sold on budget airlines?


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14 responses to “Ban scratch cards on low cost airlines, please!”

Darren Cronian | 12 April, 2011 at 7:07 pm

I cannot believe that I have never ranted about those bloody annoying scratch cards before! Annoying. Please don’t buy them, if you feel bad for the charities why don’t you donate directly to your favourite charity instead?

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Zoe | 13 April, 2011 at 10:02 am

I flew Jet2 to Venice the other week and was totally bewildered when they did an announcement asking everyone to buy a scratchcard. Because…erm…that’s going to put me in the holiday mood? Really bizarre thing to try to sell on a flight, but even more bizarre that people buy them!

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AirlinesAngel | 13 April, 2011 at 10:04 am

There was a gent last year who ate, yes ate, his winning (EUR10,000 GBP8765.00) scratch card. It was on a flight from East Midlands to Poland, when he won, but was told by crew he would have to wait, as the winning needed to be verified, plus they did not have that amount of money onboard… So he stood up and in front of the whole plane ate the winning card…

Totally agree with Darren, donate directly with the charity.

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Darren Cronian | 13 April, 2011 at 6:46 pm

Thanks for the comment Zoe. Its all about £££s. I’ve never bought one myself, and never would. Just another money spinning idea started off by Ryanair probably and all of the other low cost airlines followed.

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Darren Cronian | 13 April, 2011 at 6:47 pm

Thanks for sharing that. Hilarious.

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Heather-Marie | 13 April, 2011 at 8:37 pm

What a waste. Save the money and invest it.- that’s the only way to make money. Lottery cards just prey on the poor.

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Nick | 14 April, 2011 at 2:04 pm

Yes remember that… but thought the best bit was the Charities on the card

An Anger Management Charity and A Gamblers Charity

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Darren Cronian | 14 April, 2011 at 4:32 pm

Hi Nick, thanks for leaving the comment.

Ha. That’s really bad. I’ve always refused to buy them.

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Mary | 15 April, 2011 at 4:05 pm

The cabin crew also receive commission per sale. This means the charities get hardly anything and they use them hard sell. Disgusting and it is time that the Office of Fair trading looked into the sale of scratch cards on budget airlines.

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Clive Bowers | 16 April, 2011 at 2:04 am

It must be something that happens only on UK low cost airlines because I have never been sold any scratch cards. Let me guess the airline you are referring to though – Ryanair?

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Mick Dee | 27 April, 2011 at 10:27 pm

Do people buy these cards because of the donation to charity or do they indeed buy them in the hope of winning cash ?

Answers in a sealed envelope please.

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A.D.D. | 4 May, 2011 at 10:33 pm

Last weekend I was on a Jet2 flight, sitting behind an unaccompanied child. The cabin crew sold her one of these annoying scratch cards. I noticed this when she asked an air hostess whether she had won anything.

In all honesty I found the idea of airline employees selling scratch cards to a child placed in their care so unlikely that I initially thought I must have misheard. The young girl confirmed it when I asked her though and after the flight I confronted the air hostess in question.

She started off by saying that since we were in the air that no age related gambling laws existed. To put it mildly, this seemed highly unlikely to be and on hearing that I was fairly far from being convinced she then claimed that the money went to charity and therefore normal gambling laws did not apply. When challenged on this she gave a third, equally nonsensical justification and more or less told me to like it or lump it.

At this stage the girl had given me her losing scratch card. I later read the terms and conditions which unsurprisingly state that it is not for sale to anyone under the age of 18. I would be surprised if the girl was older than 11. Presumably if she had, by some miracle, won a prize Jet2 would have refused to pay it.

Ive no idea how serious an issue this is but even though the sums of money involved were quite small it seems like a mean minded abuse of trust and I am of the mind to make some kind of complaint. Any suggestions on the best way to go about this would be welcome.

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Darren Cronian | 8 May, 2011 at 10:18 am

Hi A.D.D

Are you sure the child did not just take the card and scratch it, and the adult paid for the ticket? You are right that it is only for over 18′s, and if you still feel that the card was sold to an underage then I think you should address this with Jet2.com who I am sure will investigate, especially since it is a childrens charity that they are currently supporting.

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A.D.D. | 8 May, 2011 at 10:48 am

The child was travelling alone and had a row to herself. The only adult in a position to purchace the ticket would have been the air hostess. My first reaction was that this must have been what happened.

It seemed an unlikely thing for her to do though so I asked the young girl about it and she claimed she did pay for it. The air hostess also happily admitted selling it to the child when questioned.

This is what I find annoying to be honest. The child was placed in the charge of the airline employees who abused their responsibility to relieve her of her cash. Of course its a small amount of cash but it seems no less wrong for that.

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