EasyJet has come under fire for imposing an on-board weight restriction that excludes most powered wheelchairs, preventing thousands of disabled people from flying with the budget airline.

The no-frills carrier refuses to carry one-piece wheelchairs that weigh more than 60kg with their batteries detached - but most wheelchairs weigh a lot more, some even twice as much. Disabled people wanting to fly with the company must therefore dismantle their wheelchairs into separate parts weighing less than 60kg each.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou (that's sir Stelios to you) is launching a series of new travel-themed companies. They will put the entrepreneur, who now only owns a minority of Easyjet, in conflict with his most famous brand.

Stelios and Easyjet are already locked in a legal battle. And now Stelios has created Easyholidays, Easyflights and Easyairtours, which will compete with Easyjet's own holidays wing, things can only get bitter.

The never-ending row between airlines is sort of funny when viewed from the sidelines.

If easyJet and Ryanair were humans instead of airline companies, you would expect to see them on Jeremy Kyle, screaming insults at each other and scrapping while the audience brayed and hooted.

Another advertising campaign, another rap on the knuckles for Ryanair.

The budget airline is under fire once again, this time for two press adverts offering £10 one-way fares to Gothenburg and Dusseldorf, which the Advertising Standards Association claims are misleading.

Getting to your holiday destination and finding that your bag didn't make it can easily ruin a holiday. Who wants to start their relaxing break with an hour-long haggle with the airport staff about how much money they need to replace their holiday wardrobe? And a few days in the same underwear and the finest T-shirts available from tourists stands near the hotel can easily lead to a sense of humour failure.

Some airlines are worse than others for delaying or losing passengers' baggage. Which is the worst?

If you're planning to go away this summer - despite ash clouds and strikes - you need to be wary of purchasing travel insurance through your airline, tour operator or travel agent.

Travel insurance premiums can be a staggering 211% more expensive when bought as an add-on to airline tickets or as part of a holiday through a travel agent, research from moneysupermarket.com has found.

The disruptive strike by British Airways cabin crew members, coupled with the raft of airlines and travel companies that have collapsed over the last couple of years, has proved how important it is for holidaymakers to protect themselves should something go wrong with their travel plans.

And while travelling independently and booking online can save you money on the cost of your holiday, it may leave you more vulnerable should one of the firms involved go bust or fail to deliver the services you were promised.

So read on to find out how to stop a dream trip becoming a holiday from hell.

Who would have thought a few years ago that one day a quarter of us would find it acceptable to pay extra just to be checked in?

Have we all been brainwashed by the budget airlines?

And do you know how these additional charges add up?

I love the ongoing spat between Ryanair and Easyjet and I bet the advertising departments at newspapers across the land are just as enthusiastic.

Because the intense rivalry between the UK's two leading budget airlines means they are so self-absorbed in everything they do that they actually don't feel any criticism from Joe Public outraged at being charged to board a plan, take luggage or even dare to want to eat on one of their flights.

They are both as bad as each other, taking the golden age of jet travel to lows.

Ryanair seems to love taking out expensive newspaper adverts attacking the opposition but the in-fighting is so 'in' that half the time I have no idea what the point of the advertisement actually is. Something about Stelios, or late planes? But I did have sympathy with Easyjet's slagging off Ryanair for advertising that they flew direct to European cities when in fact they flew to towns nearby.

The reaction to Kraft's imminent takeover of Cadbury continues to rumble along with the latest news being an announcement from US chocolate maker Hershey that they won't be making a rival bid to the £11.9 billion offer already on the table.

Considering that Hershey were only ever a side-bet on having any involvement, it's strange they even felt it necessary to say anything at all. But it does give you an idea on the backroom machinations that are still going like the clappers in a bid to scupper Kraft's deal.

Everyone has had a say on this most controversial of hostile takeovers, from the Government trying to get Kraft to guarantee jobs to the Dairylea-makers key shareholder Warren Buffet expressing his reservations about the whole deal.

Though it's really down to the shareholders and that offer of 840p a share is mighty tempting.

A study has exposed the real extent of all those hidden charges made by budget airlines, and the effect they have on the cost of the flight - and it's staggering.

For a typical traveller they can easily add up to another 25% or more on top of the price.

So who are the worst offenders, what are the charges to watch for, and what can you do about it?

One of the most annoying things about buying flights with a budget airline is the raft of extra charges that are added to your fare throughout the booking process.

And perhaps the most irritating of these - often unavoidable - fees, is the up to £5 per passenger companies such as Ryanair charge you for paying with a credit or debit card.

I blogged the other day about the Visa Electron card, the one that got around these nasty charges and is in the process of being phased out.

Now Ryanair has responded - and its not good news.

The debit and credit card charges imposed by low-cost airlines can add up to £40 to the cost of a return flight for a family of four – unless you pay using a Visa Electron card.

But savvy budget airline customers are going to find it increasingly hard to avoid transaction fees when they pay for flights online due to the dwindling number of lenders offering this type of plastic.

So what's going on?

Airlines have been making the headlines a lot recently.

First, there was the announcement of a proposed merger between stricken British Airways and struggling Spanish airline Iberia; you can read all about what the BA merger will mean for you here.

Then came the news that budget giant easyJet has seen its full-year profits fall by a whopping 50% in the face of rising fuel costs.

I've been known to have very uncharitable thoughts towards airlines, particularly when enduring long delays and an endless run of baggage charges. But I'm beginning to think that perhaps we all expect far too much from them...

Last week, I blogged about the extra travel insurance pitfalls you need to be aware of if you're planning a winter sports holiday this year.

In a nutshell, choose the wrong policy and you could end up footing the entire bill for your own helicopter rescue. Aagh.

Anyway, today I came across a travel insurance tale that made me really sad. It involves a tragedy that none of us want to contemplate... but we need to, to make sure we don't end up in exactly the same boat...