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.

What on earth.... ? An airline passenger got so frustrated he could not claim his £8,930 winnings from a Ryanair scratch card immediately he ended up eating the ticket.

The man was flying with Ryanair from Krakow in Poland to East Midlands Airport last Thursday when he won €10,000 euros with the scratch card.

The cabin crew confirmed he had won the prize but told the passenger he would have to collect the jackpot directly from the company that runs the competition. But the man demanded the cash then and there.

Ryanair said the man then became frustrated and started to eat his winning ticket. This means he can't claim the prize money - which will now be donated to charity.

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.

Move over Ryanair, there's an airline with its sights set on taking the title for the most cunning ways to bump up the price of a ticket.

Air France KLM has hit on the cunning rouse of charging obese people extra, by making them buy a second seat on the plane.

From April 1, they will generously give them a 25% discount, but will demand the overweight buy an extra seat. They say anyone refusing to buy two seats will be turned away at the plane door.

This isn't the first time the airline has had a bash at this. In 2007 they charged a passenger as he got on the plane. In that instance they were taken to court and the judge ruled they couldn't do it, because the rule wasn't in the small print.

Now they are changing the small print, and fatties will have to pay up.

Is this fair?

After the global economy suffered another bad year and recovery looks to be slow and protracted, we look back at some of the lighter moments of 2009.

Pundits were divided over what shape the global slump would take: a W i.e. double-dip downturn, or a saxophone-shaped recovery, anyone?

Remember the Y2K bug that was going to cripple the world's computers and cause global chaos as we welcomed in 2000?

It never happened but it was just one of the madder aspects of the dotcom boom which saw geeks in their bedrooms becoming overnight billionaires while the rest of us scratched our heads wondering: "Why didn't I think of that?" And though the bubble did eventually burst, the boom in e-commerce that it heralded has changed our shopping habits forever.

eBay had already been around for five years before the turn of the century but in 2002 when it purchased PayPal the online auction site entered another dimension and saw an end on its reliance on the whimsy of credit card operators like Visa and Mastercard.

What is it about Christmas and transport chaos? Thousands of people who had hoped to escape to sunnier shores, or wanted to return from abroad to spend Christmas at home are now in deep trouble.

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?

Budget airlines have changed the way we think about travel. They have cut swathes through prices, opened up the opportunity for cheap holidays we never dreamed of, and made taking four people overseas for less than £500 a possibility for the first time. You'd got to love them.... right?

In fact, no we don't.

The Family Brand Survey has revealed that Ryanair is considered the worst family brand in Britain.

So does it deserve the title, and who else has the survey identified as child-hating rotters?

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...

Every week there's a new airline outrage, where we're charged for glamorous extras like drinking water, going to the toilet, or taking luggage on holiday. We've come to expect it of Ryanair, but now BA is stooping to their level with what amounts to a tax on large families and the tall.

Fancy flying to Europe for a couple of quid?

We brought you news earlier this week about how it's a good time to bag a bargain break because hotel prices have fallen this year, and it's now possible to reach your destination for a steal too, with Ryanair's one million £1 flights to Europe deal.

But act quick, it's only for today.