Budget airlines? They're as genuine as my wife's 'bargains'.

Boss Michael O'Leary said this week: "It's our ultimate ambition to get to the stage where the fare is free."

It doesn't take a genius, however, to figure out the customer will have to pay by some other means. . . or else Ryanair will be out of business faster than they can say "fasten your seatbelts".

O'Leary insists Ryanair's charges are transparent, but that's certainly not true of most budget airlines.

Generally you find that most amazing offers really are too good to be true and that - surprise, surprise - the charges soon mount up as you click your way through the numerous options.

Eventually, if you pause momentarily just before the final stage - the one where they ask for your credit card details - you get to find out how much you're actually spending.

I can't be alone in finding this ridiculous charade extremely irritating. Why can't they just give you the whole price right at the outset instead of this duplicitous process of sucking you in with false promises?

How many times have you heard someone boast about their £6.99 flights to Barcelona or Rome only to discover that what they actually paid was around 10 times that amount. . . yet they insist on quoting you the price as it was initially advertised?

This reminds me of the somewhat perverse rationale my wife uses when clothes shopping.

"I saved £20 today."

"Really! How did you do that?"

"Well, I bought this dress for £30 in the sales. It was reduced from £50. Isn't that great?"

"Yes. Great. But just for the record, you didn't save anything. You spent £30."

"But it should've cost £50."

"Would you have paid £50 for it?"

"Of course not!"

"OK, so what I'm saying is, you spent £30."

"I know. That's what I'm saying too. . . and I saved £20."

These conversations can eat up hours.