Low-cost airlines have transformed travel.
They’ve opened up flying to millions of people who previously might never have stepped on a plane. And for that, they deserve a huge amount of credit.
But if you’ve flown with a low-cost airline recently, you’ll probably recognise another part of the experience. That £29.99 ticket rarely stays £29.99.
And recently, the conversation around airline pricing took another interesting turn when reports emerged about easyJet introducing a financial incentive for staff who identify oversized cabin bags at the gate.
It’s a fascinating case study because it sits right at the intersection of customer experience and behavioural science. This raises an important question:
When does clever behavioural design cross the line into customer exploitation?
We explore this in The Customer Experience Lab‘s episode on the EasyJet bag scandal:
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The low-cost airline model
Before diving into the controversy, it’s worth recognising something important.
The low-cost airline model itself is a brilliant piece of business design, and has made the globe much more accessible for so many.
Airlines strip out the traditional bundled services and allow customers to build their journey through optional extras. That means people who want the lowest possible price can access it, while those who want more comfort can pay for additional services.
In theory, it’s a very efficient system.
But over time the tactics used to drive those additional purchases have become increasingly sophisticated, sometimes in non-intuitive ways that can trip up customers.
The gate bag incentive
The policy that sparked the debate was something called the “gate bag revenue incentive”.
In simple terms, gate staff reportedly receive a financial reward of £1.20 when they identify passengers whose carry-on luggage exceeds the permitted size and needs to be checked in.
From a business perspective, you can see the logic. Oversized cabin bags slow down boarding, disrupt the experience for other passengers and create operational challenges.
But from the customer’s perspective, the timing matters. Flying at the airport experience are renowned for being stressful at the best of times. So imagine being pulled aside at the gate, often when you are most stressed or rushing to board the flight. That can certainly feel less like a fair process and more like being caught out.
That’s where behavioural design becomes interesting.
The behavioural tactics behind the model
Low-cost airline websites are actually masterclasses in behavioural economics. Once you start looking closely, you begin to see several familiar psychological principles at play.
1. The Sunk Cost Fallacy and drip pricing
Customers are drawn in by a very attractive base fare.
As they progress through the booking journey, additional options begin to appear. Seat selection, baggage, priority boarding, insurance and more. By the time someone has invested several minutes into the booking process, they’re far more likely to continue, even if the final price has increased significantly.
2. The Goal Gradient Effect
The closer people get to completing a task, the more motivated they become to finish it.
In online booking journeys, this means that once customers reach the final stages of checkout, they’re far more likely to add optional extras simply to complete the process.
3. Nudges and Sludge
Behavioural science often talks about nudges. Anyone who’s read Thaler and Sunstein’s work will be very familiar with them. Subtle design choices that help people make better decisions. But there’s another concept Thaler and Sunstein talk about that’s becoming increasingly relevant in modern marketing, sludge.
Sludge is the opposite of a helpful nudge. It introduces friction or complexity that makes it harder for people to choose the most beneficial option.
In the low-cost airline example it’s making it difficult to remove add-ons or hiding lower-cost options deeper in the interface.
4. Default options
Default settings are incredibly powerful. We know with so many decisions in a day, defaults help us reduce down cognitive load and guard against decision fatigue.
When a box is pre-selected or a particular option is presented as the “recommended” choice, many customers will stick with it rather than changing the selection. The defaults low-cost airlines use are often the up-sell or more expensive options.
5. Social Proof and Scarcity
Messages like: “Four out of five customers choose this option” or “Only three seats left at this price” create urgency and encourage quicker decisions.
These techniques tap into our natural fear of missing out.
So when does design become cynical?
The real question isn’t whether these techniques work. They clearly do.
The real question is whether they pass the test of customer-centricity. If our guiding principle is to help the customer make the best decision for them, then we need to hold ourselves to task on this.
Behavioural science is an incredibly powerful tool. Used well, it helps customers make clearer, faster and more confident decisions. Used poorly, it can feel manipulative.
And when customers start to feel manipulated, confidence and trust begins to erode.
The real lesson for brands
This is where the easyJet story becomes valuable beyond aviation. Any organisation using behavioural science should regularly ask itself a simple question:
Are we guiding our customers, or are we exploiting them?
The best brands use behavioural insights to reduce friction, increase clarity and make decisions easier.
They focus on transparency and value rather than short-term optimisation. Because in the long run, trust is far more valuable than a few additional upsells. And as marketers and brand builders we should be focused on creating long term value in the mind of customers.
The nudge vs mugging test
A useful way to think about behavioural design is something I often call the “nudge versus mugging” test.
A nudge helps someone make a better decision.
A mugging helps the business more than the customer.
If you ever feel uncomfortable explaining a design choice to your customers, there’s a good chance you’ve crossed that line.
🧠 A thought for you
If you want to win in the long term use behavioural science responsibly.
Guide your customers, simplify their decisions and remove unnecessary friction. Focusing on building trust with every interaction.
Great customer experience isn’t about catching customers out. It’s about helping them feel confident that they’ve made the right choice. That can only happen if they don’t find themselves with post-purchase regret.
