Ryan Air Additional Charges Rip Off
Monday, November 10th, 2008 | Life, Online Reputation Management, Travelling
I have just recently booked four flights to Prague for a trip at the end of the month after seeing an offer on the extremely popular TravelZoo weekly top 20.
The offer was free flights and only £10 tax on selected dates. I logged on to RyanAir.com and found suitable dates and true to the offer I was able to book 4 flights for £80, what a deal.
Unfortunately this is where the deal turns sour, firstly I needed to enter the details of all passengers and what luggage was being taken. So I entered the details and specified 2 passengers would be taking a back that would need to be checked in at £8 per bag per flight that added another £32, not the end of the world.
I then selected online checkin as this would save another £32 but unfortunately this was not available from Prague airport, so more money was added to the bill, by this stage we are at £144.
Now for the real kick in the balls, online checkout. With my flight nearly at double the original cost I selected credit card from the available options, to my amazement a £32 booking fee, yes that’s not a typo thirty two whole English pounds.
So I thought, switch to my Debit card and that figure will reduce down, but it didn’t. I noticed there was a Ryan Air credit card option so I selected that to see if customers loyal enough to embrace the Ryan Air credit card would be fortunate enough not be ripped off like this, but no even Ryan Airs on credit card customers get charged.
The way they justified the charge was £4 per person per flight, in actual fact the credit card fee for processing would have been around 2.20 if that.
Now the point of this post is not to complain about the price £174 for 4 return flights to Prague at sensible times is great value, but increasing the price by over 50% once deciding to book is an absolute disgrace, something should be done about this kind of advertising.
Had the price been advertised I would have been telling lots of people what a great deal I had got from Ryan Air on my flights to Prague instead I have written this blog, told countless people and added feedback to Business Rating site Plebble.
Come on Ryan Air play the game, engage your customer solicit feedback and leverage the power of a great online reputation, it really isn’t difficult.
1 Comment to Ryan Air Additional Charges Rip Off
hi
I know its a bit late for you in this instance but if you use a Prepaid MasterCard you can avoid paying Ryanairs booking fees. They don’t levy a booking fee on Prepaid Cards.
I’ve heard this is because they are legislatively obliged to offer one free method of payment and they figure this is the method that least people will have heard of or have access to meaning they get to keep an extra £5 quid per flight.
The Prepaid Card are easy to get and this one (www.prepaidfinancialservices.com) only costs a tenner so definitely an option for frequent flyers.
February 22, 2010