Ryanair Making it Even Harder to Avoid Card Fees
 

Just had this land in my inbox:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/new...r-card-charges

I must admit I've not flown Ryanair for a fair while (I've found that on the routes I usually use, traditional airlines work out just as cheap once all the fees have been added on). Stuff like this is making them even less attractive :td:

On occasion (but not always) they can represent good value - but this is the very last straw!

I used to use them a lot (20 return flights or so a year) but have voted with my feet and haven't flown with them for over two years.

I will never fly Ryanair again - ever!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I'm proud to say that I've never flown them even when I had the opportunity. I just don't get the appeal.

I think it's the idea that you can fly for a few pence, and if your plans change you can just throw away the ticket and not lose any money.

Of course the catch is that if you don't know/follow the rules you can get royally shafted :eek:

And no, I have not flown Air Greyhound either :)

EmailKid

Worth noting this is only really relevant to those who are UK-based, as it applies to Ryanair flights out of the UK (including return flights). For those based elsewhere in Europe, then by using any Mastercard Prepaid card they can continue to avoid the absurd payment card surcharges (for the time being at least!).

For those (UK based or not) who never had a Mastercard Prepaid card in the first place, then there's no change here - you already get hit with the "administration fee" (£6 or €6) for card payments on a per-passenger, per-flight basis.

Rather, it's just a change in the 'free' payment method for flights originating from the UK (the 'free' payment method is changing from any Mastercard Prepaid card, to only being Ryanair's new own-brand Mastercard Prepaid card).

The UK's Office of Fair Trading (a quango) recently recommended to the government that they change the law in order to ban surcharges for debit card payments -however the government hasn't committed to this yet, and Ryanair might be able to avoid such a law anyway by dint of being an Irish (rather than UK) company.

They're often cheaper than other airlines, sometimes by a significant margin, even when taking into account the absurd payment card surcharges (for using a non-'free' payment method). That's the appeal.

Baggage fees might erode this price advantage - but lots of Europeans have got used to travelling with just hand luggage thus avoiding these fees - the majority of passengers on Ryanair flights will only be taking hand luggage with them (though this will differ between summer and winter of course).

Ryanair aren't quite in the business of offering flights for a few pence these days though - the rolling special offer fares are now more in the region of £10 / €15.

As long as Ryanair is much cheaper and I don't have to change planes
 

Yes I don't mind the Ryanair ways as long as the overall charge is much cheaper than the legacy carriers. My next trip is under £70 on Ryanair. A well known legacy carrier wanted over £200 (that included being routed via LHR:().

+1 - if you are fortunate to have a choice of airlines, then do the maths for not just the flight / extras costs, but also the costs / time of getting to and from your departure & destination airports - this can work both ways depending where you live and where you're going on to.

That's interesting - wonder if it's legal under EU law?

No idea - but other carriers do it too. BA has a £4.50 handling charge to use a credit card or PayPal when invoicing in the UK, but for other countries this charge doesn't apply.

Does the BA CC allow free booking on BA booked flights?

Virgin & AA also have UK-only specific "card handling" fees

When I was in Spain last fall, I ended up going with Spanair (BCN-MXP) after looking at various airlines (including Ryanair's fees). Still cost me only $49 all in - dirt cheap given I fly YVR-YEG sometimes and tend to get $170+ one way fees.

Can't see why not.

Indeed, it was I believe EU law that made merchant agreements with a "no fee" clause illegal. So quite the opposite, indeed.

Neil