You can see the Administrative fee "Administrasjonsavgift" at the Norwegian site here: http://www.ryanair.com/no/sporsmal/table-of-fees

I'ts 5 Euro per pax per flight. The online check in fee "Internett-innsjekking" is also the same price.

I just checked and saw that they did have some ridiculously cheap promo fares that waived both these fees as well as taxes. I know that the Consumer Protection Agency here in Norway has been on their case about deceptive promo fares, so this could be a recent change.

There's a big issue about the level of credit card charges, but under EU law they must provide a free alternative - which they do. See here

From my perspective, O'Leary knows exactly what he's doing and he's doing it very good! Let me explain...

I think O'Leary comes up from time to time with "strange" ideas like "travelling standing" or "flying only with a pilot" just to attract attention and free publicity! He does not want to spend a cent on advertising (like EasyJet and others do). It's enough for him to say/do something strange that upsets people and makes them talk about RyanAir! It's the best marketing, IMHO.

After all, I prefer to pay him for being smart and doing this so good, instead of paying EasyJet�s advertisement costs. What do you prefer?

I agree that there's a method to his madness or meanness. While he does get a lot of free publicity, I think he turns a lot of people off from flying Ryan Air. My guess is that many pax fly Ryan Air despite O' Leary, because of the much cheaper price.

His nastiness is not necessary -other bosses of low cost carriers have gotten lots of favorable free publicity, like Herb Kelleher of Southwest and Freddie Laker. IMO, I think he revels in being a jerk.

That is why they can quote that low price - because the "Administrative Fee" isn't compulsory for all flights


Meanwhile a training course for those who wish to fly Ryanair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAg0lUYHHFc

I've never flown 'em but have flown Air Asia and Spirit Airlines (two of the most successful proteges in other parts of the world), so I'm familiar with the unbundling game. They probably take it too far, or at least with too much attitude. Which is a bit like staying with a bank whose CEO flatly states that they bank invents fees even if they have no real basis in cost just to see if customers will pay them (I don't think any large bank has been that in-your-face about it). A friend of mine traveling internationally did have Ryanair on an intra-Europe segment, and it dawned on him that he'd actually pay more in his circumstances all-in than if he'd booked a legacy.

Here's a recent article on Ryanair's O'Leary "The Duke of Discomfort" in Businessweek http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...4058006755.htm

I think it's fine to have publicity clowns like him, and his business model is working. I just hope the other airlines offer better alternatives instead of trying to copy them. I've only flown Ryanair once about 6 years ago and it was actually ok, but prefer to pay more to avoid them in general. The money saved is usually not worth the time and hassle for me.

So you believe the publicity? ripago has it right. In any case, even if FR flew with one pilot and an elastic band for power, you wouldn't be compelled to use them.Then you probably shouldn't book with legacy carriers. In the UK, BA charges �4.50 per ticket for payment by credit card. In many other countries, they charge a booking fee. AF wanted to charge me �4 per ticket for payment by credit card.Thanks. That seems to be market-specific. We don't have an FR admin fee in the UK or Ireland, but the check-in fee is higher. (I hadn't realised that Norway used �.)Perhaps so, but he attracts far more. Just check the company turnover and passenger statistics.

Norway uses NOK, but the various "fees" show up in their fee charts as € or � and are converted to NOK when you get towards the end of the booking process.

Norway's not in the EU, so they perhaps haven't yet implemented similar rules to stop RA's deceptive practices.

It is true that RA has been very successful, so they are obviously doing something right. IMO it's the clearly cheaper fares that they have on routes that get pax to fly with them and not O'Leary's winning personality.

I saw that when I tried one of the their normal fares the "fees" were added. Pretty slimy tactic.

Curious thing: I was going to mention something else that annoyed me about RA - having to twice decline their travel insurance, the second time being a pop up window asking if you are sure you really want to decline. I just went to their site and saw that they were no longer showing the travel insurance option, both when booking from England and Norway. Have they dropped this practice or do they not ask if a pax has recently declined in a previous booking session?

I agree, a lot of pax fly RyanAir for the cheap prices, not for O'Leary. But, in order to see that the prices are so low, you need to hear about them before, right? So, you either hear of them from paid publicity, or from the free publicity (including word of mouth).

Of course, the free publicity may be favorable or not. Unfortunatelly, the bad publicity is quite as effective as the good one, but it spreads much faster and more. He knows it and he uses it. For example, we are talking here about him because he is (or looks like) a jerk. But, I preffer to pay him, instead of "image building companies" - aka paid publicity.

Totally agree! After all, lately it seems that they are #1 in Europe and EasyJet remained 2nd.

Valid points. More valid when they were in the start up phase and they needed to get their name and concept known. Now everyone knows about RA and at some point (when other airlines get close to them in price) positive branding will be important to them.

O'leary has also turned off a lot of people from trying RA who would be willing to fly with a LCC. I don't think it's the "outrageous" ideas that turn people off so much, rather his gratuitous nastiness.

Hi Folks,

My wife and mom were booked on Ryan air flight from BVA - CIA last Tuesday when the French folks decided to strike and hence the flight was cancelled.. They gave us options to change free of cost.. Only problem was there was no seat for the next 3 days on Rome flights from BVA.. The customer service agent offered me flexibiility to reroute from any place to any place ( which I thot was great) and we managed to get a booking from Brussels to Pisa and then continue onwards with our travel plans.. This was all done FoC and I was rather impressed with the call center lady since she even gave me a call back as promised after speaking to her supervisor for a clarification..^

My family took the flight tonight and they said the flight was quite decent and on time..I had booked the tickets around 3 weeks back for 40 eur total for 2 ppl incl everything and then took optional check in baggage for 15eur so total for 2 ppl incl 1 check in bag was eur 55 which was worth it IMHO..^

The only problem I had was reaching the call center folks since we needed to hold on for a long time but otherwise quite quite decent..

But ofcourse YMMV...

Abhi

+1 on the above...

The problem IMO is that he speaks his mind which may not always be politically and diplomatically right.. But I dont think ppl are going away from RA, since most of his flights r full as I hv experienced twice this week itself..

i have bought ryanair tickets on 2 seperate occasions & they managed to screw me both times....i can't speak for anyone else but if i can help it then i would definitely not even touch them with a 10 foot pole....