The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russell
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Budget airline gets slammed by OFT
RYANAIR, the airline that has threatened to install pay restrooms on its planes and might one day try to charge you for merely thinking about booking a flight on it, has been accused by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) of acting childishly over its online payment policies.
Ryanair offers ticket buyers the chance to save on booking fees, if they use a specific card for online payments. The problem is that the chosen solution is an obscure pre-paid card by Mastercard, which perhaps unsurprisingly does not appear in the vast majority of wallets.
The comments came in an interview with the Independent, which saw the OFT boss John Fingleton point a finger at the firm over some of its practices.
In the UK airlines are allowed to advertise themselves as a low-priced service, so long as they offer at least one free payment method. In Ryanair's case, that method is the aforementioned prepaid Mastercard rarity.
"Ryanair has this funny game where they have found some very low frequency payment mechanism and say: 'Well because you can pay with that,'" said Fingleton. "It's almost like taunting consumers and pointing out: 'Oh well, we know this is completely outside the spirit of the law, but we think it's within the narrow letter of the law'. On some level it's quite puerile - it's almost childish."
Used to riding out the occasional negative press storm, Ryanair hit back swiftly, saying in a statement, "Ryanair fails to understand why it was singled out for these inaccurate criticisms by Mr Fingleton, when its charges policies are copied by high fare UK airlines. Perhaps Mr Fingleton's comments are designed to cover over the OFT's failure to take any action against BA's unfair fuel surcharges, the BAA's monopoly pricing or the continuing mis-selling by screenscraper websites across the UK and Europe, who routinely add hidden mark-ups to Ryanair's low fares."
It added that Fingleton's statements were "disappointing and wrong," and might just as well have added a rude noise. µ
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The last few times I've flown to finland I've used BA and saved about 200 per trip over using ryanair.
Apart from the fees ryanair charge, there's the issue of getting to/from Stansted - the flight arrival time means I can't get home on public transport, so have to use a car. Parking charges for said car. Getting from bumf*ck finland to the railway station and taking train to helsinki (or bus).
It's much easier to jump on urban rail lines to/from heathrow (I HATE Heathrow!), it only costs a fiver each way and I don't get shafted for taking a suitcase or e-ticketing.
As for closer EU destinations it's usually easier to take a train and hire a car at the other end. cue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entity_%28South_Park%29
Its gimmicky I know and Mr. O'Leary may be bending the rues but the fact remains I can fly from East Midlands near Derby to Berlin for £45 return including all taxes and fees. It costs £74 return Derby to London. Keep it up Mr. O'Leary, I will continue to use Ryanair.
(Bet this does not get onto the website)
"The problem is that the chosen solution is an obscure pre-paid card by Mastercard, which perhaps unsurprisingly does not appear in the vast majority of wallets."
Maybe the OFT could look into whether brown envelopes stuffed with cash might also be involved in this bizarre choice of payment card preference. Ryanair's business model seems to involve a lot of subsidies and smoke-plus-mirrors, so one shouldn't underestimate their ability to make a quick buck out of something which otherwise just looks like them horsing around.
Yeah, harsh language - that'll sort them out all right.
This is commerce - they're not the only tossers with hidden charges.
There's a neat trick you can play - don't encourage them - don't pay them.
If they look at their web site records and see everyone dropping out just after they've added on these spurious charges then they might think again.
My experiences with BA have been just as bad. Dealing with customer services designed to make you quit in exasperation has made them untouchable.
Currently in Japan they are the lowest priced international airline as no-one will touch them with a bargepole.
Oh yeah, sure, that's the root of the problem.
Bollocks, I say. I tried Ryanair to get from Paris to Marrakesh. I booked it from Ryanair's site for a price I found fair.
Between the additional luggage fees (coming AND returning, btw) and other "unexpected charges", when I got back I had been fleeced so much that I might as well have booked the ticket with Air France.
And who the hell takes luggage only ONE WAY ?
That is really the straw that broke my back. Okay, I can get a luggage fee, but to charge me twice when you know I've booked a return flight ? That is petty viciousness.
Ryanair is only cheap if you go without any luggage and intend to sleep through the whole flight.
Personally, I'm just waiting for the day where there will be a $5 surcharge for oxygen in the masks.
Ryanair, Never Again.
BAA and Luton airport are extortion racketeering crafty-sons-of-bitches.
£1 to drop someone off at Luton airport.
Nowhere to sit down at a table and rest for free at Standsted. The only tables are in restaurants. Even though we have paid airport fees.
Ryanair - usually the cheapest but do have extreme practices. £100 to change the name or initials on a ticket.
Ryanair - they want to charge for seating. How will that work with take off, landing and turbulence? Soon it will be as comfortable as taking the London Underground to work ;-)
calling themselves low fare - yes they're maybe cheapest but the service sucks, 15kg allowance and all those f*** charges, why can't they state full price in the beginning of purchase?
i experienced their service in Feb (heavy snow at stansted), they let us into the plane, then we were waiting and waiting and then after 2.5hrs on the plane (no food or drinks because of the policies) they told us there will be somebody waiting for us and will guide us and helps re-book tickets for the morning.
Yeah, of course, nobody there, ryanair office closed and they even didn't bother to put a message on their offices informing customers that there won't be any flights in the morning. luckily i checked with my brother if he can book me a flight for the morning and he told me that all flights have been cancelled. bunch of morons. i use ryanair as the last option and since then i didn't use them. my flatmate has one of those cards just because she uses ryanair 3-5 times a year :)
2 parents + 1 minor on a return trip.
Payment charges 3ppl x 2 flights = £60
FFFFFFfffuuuuuuuuuu!
That's actually £30. See how complicated it is to buy a bloody ticket these days?
Last year Ryanair's 'free' card payment option was a Visa Electron card. Obviously far too many people went out and got themselves one (I know I did) and now they've changed the rules again.
It's simply a game of cat and mouse; doubtless we'll now see an increase in the uptake of pre-paid Mastercards...