Hmmm, with the rare exception (just about) of BFR, you've all missed the point of the whole nonsense. It's a marketing strategy from Ryanair. Why bother paying money for ads when you can be talked about in the news and in everyday conversation? And, sure enough, as soon as one person says they hate Ryanair or O'Leary, someone else will pop up and say "well the tickets are so cheap, what do you expect?" and the whole rigmarole continues. Being a bastard has worked well for both company and the man, and, for every silly idea (like charging for toilets or flights with no seats), there's something very clever but not so obvious (O'Leary bought himself a taxi license when they were deregulated in Ireland so he could drive around on bus lanes).
I blame an advertising company for the monster that Ryanair have become. Years ago, probably the late 80s or early 90s, an advertising company was hired to come up with a campaign for the Dublin-London route (up against Aer Lingus, I think, and mostly for business passengers, I think). Their one instruction was that they shouldn't mention that Ryanair don't serve breakfast as standard. The company turned around and made the fact they don't serve breakfast as the centrepiece of the ad, with the same kind of arrogant tones about their "overpriced" competitors we know and love from Ryanair media strategy now. I'll have a root for the ad if I have time, but with that ad, Ryanair learned that being bastards sells tickets.
It's deliberate confusion marketing ........ giving the impression of a cheaper price than a customer must actually pay.
It should be made illegal.
I don't much like regulations or Government interference, but there has to be some safeguard put in place to prevent unscrupulous companies advertising a minimum price ..... but without baggage, seats or even toilet access on a flight.
For example, you can't travel on a plane without a seat - so the ticket must include a seat in it's advertised price.
Likewise, you can't practically travel without a reasonable amount of baggage ..... the price of an advertised flight must include a reasonable amount of baggage.
And so on.
'Reasonable' needs to be defined by Government legislation ....not defined by what appears to be a cowboy company.
Dont knock them to much lads & lasses I heard a rumour they will be our new shirt sponser next year, just make sure when you pre-order next years kit you specify that you want a charlton badge on it!
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]Likewise, you can't practically travel without a reasonable amount of baggage ..... the price of an advertised flightmustinclude a reasonable amount of baggage.
Some people going for a weekend to visit family etc can clearly get away with hand luggage only, so you'd actually be denying them a chance to save the luggage fees etc if it was just added on.
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]That's half the problem, Pete.
You get suckered in by their misleading and deceptive advertising.
And then having bought the ticket, you find you've no option but to pay a whole raft of hidden charges.
Sorry but that isn't true. You don't buy the ticket and then find you have to pay a whole load raft of hidden charges. You select your flight and then choose whether you want to carry hold luggage, buy their travel insurance, pay by credit card, etc. At the point of paying, you know exactly how much you are going to be charged, you don't pay and then find out they want another £20 off you afterwards.
Can't understand why people dedicate so much time to moaning about them, like others have said, if you don't like them don't book with them, there's tons of other airlines out there. Personally, any airline that enables me to make a day drip to Dublin for £2 and make return trips to Sweden and Portugal for £4 is alright with me.
I agree with the OFT, purile and childish was the description of Ryanair. Good point madeabout the free advertising. We can't be far from the day when their adverts just consist of Micheal Ryan waving his cash around saying "Look at my wad..."
Can someone please explain everyone's problem with these companies? Everyone knows by now what they do so just live with it, by now everyone should ignore the initial 99p charge for the flight and go through all the detail pages to get to the final price (which imo is usually very reasonable indeed).
My feeling is everyone wants to have something to moan about, if these airlines did have a price of £30 on the front page and that is what you pay then the same people who are moaning about "hidden charges" would moan that they don't get a free meal or that drinks are too expensive. Please give it a rest, if you hate a company that much just don't use them it makes it all the more cheaper for me to fly
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]You get suckered in by them advertising a flight for 99p.
Then find that it actually costs £99, when everything's totted up.
That's also what the Office of Fair Trading didn't like, not that anything's been done about it, of course.
But Oggy, isn't that what advertising is all about? And there is a reason OFT have done nothing about it - they can't, because RA aren't breaking any rules.
They break down the pricing so that the flight cost itself is ridiculously low. The extras can tot up (but never anywhere near the 100x you've suggested here!), but you can easily avoid them - if you choose one of their 'tax free' flights, just take hand luggage, don't buy insurance, and pay by Electron, there are ZERO extra charges. Zero. I've done this before, and travelled for 99p. The advertising lured me in, and I got exactly what I hoped I would.
And as MrLargo quite rightly points out, if your requirements add small charges, you are fully aware of the final price you have to pay before paying. The advertising is luring you to check the flight prices out on their website, but it doesn't con you out of any money, and what they are advertising isn't unobtainable.
[cite]Posted By: Algarveaddick[/cite]I agree with the OFT, purile and childish was the description of Ryanair. Good point madeabout the free advertising. We can't be far from the day when their adverts just consist of Micheal Ryan waving his cash around saying "Look at my wad..."
It's Michael O'Leary. As is, they don't pay advertising companies any more, nor do they buy TV ads (I think, can't remember seeing one). Why bother, when you and your company are already a household name all across Europe and almost synonymous with cheap short-distance flights in Europe. Just lob a wee chart into the newspapers and Bob's your uncle. I feel like I've seen an ad that hit that level of arrogance, Algarve, but can't think of it to hand.
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]You get suckered in by them advertising a flight for 99p.
Then find that it actually costs £99, when everything's totted up.
That's also what the Office of Fair Trading didn't like, not that anything's been done about it, of course.
But Oggy, isn't that what advertising is all about? And there is a reason OFT have done nothing about it - they can't, because RA aren't breaking any rules.
They break down the pricing so that the flight cost itself is ridiculously low. The extras can tot up (but never anywhere near the 100x you've suggested here!), but you can easily avoid them - if you choose one of their 'tax free' flights, just take hand luggage, don't buy insurance, and pay by Electron, there are ZERO extra charges. Zero. I've done this before, and travelled for 99p. The advertising lured me in, and I got exactly what I hoped I would.
And as MrLargo quite rightly points out, if your requirements add small charges, you are fully aware of the final price you have to pay before paying. The advertising is luring you to check the flight prices out on their website, but it doesn't con you out of any money, and what they are advertising isn't unobtainable.
Well, Si .... thanks for breaking it all down for me in such an easy to understand way.
It seems if you've got their system sussed and know how to work it your own advantage, that's fine.
But 2 years ago I thought I was getting a £19.99 flight to Dublin and it cost me nearly £100 in the end.
[cite]Posted By: colthe3rd[/cite]Can someone please explain everyone's problem with these companies? Everyone knows by now what they do so just live with it, by now everyone should ignore the initial 99p charge for the flight and go through all the detail pages to get to the final price (which imo is usually very reasonable indeed).
Because it's a waste of my bloody time, that's why. If I've got the choice of 4 or 5 different airlines to travel to the place that I want to go, I don't want to have to go through the full booking process for all of them just to be able to find out how much they are actually going to cost me. Their advertising should provide me with sufficient information to make that choice, otherwise it is misleading, and shouldn't be allowed. If they want to provide additional discounts to encourage passengers to do certain things that help save them money on staffing etc that's fine, but it shouldn't be assumed in the headline price.
I think ryanair are great. Bring in that fat people need to pay for two seats.
On a more sensible note, I flew to Salzburg with ryanair last year, me and the girlfriend.
We knew of the extra card charges as everyone does so found a friend who has a electron card and got return flights stansted - salzburg (austria) for £5 each.
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]
Well, Si .... thanks for breaking it all down for me in such an easy to understand way.
It seems if you've got their system sussed and know how to work it your own advantage, that's fine.
But 2 years ago I thought I was getting a £19.99 flight to Dublin and it cost me nearly £100 in the end.
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]
Well, Si .... thanks for breaking it all down for me in such an easy to understand way.
It seems if you've got their system sussed and know how to work it your own advantage, that's fine.
But 2 years ago I thought I was getting a £19.99 flight to Dublin and it cost me nearly £100 in the end.
I've never even looked at their website since.
Surely that's your fault though, not theirs?
I'm supposed to be the customer, Stu.
Having been totally misled by their advertising, I ended up paying £74 more than I understood when I first clicked on their link. My fault ...... ? Evidently I didn't know how to play their little game.
Some do no doubt, but there are many others who feel deceived like me.
Here's another poster with something to say:
[cite]Posted By: aliwibble[/cite]
[cite]Posted By: colthe3rd[/cite]Can someone please explain everyone's problem with these companies? Everyone knows by now what they do so just live with it, by now everyone should ignore the initial 99p charge for the flight and go through all the detail pages to get to the final price (which imo is usually very reasonable indeed).
Because it's a waste of my bloody time, that's why. If I've got the choice of 4 or 5 different airlines to travel to the place that I want to go, I don't want to have to go through the full booking process for all of them just to be able to find out how much they are actually going to cost me. Their advertising should provide me with sufficient information to make that choice, otherwise it is misleading, and shouldn't be allowed. If they want to provide additional discounts to encourage passengers to do certain things that help save them money on staffing etc that's fine, but it shouldn't be assumed in the headline price.
[cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]
I'm supposed to be the customer, Stu.
Having been totally misled by their advertising, I ended up paying £74 more than I understood when I first clicked on their link. My fault ...... ? Evidently I didn't know how to play their little game.
Some do no doubt, but there are many others who feel deceived like me.
Here's another poster with something to say:
I'm not disputing they are shits, they clearly are. What they're doing isnt illegal in anyway at all, they are advertising a MINIMUM price, if you then make a choice to add 'extras' to your service, then surely you have to understand you will be paying more for those.
The only difference is, what Ryanair consider to 'extras' are very, very different from the more expensive airlines.
At no point do ryanair trick you, at no point did you click pay then the price suddenly doubled, throughout the booking process you would have been ticking or unticking boxes that increased the price of your ticket, that was totally your choice, I don't see how ryanair can be blamed at all for that.
Firstly, whilst not breaking the letter of the law, they are clearly breaking the spirit. They've basically analysed their order history, picked the least used payment method and made that one free. It has no reflection on actual costs, it's just a way of increasing the cost without having to advertise that fact. That you can, if you jump through enough hoops, get the cheaper fair is neither here nor there, they've decided they're happy for <1% of people to basically get a discount and everybody else to pay higher fares.
Secondly, I'm not sure how legal it is to call something a credit card processing fee when it clearly isn't. If it was it would be once per booking, not once per passenger, and would have to be a least proportionate to the costs incurred. This is the route any complaints to advertising standards should take, the name of the fee should reflect what it is actually for, but I'm not sure a "Ryanair profit margin inflation fee" would be so readily accepted by the public.
[cite]Posted By: colthe3rd[/cite]Can someone please explain everyone's problem with these companies? Everyone knows by now what they do so just live with it, by now everyone should ignore the initial 99p charge for the flight and go through all the detail pages to get to the final price (which imo is usually very reasonable indeed).
Because it's a waste of my bloody time, that's why. If I've got the choice of 4 or 5 different airlines to travel to the place that I want to go, I don't want to have to go through the full booking process for all of them just to be able to find out how much they are actually going to cost me. Their advertising should provide me with sufficient information to make that choice, otherwise it is misleading, and shouldn't be allowed. If they want to provide additional discounts to encourage passengers to do certain things that help save them money on staffing etc that's fine, but it shouldn't be assumed in the headline price.
I want to pick up on your point about being misleading. Surely if BA include things such as insurance that I do not want surely that's misleading as the price they have advertised on their front page isn't the one I'm going to pay.
I also want to pick up on other suggestions about breaking laws, they are clearly breakiing no laws. Under contract law they have no obligation to offer something at an advertised price, it only becomes a binding contract once payment has been made. And surely this whole argument applies to all companies not just Ryanair, take our beloved club for example, advertising season tickets FROM a certain price, it happens all the time but for some reason when it comes to airlines people want to get on their high horse about it. Ryanair are a budget airline, therefore don't go with them if you are looking for the best service just the cheapest price, if you paid a higher price than expected then oh well nevermind but chances are it would still have been cheaper than the majority of other airlines
You can't really compare Ryanairs pricing to the club's season ticket pricing. When the club say adult season tickets from £295 (or whatever it was), something like 30-40% of customers can get that price, and it's clear what the price difference is for, behind the goal being cheaper than along the sides. If when you applied for the ticket there was a £40 seating fee, plus a £2 per game credit card fee (despite paying for the whole season in one transaction) I think you'd have a right to be a bit miffed about it.
The fact Ryanair charge multiple times for the same service (multiple credit card fees despite there only being one transaction) is fraudulent and borderline illegal. As many above have said, the best bet is to simply use other airlines. Ryanair just aren't that much cheaper anymore. I went to spain last year and flew Ryanair to the Costa Brava. For £10 more per person (around 10% extra) we could have flow BA to Barcelona. For that £10 we'd have got 8KG per passenger extra baggage allowance, could have taken another bag, would have got reserved seats and some food, plus avoided the scrum at boarding. So in future I will go with a proper airlines and though paying a little extra, get far more service for the money and far less hassle.
[cite]Posted By: randy andy[/cite]The fact Ryanair charge multiple times for the same service (multiple credit card fees despite there only being one transaction) is fraudulent and borderline illegal.
Wrong on both counts, it's perfectly legal.
Just like the people on ebay who charge £6+ for p&p in an envolope. there are more costs to cover than what they need to pay the credit card company. What about the costs of implementing/using/maintaining the system to process those payments? Just because other airlines include these fees in their price (so you have no option but to pay them, unlike with ryanair) does not make it illegal or fraudulent for ryanair to not do so.
[cite]Posted By: randy andy[/cite]The fact Ryanair charge multiple times for the same service (multiple credit card fees despite there only being one transaction) is fraudulent and borderline illegal.
Wrong on both counts, it's perfectly legal.
Just like the people on ebay who charge £6+ for p&p in an envolope. there are more costs to cover than what they need to pay the credit card company. What about the costs of implementing/using/maintaining the system to process those payments? Just because other airlines include these fees in their price (so you have no option but to pay them, unlike with ryanair) does not make it illegal or fraudulent for ryanair to not do so.
It's not the same at all, unless there are people on ebay charging you 52x the p&p when they send you a pack of cards. If I order one package on ebay I get charged one set of p&p and one transaction fee by paypal. Also £6 isn't unreasonable. The stamp may only cost 40p or whatever, but the person had to go buy the stamp and then go to a postbox and post it. Say it takes 20-odd mins to get to and from somewhere that sells stamps and then 10 or so mins to get to and from the post box, you've basically paid them £10 an hour for their postage service. Doesn't sound so unreasonable now does it?
This has been an interesting thread for me to read as someone involved in consumer protection for a living. What I can tell you all for a fact is that Ryan Air have sailed very close to the wind in terms of the legality of their advertising since they started and have in fact, contrary to some sugestions on here, been subject to prosecution on more than one occasion in relation to the 'hidden' charges.
Some have been won (resulting in a small fine and changes to their trading methods) and others lost - that's just the way it goes but considering who has the best lawyers, the cash strapped trading standards department or Ryan Air, price transparency has improved a bit over the years as a result of these prosecutions believe it or not.
I can't say any more on the subject on a forum like this but there have been some changes in consumer protection law which may help increase the clarity of their pricing structure in the near future which should please everybody really (except O'Reilly...)
[cite]Posted By: randy andy[/cite]The stamp may only cost 40p or whatever, but the person had to go buy the stamp and then go to a postbox and post it. Say it takes 20-odd mins to get to and from somewhere that sells stamps and then 10 or so mins to get to and from the post box, you've basically paid them £10 an hour for their postage service. Doesn't sound so unreasonable now does it?
Apart from the people who buy stamps in bulk and have their mail collected.
As I said before, it may only cost ryan £2 to process your payment (a total guess) but what about the people who need to run the system that processes those payments, the upgrades those sysems need, the hosting of the webspace etc etc etc. You pay exactly the same charges with all the other airlines, they just build it into the ticket price, surely making them the unscrupulous robbing bastards, not ryanair.
Nobody is tricking you, or stealing from you or trying to get one over on you, everything you need to pay (or not, you know, it's your choice) is there in black and white, O'Reilly doesnt come to your house and hold a gun to your face and make you pay the credit card fee's, book extra luggage, use the pisser or even book with ryanair if you don't feel like it, it's all choice on your part, choices you make, knowing all the facts, as ryanair state it all ouit to you during the booking process.
They are fine just as long as you don't want to do anything slightly out of the ordinary or have mistakenly done something wrong in checking in on line.....that's when the fun and games start.
There are quite a number of quite different scenarios on their web site which you have to be pretty on the ball to notice.
For example, I unwittingly paid for an insurance I didn't want on a short 4 day trip to Biarritz....get it wrong and there's no forgiving....you'll pay through the nose.
Comments
I blame an advertising company for the monster that Ryanair have become. Years ago, probably the late 80s or early 90s, an advertising company was hired to come up with a campaign for the Dublin-London route (up against Aer Lingus, I think, and mostly for business passengers, I think). Their one instruction was that they shouldn't mention that Ryanair don't serve breakfast as standard. The company turned around and made the fact they don't serve breakfast as the centrepiece of the ad, with the same kind of arrogant tones about their "overpriced" competitors we know and love from Ryanair media strategy now. I'll have a root for the ad if I have time, but with that ad, Ryanair learned that being bastards sells tickets.
It should be made illegal.
I don't much like regulations or Government interference, but there has to be some safeguard put in place to prevent unscrupulous companies advertising a minimum price ..... but without baggage, seats or even toilet access on a flight.
For example, you can't travel on a plane without a seat - so the ticket must include a seat in it's advertised price.
Likewise, you can't practically travel without a reasonable amount of baggage ..... the price of an advertised flight must include a reasonable amount of baggage.
And so on.
'Reasonable' needs to be defined by Government legislation ....not defined by what appears to be a cowboy company.
Some people going for a weekend to visit family etc can clearly get away with hand luggage only, so you'd actually be denying them a chance to save the luggage fees etc if it was just added on.
Small point I know, in general I agree!
£8 for £100 worth of flights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EASYJET!
ridiculous ....
There's a thread on an easyjet forum about this.
You can see that I've had my say here too.
Scrap the charge
You get suckered in by their misleading and deceptive advertising.
And then having bought the ticket, you find you've no option but to pay a whole raft of hidden charges.
Sorry but that isn't true. You don't buy the ticket and then find you have to pay a whole load raft of hidden charges. You select your flight and then choose whether you want to carry hold luggage, buy their travel insurance, pay by credit card, etc. At the point of paying, you know exactly how much you are going to be charged, you don't pay and then find out they want another £20 off you afterwards.
Can't understand why people dedicate so much time to moaning about them, like others have said, if you don't like them don't book with them, there's tons of other airlines out there. Personally, any airline that enables me to make a day drip to Dublin for £2 and make return trips to Sweden and Portugal for £4 is alright with me.
My feeling is everyone wants to have something to moan about, if these airlines did have a price of £30 on the front page and that is what you pay then the same people who are moaning about "hidden charges" would moan that they don't get a free meal or that drinks are too expensive. Please give it a rest, if you hate a company that much just don't use them it makes it all the more cheaper for me to fly
Then find that it actually costs £99, when everything's totted up.
That's also what the Office of Fair Trading didn't like, not that anything's been done about it, of course.
But Oggy, isn't that what advertising is all about? And there is a reason OFT have done nothing about it - they can't, because RA aren't breaking any rules.
They break down the pricing so that the flight cost itself is ridiculously low. The extras can tot up (but never anywhere near the 100x you've suggested here!), but you can easily avoid them - if you choose one of their 'tax free' flights, just take hand luggage, don't buy insurance, and pay by Electron, there are ZERO extra charges. Zero. I've done this before, and travelled for 99p. The advertising lured me in, and I got exactly what I hoped I would.
And as MrLargo quite rightly points out, if your requirements add small charges, you are fully aware of the final price you have to pay before paying. The advertising is luring you to check the flight prices out on their website, but it doesn't con you out of any money, and what they are advertising isn't unobtainable.
It's Michael O'Leary. As is, they don't pay advertising companies any more, nor do they buy TV ads (I think, can't remember seeing one). Why bother, when you and your company are already a household name all across Europe and almost synonymous with cheap short-distance flights in Europe. Just lob a wee chart into the newspapers and Bob's your uncle. I feel like I've seen an ad that hit that level of arrogance, Algarve, but can't think of it to hand.
Well, Si .... thanks for breaking it all down for me in such an easy to understand way.
It seems if you've got their system sussed and know how to work it your own advantage, that's fine.
But 2 years ago I thought I was getting a £19.99 flight to Dublin and it cost me nearly £100 in the end.
I've never even looked at their website since.
On a more sensible note, I flew to Salzburg with ryanair last year, me and the girlfriend.
We knew of the extra card charges as everyone does so found a friend who has a electron card and got return flights stansted - salzburg (austria) for £5 each.
Bargain
Surely that's your fault though, not theirs?
I have changed choice of holiday destination when I found out that Ryanair were the only people that fly there.
I'm supposed to be the customer, Stu.
Having been totally misled by their advertising, I ended up paying £74 more than I understood when I first clicked on their link. My fault ...... ? Evidently I didn't know how to play their little game.
Some do no doubt, but there are many others who feel deceived like me.
Here's another poster with something to say:
Well said, Ali.
I'm not disputing they are shits, they clearly are. What they're doing isnt illegal in anyway at all, they are advertising a MINIMUM price, if you then make a choice to add 'extras' to your service, then surely you have to understand you will be paying more for those.
The only difference is, what Ryanair consider to 'extras' are very, very different from the more expensive airlines.
At no point do ryanair trick you, at no point did you click pay then the price suddenly doubled, throughout the booking process you would have been ticking or unticking boxes that increased the price of your ticket, that was totally your choice, I don't see how ryanair can be blamed at all for that.
Firstly, whilst not breaking the letter of the law, they are clearly breaking the spirit. They've basically analysed their order history, picked the least used payment method and made that one free. It has no reflection on actual costs, it's just a way of increasing the cost without having to advertise that fact. That you can, if you jump through enough hoops, get the cheaper fair is neither here nor there, they've decided they're happy for <1% of people to basically get a discount and everybody else to pay higher fares.
Secondly, I'm not sure how legal it is to call something a credit card processing fee when it clearly isn't. If it was it would be once per booking, not once per passenger, and would have to be a least proportionate to the costs incurred. This is the route any complaints to advertising standards should take, the name of the fee should reflect what it is actually for, but I'm not sure a "Ryanair profit margin inflation fee" would be so readily accepted by the public.
I want to pick up on your point about being misleading. Surely if BA include things such as insurance that I do not want surely that's misleading as the price they have advertised on their front page isn't the one I'm going to pay.
I also want to pick up on other suggestions about breaking laws, they are clearly breakiing no laws. Under contract law they have no obligation to offer something at an advertised price, it only becomes a binding contract once payment has been made. And surely this whole argument applies to all companies not just Ryanair, take our beloved club for example, advertising season tickets FROM a certain price, it happens all the time but for some reason when it comes to airlines people want to get on their high horse about it. Ryanair are a budget airline, therefore don't go with them if you are looking for the best service just the cheapest price, if you paid a higher price than expected then oh well nevermind but chances are it would still have been cheaper than the majority of other airlines
The fact Ryanair charge multiple times for the same service (multiple credit card fees despite there only being one transaction) is fraudulent and borderline illegal. As many above have said, the best bet is to simply use other airlines. Ryanair just aren't that much cheaper anymore. I went to spain last year and flew Ryanair to the Costa Brava. For £10 more per person (around 10% extra) we could have flow BA to Barcelona. For that £10 we'd have got 8KG per passenger extra baggage allowance, could have taken another bag, would have got reserved seats and some food, plus avoided the scrum at boarding. So in future I will go with a proper airlines and though paying a little extra, get far more service for the money and far less hassle.
Wrong on both counts, it's perfectly legal.
Just like the people on ebay who charge £6+ for p&p in an envolope. there are more costs to cover than what they need to pay the credit card company. What about the costs of implementing/using/maintaining the system to process those payments? Just because other airlines include these fees in their price (so you have no option but to pay them, unlike with ryanair) does not make it illegal or fraudulent for ryanair to not do so.
It's not the same at all, unless there are people on ebay charging you 52x the p&p when they send you a pack of cards. If I order one package on ebay I get charged one set of p&p and one transaction fee by paypal. Also £6 isn't unreasonable. The stamp may only cost 40p or whatever, but the person had to go buy the stamp and then go to a postbox and post it. Say it takes 20-odd mins to get to and from somewhere that sells stamps and then 10 or so mins to get to and from the post box, you've basically paid them £10 an hour for their postage service. Doesn't sound so unreasonable now does it?
Some have been won (resulting in a small fine and changes to their trading methods) and others lost - that's just the way it goes but considering who has the best lawyers, the cash strapped trading standards department or Ryan Air, price transparency has improved a bit over the years as a result of these prosecutions believe it or not.
I can't say any more on the subject on a forum like this but there have been some changes in consumer protection law which may help increase the clarity of their pricing structure in the near future which should please everybody really (except O'Reilly...)
I still fly with them though...
Apart from the people who buy stamps in bulk and have their mail collected.
As I said before, it may only cost ryan £2 to process your payment (a total guess) but what about the people who need to run the system that processes those payments, the upgrades those sysems need, the hosting of the webspace etc etc etc. You pay exactly the same charges with all the other airlines, they just build it into the ticket price, surely making them the unscrupulous robbing bastards, not ryanair.
Nobody is tricking you, or stealing from you or trying to get one over on you, everything you need to pay (or not, you know, it's your choice) is there in black and white, O'Reilly doesnt come to your house and hold a gun to your face and make you pay the credit card fee's, book extra luggage, use the pisser or even book with ryanair if you don't feel like it, it's all choice on your part, choices you make, knowing all the facts, as ryanair state it all ouit to you during the booking process.
There are quite a number of quite different scenarios on their web site which you have to be pretty on the ball to notice.
For example, I unwittingly paid for an insurance I didn't want on a short 4 day trip to Biarritz....get it wrong and there's no forgiving....you'll pay through the nose.