A few years ago, me and the wife had flights booked with Ryan air to Faro between Xmas and New Year to view apartments for our upcoming move to Portugal. Due to the time of year, we paid a hefty sum.
The pandemic struck and all travel was banned. I contacted Ryan air and they flatly refused to refund or offer us vouchers because the flight actually operated. I asked how come as travel was banned and they explained it was used to repatriate Portuguese nationals and bring back UK citizens stranded in Portugal. So in their eyes, they had done nothing to break rules/terms.
So even though it was against the law for us to travel, we never got one penny back.
You should have claimed the money back from your credit card company.
That isn't really the point though, cafcfan. We managed to claim back from our insurance for a rebooked flight because we "missed" a Ryanair flight due to strike action at the airport in March. They claimed that as we were not at the gate until forty minutes after scheduled gate closing time, we couldn't get on. The fact that we were at the gate fifty minutes before the re-scheduled flight time, didn't matter apparently. We had booked in forty five minutes early - the maximum time they would allow, but due to queues at passport control there was no way we could have made it on time under any circumstances. Sometimes common decency should come in to play.
Well, of course you are right. But that's not how RyanAir behaves is it? We all book flights with them knowing that. So, the option is to fight fire with fire: if enough customers of that third-rate airline gave enough credit card companies and Banks aggravation by slapping in S75 or chargeback claims, they would get so pissed off with the aforementioned airline that the odious Michael O'Leary would find he suddenly didn't have an operational booking web site anymore because no card companies would want his business.
An elderly couple have said they were "horrified" after being charged £110 by Ryanair to print their tickets at the airport.
Ruth, 79, and Peter Jaffe, 80, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme they had to pay the fee after they mistakenly downloaded their return tickets instead of their outgoing tickets.
How much was the fare without fees? Probably unreasonably cheap.
Not saying it’s right (there should be some kind of law that limits fees as a percentage of the fare) but this is a clear part of their T&Cs and it’s how they make up for the fares being so cheap in the first place. If you don’t want to take that chance, fly with another airline.
Follow their rules and they won’t have any reason to charge you.
Errrrr, I take it if it happened to you would shrug your shoulders and say fair enough.
This is disgusting and there is no justification for it.
It did happen to me, about ten years ago. In Sweden funnily enough.
Cost me 600kr at the time to get a ticket printed for a return flight.
I was a bit annoyed. Mostly at myself for losing the ticket because I knew the rules before I bought.
The thing with Ryan Air is they are reasonable price wise and generally seem to me to be good in terms of on time flights. We had big problems with British Airways last year that didn't seem to have any customer service to speak of, the same with Jet 2 a few years back but whilst I'm sure Ryan Air would be no better and may even be worse although that might be a challenge, we have used them a lot without any issues.
An elderly couple have said they were "horrified" after being charged £110 by Ryanair to print their tickets at the airport.
Ruth, 79, and Peter Jaffe, 80, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme they had to pay the fee after they mistakenly downloaded their return tickets instead of their outgoing tickets.
How much was the fare without fees? Probably unreasonably cheap.
Not saying it’s right (there should be some kind of law that limits fees as a percentage of the fare) but this is a clear part of their T&Cs and it’s how they make up for the fares being so cheap in the first place. If you don’t want to take that chance, fly with another airline.
Follow their rules and they won’t have any reason to charge you.
Errrrr, I take it if it happened to you would shrug your shoulders and say fair enough.
This is disgusting and there is no justification for it.
It did happen to me, about ten years ago. In Sweden funnily enough.
Cost me 600kr at the time to get a ticket printed for a return flight.
I was a bit annoyed. Mostly at myself for losing the ticket because I knew the rules before I bought.
The past eighteen months I have travelled a few times to Gothenburg, Air Norwegian took my money before they folded that route. This leaves Ryanair and British Airways, I'm usually paying £150 return with a 23kg bag, Ryanair starts at silly money but if you include a bag you more or less pay the same price, coupled with the booking process with British Airways is the complete opposite of Ryanair. I used to be a fan of Ryanair but now I think they are geared to fleecing the passenger.
The past eighteen months I have travelled a few times to Gothenburg, Air Norwegian took my money before they folded that route. This leaves Ryanair and British Airways, I'm usually paying £150 return with a 23kg bag, Ryanair starts at silly money but if you include a bag you more or less pay the same price, coupled with the booking process with British Airways is the complete opposite of Ryanair. I used to be a fan of Ryanair but now I think they are geared to fleecing the passenger.
Or they’re geared to people travelling light, with as little costs to the company as possible, if you’re going to increase their costs, they’ll pass it on at a profit. AirAsia is the same here, if you can get your stuff into a backpack and carry it on, the prices are amazing, as soon as you want to take a suitcase prices become a lot less competitive.
Personally I think it’s a perfect balance, I always try and travel without a suitcase and it’s annoying I’m often forced into paying for one anyway. Same for boarding passes, it takes 5 minutes to sort out so I’d rather do it myself rather than have staff wages bundled into my ticket price.
I avoid flying with Ryanair and EasyJet at all costs, just not worth the agro. The old adage of you get what you pay for....
My Mrs flies BA and finds that by time you added the extra luggage charges etc of RA and EJ, the prices can be comparable. But, as I said earlier, if she's flying to certain destinations,there's not a lot of choice.
It’s all about personal experience isn’t it. I had a horrrendous experience with easyJet when they lost my golf clubs meaning I could t play any golf on a golf weekender. But my father in law won’t fly with anyone else when he flies to the med as he’s never had any issues with them.
It’s all about personal experience isn’t it. I had a horrrendous experience with easyJet when they lost my golf clubs meaning I could t play any golf on a golf weekender. But my father in law won’t fly with anyone else when he flies to the med as he’s never had any issues with them.
To a degree but it stems from company policy. When I've had potentially negative experiences with BA like flight cancellations (out of their control) they've put me in a hotel and the first flight back the next morning. BA also let you change flights with ease which I've done multiple times at no cost.
I stopped using Ryanair years ago because they have no interest in customer service. They're good for safety, punctuality and low fees, that's their core. If you want comfort and booking security, fly with someone else.
When I flew to Seville with Ryan air we had to walk 200 yards across the tarmac rather than use that thing that comes out of the terminal and attaches to the plane. Our bags were laid out on the tarmac rather than going to the carousel!
Apparently this made our flight 3 - 5 pounds cheaper!
I actually felt "good" that I had saved the money considering we then had to walk half a mile through the terminal anyway to get out of the airport!
It paid for the coffee I had before boarding.
But elderly people may not have felt the same way!
I regularly fly to Valencia as my sister and brother-in-law moved out there about 3 years ago.
Over the 3 or 4 annual visits in that time I've been leaving more and more stuff with them so now I just take the underseat bag on an easyJet flight and wear a gilet that has big pockets for anything extra. It means I can take my time boarding the plane as I'm no longer joining the fight to get overhead locker space for a case, or waiting at the carousel for a suitcase. I just need to stop my sister buying crap on Amazon for me to bring out each time!
The return flight usually costs about £60 which is less than the taxi I used to get to Gatwick. I now get a tram and train for under a tenner and it takes less than half the time.
I always print the boarding passes as a back-up for them on the app and don't suffer many delays or cancellations (jinxed myself now for three weeks' time), even during the pandemic when they were flying with 30 passengers on board.
Yes it can be a faff following all their rules, they will punish you if you forget a boarding pass or your bag is too big to fit the contraption, and do everything they can to get you to purchase car hire/insurance/food/extra baggage, but I think they still offer excellent value for money with a good level of service.
For the couple charged £110 to print the boarding passes, they would've been better off booking a room at the Travelodge and printing them there!
Comments
As Algarve says, sometimes you don't have a choice what airline you use when flying to some European destinations.
This leaves Ryanair and British Airways, I'm usually paying £150 return with a 23kg bag, Ryanair starts at silly money but if you include a bag you more or less pay the same price, coupled with the booking process with British Airways is the complete opposite of Ryanair.
I used to be a fan of Ryanair but now I think they are geared to fleecing the passenger.
Personally I think it’s a perfect balance, I always try and travel without a suitcase and it’s annoying I’m often forced into paying for one anyway. Same for boarding passes, it takes 5 minutes to sort out so I’d rather do it myself rather than have staff wages bundled into my ticket price.
I don't do flying meself
I stopped using Ryanair years ago because they have no interest in customer service. They're good for safety, punctuality and low fees, that's their core. If you want comfort and booking security, fly with someone else.
Apparently this made our flight 3 - 5 pounds cheaper!
I actually felt "good" that I had saved the money considering we then had to walk half a mile through the terminal anyway to get out of the airport!
It paid for the coffee I had before boarding.
But elderly people may not have felt the same way!
Over the 3 or 4 annual visits in that time I've been leaving more and more stuff with them so now I just take the underseat bag on an easyJet flight and wear a gilet that has big pockets for anything extra. It means I can take my time boarding the plane as I'm no longer joining the fight to get overhead locker space for a case, or waiting at the carousel for a suitcase. I just need to stop my sister buying crap on Amazon for me to bring out each time!
The return flight usually costs about £60 which is less than the taxi I used to get to Gatwick. I now get a tram and train for under a tenner and it takes less than half the time.
For the couple charged £110 to print the boarding passes, they would've been better off booking a room at the Travelodge and printing them there!
try seeing how far you can get in a taxi for those amounts.
Well done climate change protesters