Are all flight fees legal?

lic

Crabman wrote: »

The term is 'unlawful' rather than 'illegal'

It's possible to beat the card charges by getting hold of a Visa Electron card (e.g. Halifax Easycash current account). Full details of Ryanair's extra charges in the special Ryanair Flights Article.

And the difference between the words illegal, and unlawful would be?

lic

Microstar wrote: »

Who gets what?
Ryanair currently charge a £4 card payment fee per passenger per one-way flight. This in no way reflects the cost of processing the payment, since the card companies will take an amount per payment (considerably less than £4 on most purchases). The £4 per passenger per one-way flight charge is simply a way of charging more for the service but keeping the 'headline' advertised flight cost as low as possible. Its a bit like seeing a shirt advertised for £10, taking the shirt to check-out and discovering that they will charge you another £5 for the button-holes!

I will no longer fly with Ryanair - not even on 'free' flights. I have all sorts of major concerns about them. I had a young lady tennant who worked for the company (on a more or less 'self-employed' basis). Many of the crew are worked to the point of exhaustion and every possible corner is cut. I was told that a lot of crew grow to have an extreme hate of the company and its management. Work out the rest for yourselves.....

It is not like buying a shirt and being charged more for the button holes. You are complaining about being charged the card fee. I do not think Ryanair say all the fee goes to the card company, they say it is a card fee. Surely they can charge what they like for whatever. It is up to the customer to decide if they wish to purchase at that price.

I know a lot of people who work harder then they used to, for no overtime, or time off. I also know a great many who have lunch at their desks and continue to work through the lunch break. This seems to be the way a lot of the Uk employers want us to work.
I had a great job once, it paid well, it paid overtime and gave me plenty of time off. Although employed by the same firm the management has changed over the 24 years i've been there; and I don't enjoy it to the same extent. It could be the fact I have been doing it for so long, or it could be that I see more faults now. That said I would never quit, as I would never find a job that paid the same pension (if they don't change things).

Would I be right that your comment, work the rest out yourselves, is a slight about safety. If that is the case, having travelled with them many time I canot fault their safety.

_Andy_

If you're saying it's not 'fair' for them to charge what they like for a card fee then surely by the same standard you don't think it's 'fair' for them to make a profit on the flight full stop?
I.e. in most cases they'll be charging you more to carry you on the flight then it costs them to do so.
I fail to see what is immoral about a company making profit.

lijaloo

http://62.73.129.180/site/CZ/faqs.php?sect=pnr&quest=handlingcharge

Ryanair claim that the handling charge is to

"To defray the substantial administration costs we incur when processing credit and debit cards or ELV direct debits a handling fee applies to each passenger per flight segment"

Not sure about substantial administration costs.

Wonder how long the special offer to visa electron card holders lasts, but I suppose they have to have one way of paying which doesn't lead to charges otherwise the 1p flights couldn't be advertised as 1p flights.

Microstar_2

lic wrote: »

It is not like buying a shirt and being charged more for the button holes. You are complaining about being charged the card fee. I do not think Ryanair say all the fee goes to the card company, they say it is a card fee. Surely they can charge what they like for whatever. It is up to the customer to decide if they wish to purchase at that price.

It is a fee that is unrelated to the cost of processing the card payment since it relates to the number of passengers travelling; i.e. it is effectively a per-passenger surcharge. Now there is nothing legally wrong with that at all, however I suspect its main purpose is to allow a lower 'headline' fare to be advertised. This surcharge is then added at the final point in the buying process. My objection is more to do with the way that the flights are advertised than the actual cost, and their claim that it is a card processing fee when it obviously isn't.
The problem with all the additions, supplements, surcharges that the airlines are starting to add is the actual purchase price is increasingly unrelated to the headline fares advertised. Many of these surcharges are unavoidable and therefore should be incorporated into the advertised price. I believe the OFT and EU are looking into this anyway.

I know a lot of people who work harder then they used to, for no overtime, or time off. I also know a great many who have lunch at their desks and continue to work through the lunch break. This seems to be the way a lot of the Uk employers want us to work.
I had a great job once, it paid well, it paid overtime and gave me plenty of time off. Although employed by the same firm the management has changed over the 24 years i've been there; and I don't enjoy it to the same extent. It could be the fact I have been doing it for so long, or it could be that I see more faults now. That said I would never quit, as I would never find a job that paid the same pension (if they don't change things).

Would I be right that your comment, work the rest out yourselves, is a slight about safety. If that is the case, having travelled with them many time I canot fault their safety.
Their 'hardware' is mostly quite new and therefore should be reliable and require less repair work than older fleets. My main concern is with the 'human factors' aspects. People who are very tired or stressed are more likely to make mistakes. Having had conversations with a lady who worked for this company for four years, and heard about the culture, pressure and practices that the employees work under, I have made a decision not to fly with them. All of my flights for the last two years have been with full service scheduled airlines (Swiss, Lufthansa, BA etc).

..........

Microstar_2

_Andy_ wrote: »

If you're saying it's not 'fair' for them to charge what they like for a card fee then surely by the same standard you don't think it's 'fair' for them to make a profit on the flight full stop?.

Nonsense. No one is saying that at all.
The argument is simply that it is a per-passenger per-flight surcharge and not in any way a 'card fee'. As a forum on a consumer website we should be arguing for transparent pricing.

SCROOGE

Clearly what Mr Ryanair is doing is piling on the extras, fees and charges etc to keep the basic fares as low and attractive as possible. When under EU law restaurants and hotels are required to show the total price for services including VAT, I fail to see why the airport charges/fuel tax/insurance elements of air fares should not have to be included by law. Flybe goes one further...on any given route and day the charges and fees can actually vary before your very eyes depending on the basic fare. Surely this can't be right??? If a charge is advertised as an airport charge, it should be precisely that, not a way for airlines to boost their profits. The whole situation is a mess and it's high time it was sorted out. What are consumer bodies/passenger organisations doing about it???

dzug1

Microstar wrote: »

Nonsense. No one is saying that at all.
The argument is simply that it is a per-passenger per-flight surcharge and not in any way a 'card fee'. As a forum on a consumer website we should be arguing for transparent pricing.

Well in a sense it IS transparent pricing, rather than one murky all inclusive price.

Transparency doesn't mean 'no confusion' - it can add to it in fact.