URGENT! 1p Ryanair European flights to 60+ European destinations. Ends Fri 21 Nov '08

Former_MSE_Natasha

Updated 18 Nov '08

What's the deal?

No frills airline Ryanair is advertising a mass of 1p flights (including standard taxes and charges) from 19 UK airports to over 60 European destinations, such as Barcelona, Bologna and Paris-Beauvais.

Flights must be booked by Midnight Friday 21 Nov for travel between December '08 and Feb '09. Ryanair is advertising some penny flights (at Liverpool & Manchester) for journeys in April & May '09, but unfortunately this seems to be an error as just winter flights are included in this deal.

Are they really 1p?

Ryanair's touting these flights as free yet they're actually 1p each way due to the booking system. This is reclaimable, but it's likely to cost you more than 1p to do it, so don't bother.

In fact, unfortunately most people will pay more as Ryanair is a cheap-as-chips budget airline, so sadly its pricing structure leaves a lot to be desired as it considers taking stowed baggage and using airport check-in as ‘extras’.

Yet if you only take hand-luggage, check in online and pay via Visa Electron, the flights really can be had for a penny each way. For everyone else, expect to pay more, though it's still easily possible to get to Europe and back for around £30 all-in.

When checking the price, do ensure you go through and ensure it includes taxes & charges, as there are often some flights at that price where you have to add the charges on top.

Ryanair’s ‘extra’ charges

• Taking checked-in baggage. Pre-book your baggage and it’s £8 for the first suitcase, and £16 per item thereafter; otherwise all baggage is £16 a piece. Baggage over 15kg is charged as excess (the maximum weight of free hand luggage is 10 Kg).

• If you don’t check-in online. If you need to check-in at the airport you’ll pay £4 per person each way if pre-booked online. Turn up or book to do so over the phone and the cost doubles to £8. This charge is unavoidable for anyone taking baggage. If you’re only taking hand luggage, check-in online, between 14 days and four hours beforehand and it's free.

• For paying! Ryanair charges £4 per person per flight for debit and credit card transactions. Rather disingenuously it can still claim this is an ‘extra’, as if you pay by the less common ‘Visa Electron’ card it is free.

When and where are the flights?

Ryanair is clever with its promotions. As the flights aren’t for all dates the likelihood is, for anyone without huge flexibility, you may find a 1p flight for one leg of your journey but pay more for the other leg.

Aberdeen, Bristol, Blackpool, Doncaster, Durham Tees, East Midlands, Inverness, Leeds, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle & Newquay departures:

• Book before midnight Fri 21 Nov.

• Journeys must take place between 9 Dec & 12 Feb '09: For flights between 12pm Mon & 12pm Thurs. All school breaks and major sporting event periods are excluded too.

• Destinations include: Barcelona Girona, Bratislava, Budapest T1, Dinard, Dublin, Katowice, Knock, Limoges, Milan (Bergamo), Nantes, Paris-Beauvais, Prague, Rzeszow, Shannon and Szczecin.

Birmingham, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stansted & Gatwick departures:

• Book before midnight Fri 21 Nov.

• Journeys must take place between 9 Dec & 12 Feb '09: Applicable for Mon-Thurs & Sat flights. All school breaks and major sporting event periods are excluded too.

• Destinations include: Alghero, Barcelona Girona, Bologna, Dublin, Genoa, Frankfurt-Hahn, Katowice, La Rochelle, Paris-Beauvais, Pisa (Florence), Oslo (Thorp) Porto, Prague, Rimini, Shannon, Szczecin, Tours, Valladolid, Wroclaw and Zweibrucken.

IF YOU FIND A BARGAIN FLIGHT, PLEASE POST THE DETAILS SO OTHER MONEY SAVERS CAN BENEFIT TOO

Want other cheap flights?

If you're looking for other flights not included in this promotion, or further afield, read the main Cheap Flights guide, which will show you how to get the cheapest flights anywhere in the world. And if you do nab a good deal, why not help the environment by Carbon Offsetting.

Why aren't these flights in the flightchecker?

In the good old days the speedy way to find these flights was to use the FlightChecker which is designed to find budget airline promotional deals.

Yet Ryanair launched a campaign against screenscraper websites, and even though the Flightchecker isn't one, it means Ryanair isn't keen on sharing info from its website and has blocked many access routes; and is quite closed in its communication.

Thus while the flightchecker contains lots of other airlines, getting the info on Ryanair is very tempremental but we're working to find a way around this.


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Edinburghlass_2

You need to click on the destination you want and check the applicable days for the 1p flights as while it generically says flights Monday to Thursday and Saturdays in fact some destinations have different applicable days/times such as..

Fares include taxes & charges

Booking Period due 18th Nov 08 - Fri 21st Nov 08
Travel Period due 09th Dec 08 - Thu 12th Feb 09
Applicable Days: after 12pm Monday / all day Tuesday & Wednesday / before 12pm Thursday
Subject To Availability Flight must be purchased:14 Days in advance
Blackout Period:19th Dec '08 - 05th Jan '09
30th Jan '09 - 01st Feb '09
Notes on this fare all Holidays, School Breaks and Major Sporting Events are excluded from this offer.

Flights booked on other days may start off being 0p but taxes will be levied.

Paul_Varjak

Here is a table of free flights:

http://www.ryanair.com/site/notices/grids/grid_GB.pdf

PureParty

well, I have failed to find ANY flights from Manchester to Barcelona within the dates specified, I guess that means they have sold the allocated 1p seats??

Villz

AS far as I can see, you stil have to pay taxes and charges etc

Edinburghlass_2

PureParty wrote: »

well, I have failed to find ANY flights from Manchester to Barcelona within the dates specified, I guess that means they have sold the allocated 1p seats??

Depends what days you want, I can see some 1p only flights, you need to spend some time looking.

Depart 14 Jan return 21 Jan and the flights are 0p, taxes 1p making total 2p.

Edinburghlass_2

Villz wrote: »

AS far as I can see, you stil have to pay taxes and charges etc

Only if you book outside the days and times they specify to the destination you are looking at.

mystic_trev

Villz wrote: »

AS far as I can see, you stil have to pay taxes and charges etc

No- There are two sets of 1p fares which will come up when looking for flights. Regular fare means you have to pay Taxes and charges. Special offer means NO Taxes or charges.

MsCrow

Maybe I'm short of a few but all the Liverpool flights, well all the flights, are for travel up to 12 February. I can't find any flights with free flights for April as stated.

mystic_trev

Where does it state the travel period covers April ?!

Can I suggest you look at the travel period again?

MsCrow

Liverpool departures:

• Book before midnight Fri 21 Nov.

• Journeys must take place between 30 March & 28 May '09: Applicable for Mon-Thurs & Sat flights. All school breaks and major sporting event periods are excluded too.

• Destinations include: Barcelona Girona, Belfast (City), Cork, Dublin, Krakow, Limoges, Milan (Bergamo), Nantes (Brittany), Shannon and Venice-Treviso.

There are no special offer flights between Liverpool and these destinations for the stated April period. Yes, I have looked, extensively.