Airline Charges Rip Off Discussion

julianruso

It is not about playing Ryanair rules, it is about Ryanair advertising like a low cost carrier when they are far more expensive than most of the airlines for such poor level of service and high charges.
Who's got access to a Maestro card in the first place?
Who goes on holiday with no suitcase? Who limits hold baggage so much? They even charge you £1 to get a SMS confirming your flight and even intend to charge you £1 to use the toilet on a plane!!!! Come on!!! Leave that company sink! There are many other alternative companies in the market! They will realise what they've lost once they've lost it.
I do want to see this headline tomorrow: 'Ryanair collapsed'
We don't need these rip offs! Budget airline, wot? They are more expensive than Virgin!!!!

lufcgirl

richardw wrote: »

Please be very careful with MoneySaving Newbie comments that have a low post count, some of them aren't actually double checking what they say with the relevant websites.

Julian - It's a Visa Electon card you need to avoid card charges, not Maestro. And why on earth would anyone who pays £2 return want to boycott them?
All of the things you and even MSE are talking about that has extra chargs are OPTIONAL EXTRAS...this means you DON'T HAVE TO BUY THEM!

julianruso

One has to be patient these days!!! Are you Ryanair PR mate? Someone mentioned Maestro above and I got my cables crossed. But you are ritght, it is Electron, a card that is not issued anywhere these days.
Of course you can decide whether to book their flights or not with them, I decided not to do it a very longggggggggg time ago. When I think of flying with Ryanair I feel nauseous! And that is based on my experience with them, otherwise I would not even try to comment on these posts.

expeditionist

I just had to have my say on this issue, I don't normally bother, but I'm strongly opposed to the way some of these so called 'budget airlines' operate.

I fly a lot, but 7 years ago I decided to give Ryanair a wide birth and I haven't flown with them since or with any budget airline for the last 2 years - I plan to avoid them on principle indefinitely unless there's no other way to get where I'm going. Their charging structures are a fiddle - the way they advertise flight costs is blatantly misleading. Isn't it annoying when you chase down an advertised price and then find that's not the price you'll end up paying at all?

It might cost a bit more, but travelling is supposed to be a pleasurable experience and choosing flights isn't all about saving money.

It's more important to avoid the stupidly long queues and all the other stresses, get a good feed and pleasant service and arrive having enjoyed the journey.

Try British Airways perhaps or some of the chartered airlines who offer a surprisingly great service in my experience.

TORTILLATOUT

I agree with Martin! It is very confusing for some people who are not seasoned budget airline travelers like me - recently my step son got completely duped by Ryanair as he did not understand their jargon! In other matters he is not as thick as this, but got completely flummoxed by their online site & ended up paying £200 more than his twin brother for flying from Bournemouth to Malaga in August for 2 adults + 3 children!

What we need to become is RYANAIRAWARE!

lufcgirl

julianruso wrote: »

One has to be patient these days!!! Are you Ryanair PR mate? Someone mentioned Maestro above and I got my cables crossed. But you are ritght, it is Electron, a card that is not issued anywhere these days.
Of course you can decide whether to book their flights or not with them, I decided not to do it a very longggggggggg time ago. When I think of flying with Ryanair I feel nauseous! And that is based on my experience with them, otherwise I would not even try to comment on these posts.

Apologes about the Maestro thing, I didn't mean to sound horrible...honest

Anyway, everyone does have an opinion on Ryanair one way or the other whether it be good or bad. I can't see Ryanair changing their policy on anything other than the online check in fee so personally I think it's better to educate everyone rather than trying to change other policies.

Big_Mal_2

No-one seems to mention British Airways! It may come as a surprise but they are still very much around and they do offer some really low fares that include online check in that includes a seat number, probably the biggest hand baggage allowance, one hold bag up to 21 kgs free, free drinks plus a tiny nibble and they fly to full service airports near the town you thought you were going to!. I know they don't sell themselves as a budget airline but when you look at some of their fares what you see is what you pay and they don't nickel and dime all these irish extras that you can't actually travel without. It is actually a little bit more civillised than the tarmac olympics required toget a family seated together. Booking either very early or very late gets you the fares. Try them! go and look at ba.com

jayok

That is the point though, people should be checking the alternatives and then decide. The only competition to my Dublin flights is Aer Lingus and I still use Ryanair 70% of the time because they allow me to pick the really really cheap flights and this allows me to travel more.

I checked a day return to London for tomorrow on Ryanair and it comes out at about £200 with BA coming out at about £390

Tojo_Ralph

alanrowell wrote: »

1st law - if an OP has the words "rip off" in the title then it isn't.

2nd law - If the OP has the word "loophole" in the title, there won't be one.

smileyjames

richardw wrote: »

You can get the £ Sterling price, and shock ! it is in Martin's guide, please do pay attention


Never pay in foreign currencies.

• If you book a one-way easyJet fare to the UK from another country, you pay in the local currency, eg, euros if flying from Spain. Yet always pay in pounds, as the exchange rate used is usually hideous.
  
  To do this, select an outbound flight as well as the return you want, then your return flight will be in pounds. Once you’re on the next page, simply press ‘remove’ to remove your outbound flight from your list of flights, so you’ve only now got the return leg from the other country booked, and it’s still in sterling.
  Plus, you don’t pay any foreign loading fees on your plastic."

Thanks for the heads up, and unsurprisingly with the amount of information on this site I didn't see it before, despite trying to find it a month ago.

As for the attitude - your response has come across as quite pathetic, I thought this site was one for helping each other, not sarcastic replies. Sad.