BBC News: Credit and debit card surcharges 'are excessive'

tingtong

malkie76 wrote: »

What you call drip pricing I personally see as a good way to tailor individual flights rather than be subjected to things you don't want or need that you are forced to accept with major airlines.

Please tell me how to remove the £6 online check-in fee (per person, per flight) as I do not wish to pay this.

NFH

malkie76 wrote: »

Sorry, but the final fare will be subject to personal choices, and the individual needs of the customer - how can that possibly be advertised upfront?

No, the admin charge is predominantly compulsory and should be included in the quoted fare from the outset.

malkie76 wrote: »

You claim that the final fare isn't transparent? Then what is the number in the box when you click confirm?

The final fare is indeed transparent at the payment stage, but it is deliberately concealed from the customer at all previous stages, i.e. drip pricing.

DavidHayton

malkie76 wrote: »

Sorry, but the final fare will be subject to personal choices, and the individual needs of the customer - how can that possibly be advertised upfront?

You claim that the final fare isn't transparent? Then what is the number in the box when you click confirm?

Hi malkie,
The final fare is transparent to me. I know Ryanair's tricks and I can use them to my own advantage to secure a low fare. I presume that you are the same, and I bet that same can be said for NFH.

However, the problem is that others haven't a clue what is going on and they are being sucked in on the premise of a £2 flight that inexplicably becomes £108.73 by the time they get to the end of the process. They then shrug and pay up - they have not made an informed choice. But they do subsidise your (and my) cheap flights.

In the present situation, you and I are benefitting from the un-savvyness (if that is a word) of others. I think that this is wrong, and should be stopped. You seem to think that it is OK. The OFT is going to weigh up the evidence. We will need to see what they think!

Best wishes to all
David

MarkBargain

NFH wrote: »

Was the fee charged per passenger or per payment? If it's per payment, then it's more justified, because to include it in every passenger fare would result in the final price being higher. Nevertheless £1 for a debit card payment is excessive considering it costs them around 20p.

With Resorthoppa it was £1 per booking I think, so not in the league of Ryanair's £5 per person per leg of the journey, but still wrong. For the sake of 20p, retailers should absorb this into their normal advertised prices. I don't mind a credit card fee so long as there is a free debit card option.

As for the Ryanair debate, I am not against additional charges for suitcases, insurance etc. Priority boarding is morally dubious (the rich boarding ahead of pregnant women, elderly etc!). The two things I really object to though are the £6 online check-in fee (unavoidable!) and the £5 card fee (requiring a Mastercard Prepay application and money upload - usually with their own charges - to avoid). For a family of four travelling return, that is £88 cost added to their holiday which was not made clear up front when comparing with other airlines. Yes, they can abort after entering all the dates, times, extras, passenger details etc. but by then they have probably spent a lot of time on the process. It should not be like this. We should be quickly and easily able to compare providers, up front before a single personal detail is entered.

Talking of meeting EU rules, when will Ryanair publish an email address for their customers and when will they pay the compensation for the delayed flights due to the ash cloud? They seem to think they can operate outside the rules that normal companies comply with.

malkie76

So you all agree the final fare is transparent, and the customer has the flexibility to add or remove components they don't want or need ?

The check-in process carries a fee - most airlines hide this fee in their total fare whereas RyanAir makes this fee transparent. I don't see why you can say this is an issue.

dzug1

malkie76 wrote: »

There aren't other airlines other than RyanAir? That's news to me.

Remember no one is forcing you to travel at all. If a destination can only be reached by Ryanair (unlikely) then boycotting that destination is an option

tingtong

Despite my comments on this thread, I genuinely believe that Ryanair have been good for the airline industry and I have also had numerous cheap flights by 'playing the game'.

However, a few things that have happened over the last 12 months (or so) have made me question whether or not I will ever use them again:

* Removing the free payment when using Visa Electron
* An online check-in fee (currently £6 for each individual flight) which cannot be avoided (except for special offer flights)
* For our last 5 trips abroad, they have actually worked out more expensive than other airlines

Ryanair's website used to be the first one I would check when looking for flights but now they are simply a 'last resort'. I appreciate they still work out great value for some but they are not making any money out of the people who actually defend them the most - they can't survive on £10 return flights can they ? They still need the people who fall for all the extra charges and if people start walking away from them everything will need to change.

tingtong

malkie76 wrote: »

So you all agree the final fare is transparent, and the customer has the flexibility to add or remove components they don't want or need ?

The check-in process carries a fee - most airlines hide this fee in their total fare whereas RyanAir makes this fee transparent. I don't see why you can say this is an issue.

So, it's not a £10 flight, it's a £16 flight - why not just tell people that in the 'headline' price ?

malkie76

dzug1 wrote: »

Remember no one is forcing you to travel at all. If a destination can only be reached by Ryanair (unlikely) then boycotting that destination is an option

Exactly

There is no destination which RyanAir fly to which is not also serviced by other airlines.

MarkBargain

malkie76 wrote: »

So you all agree the final fare is transparent, and the customer has the flexibility to add or remove components they don't want or need ?

If the final fare was not "transparent" i.e. they charged the customer's credit card for items they had not been told about, this would be theft. Of course Ryanair are not stealing people's money, but they choose to show all the fees at the very last point of the booking process after personal details have been entered (which is wrong).

The customer does not have the flexibility to remove the online check-in fee of £6, and if they do not own a Mastercard Prepay (previously Visa Electron, what next?) they cannot avoid the "administration fee" of £5.