Ryanair price gone up, but eDreams still cheaper?

jammin_2

So I went to book my flights today (it's pay day), and the Ryanair flights for the three of us that were yesterday €44.97 are now €188.64.

I came across eDreams. Same flights when booked with them are €71.22 only. Ok, so it's more than Ryanair's yesterday's price, but much cheaper than Ryanair's today's price. So I booked, using Neteller (prepaid Mastercard).

On the eDreams receipt, it shows that of the €71.22 I paid to them, €44.97 went to Ryanair and €26.25 went to eDreams. Indeed, on my Neteller transaction history this is confirmed (two transactions, to the two different merchants).

My question is, how are eDreams able to get yesterday's cheaper Ryanair prices, when the current Ryanair prices, as per the Ryanair website, are now much more expensive?

lfc84

login on the ryanair website and verify that you have a confirmed reservation

let us know how you get on

jammin_2

I did that straight away. It's confirmed and looks no different from a standard Ryanair booking.

It's bizarre.

melb

i've noticed a couple of times recently when i've gone on the ryanair website it has been like it was during the recent transition period ie just saying "low fares available" with ridiculously high fares showing. So I've gone off and when i've gone on later the fares shown have been back down to normal levels. What a bummer for you - sounds like the original fares were maybe still there but the webiste was playing up and EDreams or whatever have been able to get the cheaper fares

david39

If you check out a price on a Holiday/Air Fare/Insurance site and then return within a short period, the site software will assume that you are coming back to make a booking.

If business is good, it will add a percentage increase to the price it last showed you because, having made a decision to book, you are not going to go away and start looking all over again.

The site does this by placing a cookie on your computer with the details of the last offer it made you. You should always clear your cookie folder before returning to one of these sites so that it thinks this is your first enquiry - so it will give you its best price.

Having said that, the size of increase quoted by the OP suggests that other forces are at work here - maybe, between the two visits, Ryanair had sold all the seats it wanted to at the low price and was just filling odd seats and making a fast buck.

scottishgirl87

david39 wrote: »

If you check out a price on a Holiday/Air Fare/Insurance site and then return within a short period, the site software will assume that you are coming back to make a booking.

If business is good, it will add a percentage increase to the price it last showed you because, having made a decision to book, you are not going to go away and start looking all over again.

The site does this by placing a cookie on your computer with the details of the last offer it made you. You should always clear your cookie folder before returning to one of these sites so that it thinks this is your first enquiry - so it will give you its best price.

Having said that, the size of increase quoted by the OP suggests that other forces are at work here - maybe, between the two visits, Ryanair had sold all the seats it wanted to at the low price and was just filling odd seats and making a fast buck.

Correct! And explained much better than I could of! If you'd cleared your cookies when you went back to book then chances are it could have been the cheaper price (but as above, this isn't always the case). It's basically so you go back and think "oh my god, the price has went up, I better book before it gets any higher!".

hanval

Interesting to hear.

I work at an airport and have had no end of problems with bookings made through eDreams. Most recent case was a chap who had a confirmed booking with Malev, but wasn't listed in the system. He had to pay another £80 odd pounds to be allowed to travel. They might be cheap. but I wouldn't be prepared to risk it after what I've seen.

Hope all works out ok for you

marywooyeah

I nearly booked through edreams recently, but when I read the small print it said that if the price goes up they will email you asking if you want to pay the difference - presumably if you don't then you don't fly! they also charge £25 to book by card, I just booked directly through ryanair instead.

jammin_2

Thanks for the replies guys. It's not the cookies thing though - I use Firefox in private browsing mode at work. I also then checked the Ryanair website on my home PC via LogMeIn, exactly the same.

The only thing I can think of is, perhaps Ryanair had only *just* put up the price seconds before I checked, and the eDreams website has a degree of latency.

Still, I'm not too worried. The Ryanair website has my booking and it all looks normal.

antenna

During the "volcano" problems last year my original flight was cancelled,i checked on ryanair for a later flight that week and it came up £129,checked again the next day it was £39.
I think the system changes the fares automaticaly when flight disturbances occur to take advantage of the booking panic.