MSE News: Ryanair 'sticks two fingers up at passengers' with new card fees

niamhirl

Everytime I'm booking a flight home to Ireland from Manchester I open two browser windows and check the cost of Aer Lingus flights at the same time as Ryanair. Apart from at Christmas there is only a couple of quid in it so I fly Aer lingus. However, Ryanair does not have the monopoly on not being up front. Until very recently, when booking a flight with aer lingus screen the total cost for the flight disappeared when you got to the add bags screen so you had to remember and do some simple sums to work out the total until you got to the payment section.

NFH

pommette wrote: »

Why are the travel industry the only people to be allowed to charge for credit cards anyway? For anyone else it is illegal.

Also for any other trader it is illegal to charge more for credit card usage than they actually pay (around 5%) to the card merchant and it has to rated as a convenience fee, not a card charge.

Absolute rubbish. Until 28th February 1991, card companies could contractually force retailers to charge the same for card transactions as for cash transactions. This changed with the Credit Cards (Price Discrimination) Order 1990 which prevented card companies from imposing such contractual restrictions upon retailers. It has never been illegal for retailers to add card surcharges, but it is now illegal for a third party to prevent them from doing so.

While I agree with your sentiments about the travel industry being one of the few industries to exercise its right to pass on card surcharges, please get your facts right before posting.

NFH

ronniej wrote: »

The female singing group "Fascinating Ieda"have done a great song about Ryanair.

Yes, it's fantastic and very cleverly done. You spelt it wrong, so for the benefit of those who couldn't find it, there are two versions:

High quality version without subtitles

Low quality version with subtitles

Doc_N

omelette451 wrote: »

I hate that people are wishing serious accident to an aeroplane, 'to teach them a lesson'. If anything, Ryanair is fully aware that any single accident will cause irreparable damage to their brand, and as a result if anything are likely to take even more care than others would. MoL has always said the one thing he would never do 'on the cheap' is safety, and I believe him.

I doubt anyone's wishing for an accident - just for something to damage the blind faith that Ryanair passengers seem to have in it. It may be cheap (though it's often dearer than its competitors - even full service airlines) but there's a price to pay for that.

And as for:

"MoL has always said the one thing he would never do 'on the cheap' is safety, and I believe him"

I'm afraid I don't believe O'Leary on this any more than anything else he says because it suits him. And that's reason enough for me to give them a wide berth. If he can shave a penny off anything he will.

marsbars

Like you, I think these charges are outrageous but I'm curious to know why you are only complaining about Ryanair's card charges. I'm not sticking up for Ryanair and maybe it is possible that you haven't bothered to check but I can assure you that I have had to pay similar fees with other airlines and with no way to avoid them. At least Ryanair does have an avoidance method.

shoi

BennyTheBoy wrote: »

I work for a tour operator and we pay a massive 3.5% for each CC payment

Are you sure?
My co paid about 1.25% (about £1 per average sale), debit cards 21p.

2sides2everystory

From an idea by lfc84, (cached links no longer working) and for as long as the following last as good links :

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www.cashpassport.com/1/it/Ryanair-Italia/.../Termini-e-condizioni/

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www.cashpassport.com/1/it/Ryanair-Italia/Domande-Frequenti-/

www.cashpassport.com/1/Ryanair.../Global-Emergency-Assistance/ -

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Recommend Ryanair Cash Passport

www.cashpassport.com/1/en/Ryanair/Secondary.../Terms-Conditions... -

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www.cashpassport.com/1/en/Ryanair/Budget.../Country-Tips--Hints/ -

www.cashpassport.com/1/it/Ryanair-Italia/ -

www.cashpassport.com/1/en/uk/

Looks like Italians are included - maybe some Godfather needed to be appeased

Edit: One more:
Enter Your Ryanair Cash Passport Number

and finally:
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5pillarsofhealth

S0litaire wrote: »

Don't the pre-paid cards not come with a monthly fee to use them?
I was going to get one a couple of years ago but looking at the T&C's it said you get charged £5 month or something like that!

If they do charge a monthly fee then I wonder how much Ryainair gets of those charges!

I got the original card, the Electron. which I now use on Easyjet. Then the pre-paid card, I got a FairFx. Both cards have saved a great deal of charges and neither of them have a monthly fee. They do incur a nominal user charge which is very little, sometimes £1.50 sometimes less.

5pillarsofhealth

pommette wrote: »

Why are the travel industry the only people to be allowed to charge for credit cards anyway? For anyone else it is illegal.

Also for any other trader it is illegal to charge more for credit card usage than they actually pay (around 5%) to the card merchant and it has to rated as a convenience fee, not a card charge.

So how can they break the law by charging £6 per sector which if this was 5% then it would mean the single seat charge would have to be £120.

Crazy !

It is not just the travel industry. Last time I tried to book some theatre tickets they also incurred a charge for each ticket!! I think it should be a flat fee, if anything.

John_Pierpoint

LondonDiva wrote: »

I flew Ryanair one to Dublin - never again, filthy planes and hard sell of lottery tickets etc etc all the way.

This summer I flew to Ireland again and made a choice to pay £80 extra to fly with Aer Lingus. I know for many people putting theor money wgere their mouth is would not be an option, but I wasn't prepared to ever again get off a plane, head for the disinfectant scrubs and dump my clothes straight in the machine.

You probably won't be doing that much more.
Airline struggling, partly owned by a government, virtually bankrupted by the debts of a dodgy bank?

http://www.impactpub.com.au/micebtn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10114&Itemid=50

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/8763613/Ryanair-attacks-Aer-Lingus-and-calls-for-96m-dividend.html

NFH wrote: »

That's not a good comparison, because train companies don't use higher paying passengers to subsidise lower paying passengers, at least not to any significant extent compared to airlines. When you pay Ryanair without a card surcharge, you are being subsidised by those who do pay the card surcharge; likewise when you pay a low headline fare, you are being subsidised by those who pay a high headline fare. The price you pay for rail travel more closely reflects the average cost per passenger, whereas this is not true of air fares, nor of card surcharges. Also the card surcharges do not reflect the cost of accepting the payment method, especially as prepaid MasterCards actually cost Ryanair more to accept than debit cards. Until now, Ryanair's choice of "free" payment method has been based on the payment method's obscurity rather than its cost of accepting it.

Try Mega Train & Mega Bus - very similar discounting model to Ryanair. They used to have a special carriage for the 3rd class passengers, but now you can be sitting next to someone who has paid twice the price.

Enquire about a price and think about it before booking and it goes up - probably because you have shown an interest.