Trouble booking RyanAir flight with voucher

magicrichard5

I've been trying (for the last hour) to book my flight with RyanAir using a £25 voucher which I purchased and I am doing my nut in - it just won't accept the booking. The flight is £24 return incl all fees.

The name on the voucher and booking are the same (my name) and when I get through to the final page it has trouble applying the voucher - this is normally solved by refreshing the browser and it then recognises a voucher has been applied.

However, it then absolutely insists that I enter my card details as well as a mobile phone number. Slightly odd, but even with all these details entered when I press the button at the bottom to make a booking, it warns me it might take 45 seconds, and then just returns me to the start of the booking process where you have to reject all the extras you don't want.

This goes round and round in circles!

Has anyone else had any problems with booking with the voucher, and if so, how did you solve them?

spiro

Have you complied with all the conditions here?
http://www.bookryanair.com/SkySales/VoucherIssuance.aspx?en-gb&lc=en-gb

Have you tried clearing the cookies on your PC?

magicrichard5

Thanks for replying. I'm complying with all the conditions. It's a £24 flight in January 2012, just one passenger (me), no extras ticked at all. Paying with one £25 voucher. I am the voucher issuer, and the voucher recipient.

Tried clearing the cookies and still no luck. I am still having the problem that when I click "retrieve" next to the voucher code, it pops up with a box asking if i want to apply the code, and when I click OK nothing then happens. If I then refresh my browser the voucher is then recognised as applied. Perhaps this is causing the problem in some way?

magicrichard5

The flight I was looking at has now gone up (tried different IP address/clearing cookies etc.) to £65. So now the voucher idea is completely useless.

What are my options for attempting to get my money back for this voucher?

CC chargeback?
Ryan Customer Service? (haha!)

ic

Out of interest, what was the "voucher idea"? Were you trying to circumvent their booking fees?

bobajob_1966

magicrichard5 wrote: »

The flight I was looking at has now gone up (tried different IP address/clearing cookies etc.) to £65. So now the voucher idea is completely useless.

What are my options for attempting to get my money back for this voucher?

CC chargeback?
Ryan Customer Service? (haha!)

I can't see that a CC chargeback will work - you still have the voucher to use, so Ryanair are in breach.

If you contact Ryanair I am sure they will help you work out why the voucher is not going through, but chances are all they will offer you is a replacement voucher (if that code still does not work).

Out of interest, have you tried another browzer? I had a problem like that with IE, but everything works fine on Chrome.

magicrichard5

I have tried two different versions of Chrome and Internet Explorer. But you're right, I have a feeling it's more of a browser issue than a voucher issue.

The issue is now, that the voucher workaround is useless as the price of the flights have gone up and I can't think of any other time I would ever want to fly RyanAir! I would be happy with just a refund and forget the whole thing, but I doubt even distance selling regs will save me.

bobajob_1966

magicrichard5 wrote: »

I have tried two different versions of Chrome and Internet Explorer. But you're right, I have a feeling it's more of a browser issue than a voucher issue.

The issue is now, that the voucher workaround is useless as the price of the flights have gone up and I can't think of any other time I would ever want to fly RyanAir! I would be happy with just a refund and forget the whole thing, but I doubt even distance selling regs will save me.

You are correct, the DSRs do not apply.

Go to a different destination/ change your dates/ hope that the price drops again?

magicrichard5

Sadly, the only option open is to hope the price drops again, as I can't change my dates or destination.

Word to the wise: Just pay their rip-off fees, don't bother trying to do complicated voucher workarounds, as if it goes wrong you just end up even further out of pocket.

spiro

I cant see how it was going to save you money, from the voucher page it says:

There is a €5/£5 (or local currency equivalent) administration fee for processing the purchase of gift vouchers.
Vouchers are only valid for the payment of Ryanair flights and any associated taxes, fees and charges.

Please explain how you expected to save as the tables of fees says the only payment method that avoids the £6 per sector Admin Fee is the Ryanair Cash Passport.

magicrichard5

If it wouldn't have saved me money then MSE's own article needs updating possibly? Unless I've read it wrong:

From here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/beat-budget-airline-charges#prepaid under the "What if I'm paying today..." section:

Pay with Ryanair gift vouchers – saves in some cases

Ryanair gift vouchers are usually emailed instantly. There's a £5 fee per transaction - less than card payment fees. It's fiddly though: you can only buy in batches of £25 and there's NO CHANGE, so whether you save depends on the ticket cost.

As an example, if return flights for two cost £48, you'd normally pay £24 in card fees. Buy a £50 gift voucher for £5, factor in £2 lost change, and you'd save £17.

But watch out! As they only come in £25s, unless your flight comes to a £25 mark or just under, you will have to pay partly by card and thus still stump up payment fees. If return flights for two came to £52 and you used a £50 gift voucher, you'd pay £2 with a debit card and pay £24 payment fees.

I read this that as my flight was £24 my total costs would have been: £25 + £5 for voucher. Pay for flight avoiding extra fees. Rather than £24 + £12 for card fees.

And to be fair, when I did get the page refreshed and the voucher appeared, it didn't tell me there was any more to pay, although it did still want me to put card details in.