Trouble booking RyanAir flight with voucher

BLUEWKD

magicrichard5 wrote: »

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.

A lot of places want card details even though something is paid for with a voucher. I wonder though if martin has actually tried to pay with vouchers or it is just something he has come up with? I think it may upset the system with it being more than the cost of the flight.

magicrichard5

Mods: Any official answer on that?

It's more than possible it was just me and my computers, but I would be interested to know.If nothing else it will make me feel like a bit more of a muppet for potentially wasting £30, but it might save someone else the strife!

budgetflyer

I think you are right. Quite a lot of the stuff these days on MSE is poorly researched by A N Other than Martin himself and is just theory.
The need for fresh ideas and content has diluted the really worthwhile stuff and you may be a victim of a speculative and theoretic strategy

BTW I have taken it as far as payment page (so this is still theory) but you can book Ryanair flights via https://www.lowcostholidays.com for only 2,5% CC fee or 1.25% debit card fee.

It must be noted Ryanair do not approve or endorse any 3rd party booking sites