Ryanair collect APD and keep much of it but now they are levying their own tax on UK

2sides2everystory

benjus wrote: »

This seems to be the crux of your argument, such as it is. What justification do you have for stating that it has been administered as a single state tax?

Oh - you mean you had not yet discovered that?

I have Mastercard Prepaids with billing addresses in different states. I constantly look to book flights as economically as possible. I willingly got an Electron card 4 years ago (issued by main banks), and begrudgingly also got a Mastercard Prepaid (not generally issued by main banks but by more nefarious outfits and with no FSCS protection) when that became necessary. It is uneconomic for me as one of Ryanair's most frequent flyers to mess around getting their card, so I haven't. It is cheaper for me to use other carriers more and to work around the problem (e.g. by booking one leg at a time) than it would be to get their card.

They know much of this although I think they are only just waking up to the fact that a sizeable chunk of their regular customer base have been pushed passed to a postion, up whith which we will not put. I have already willingly flown in November with their main competitor on one of their routes when I would rarely have looked around before. But that's not the point. Ryanair has a virtual monopoly on some routes so I do not have much chance of working round many of my journeys which do usually start in the UK.

At the beginning of November, Ryanair said that Mastercard Prepaid cards with UK billing address would incur a fee. It appeared to try, and to fail to achieve this distinction via its website. These forums are littered with examples including mine which prove the iterations of their website and what they were up to for a few weeks. It was also for a time possible to book their flights via third party websites but Ryanair became so incensed by the possible migration of their direct customer base to Travel Republic* and others that they cut off their nose to spite their face so that you can't even get a quote out of their website now without the anti-screenscraper tactic which requires the copy typing of two randomly generated security words.

The (multi-language) Ts&Cs sections of their website still say that Mastercards Prepaids (except UK Mastercards) are still fee free in their terms, but in actual fact this is false. Their website was finally altered once and for all at around the end of November I think such that No Mastercard Prepaid holder can book a card admin fee free flight (or return flights) which originates in the UK.

It doesn't matter where the card is billed or which language is being used on the website or where the customer is physically located (IP address) whilst trying to book.

This is why they are currently in breach of their own published terms and conditions and this is why I say it is very similar to the levying of a 'single state' tax like APD.

*Travel Republic were charging much less than Ryanair for card transactions but they have been "got at" since November. I have been waiting to find a cheap way to purchase a 2012 Ryanair flight for their headline rate of £36 for over a month. I could at one point do it for about £42 if I booked the outbound and inbound separately and incurred one £6 card admin fee. But I didn't. The Travel Republic quote for that same flight today is £44. Meantime the headline Ryanair fare today has actually gone down to £31.50 :rotfl:. I still haven't bought it and I won't until I am good and ready thanks Ryanair!

I think the surprising reduction is more likely to be because Ryanair are feeling the pinch after upsetting far more customers like me than they imagined, than it is because Ryanair feel any need to compete. They've right royally bvggered up their own market, I reckon. They are clearly obstinate, and they are diverting too much attention to sticking it to the UK government instead of behaving like the good citizens we expect Europe's largest airline to be.

Ryanair - Grow Up!

tingtong

So, in simple terms, if I follow correctly, someone without access to a Ryanair card (no UK address) cannot possibly avoid paying this fee if they want to make a booking (one-way or return) if their journey begins in the UK.

To be honest, nothing with Ryanair surprises me any more, I just wish the OFT would get off their a$$es and follow through what they started months ago.

2sides2everystory

tingtong wrote: »

So, in simple terms, if I follow correctly, someone without access to a Ryanair card (no UK address) cannot possibly avoid paying this fee if they want to make a booking (one-way or return) if their journey begins in the UK.

One other exception - Ryanair is now marketing the same Cash Passport thing to Italians, but no-one else, and of course the thing they are marketing is inconvenient, uneconomic, people are reporting large problems getting one etc. etc.

So effectively, if the journey begins in the UK, it doesn't matter where your Mastercard Prepaid issuer comes from or what your card billing address country is, the term that says you will get a fee free booking is false.

To cap it all, on the French and German language sites, Ryanair are still directly promoting their prefered Mastercard Prepaid providers from behind a link which invites customers to "Click Here to See How You Can Avoid Card Admin Fees" or similar. Not with a Mastercard Prepaid for flights originating out of UK you can't, but they don't tell our continental cousins that and they ain't offering an alternative except as I say to the Italians.

jayok

This is some rant, where is the other side of the story?

2sides2everystory

Go play elsewhere jayok if you've nothing useful to add.