Latest Ryanair Rip-off - Pay Your Own Airport Security Fees

Louisdf

agrinnall wrote: »

When I flew out of Newquay a few years ago the airport charged a mandatory £5 for airport development (I think) that had to be paid direct to the airport in cash. So it happens even in the UK.

Yes but that fee at Newquay applies to ALL passengers and ALL airlines (even if you were travelling Lufthansa business class), whereas the fee at Riga Airport is only for Ryanair customers because Ryanair doesn't want to pay it themselves as it will make their air fares more expensive.

For example:
Wizzair (mandatory security fee included)
Sat 14 Apr 12
W6 2501
12:25 13:15Your price: 56.99 LVL
(this would be even cheaper if you were part of the Wizzair regular travellers program)


Ryanair

Regular FareAdult
23.99 LVL

Sat14 Apr 12
FlightFR 264312:25 Depart
13:00 Arrive1xAdult23.99LVL
Fare: 23.99LVLOnline Check-In: 4.50LVLEU 261 Levy:1.50LVLETS Levy:0.20LVLTaxes / Fees: 17.85LVLTotal Price: 48.04LVL
I've chosen not to include extra fees like luggage and credit card fees as in theory these are 'optional', but for £17/20euro Wizzair allows you to take 32kg of luggage vs Ryanair which would charge £265/euros to take 32kg of luggage. It would be cheaper to go BA business class in this case!

So by not including the security fee online in the final price, this allows Ryanair to falsely claim that their fares are cheaper than other competitors. Just looking at the two websites, Ryanair appears to be the cheapest airline by a fair margin. However, when you factor in the security fee only applicable to Ryanair customers Ryanair is not.

If Ryanair were to be transparent and at least inform passengers online, then they would be able to make an informed decision. However, Ryanair doesn't like to be transparent, as their business model is based upon it.

budgetflyer

If you fly Full Service airlines Emirates or Qatar from Trivandrum (Kerala) you are not getting past check in without paying a Trivandrum Airport Development Fee of 500 Rupees (about £7)
This is becoming more and more common these days and isn't exclusive to Ryanair not to include this fee.

I think the complaint should be levied against the airport rather than the airlines

budgetflyer

Louisdf wrote: »

Yes but that fee at Newquay applies to ALL passengers and ALL airlines (even if you were travelling Lufthansa business class), whereas the fee at Riga Airport is only for Ryanair customers because Ryanair doesn't want to pay it themselves as it will make their air fares more expensive.

The fee at Riga is for ALL passengers also. Its just that Ryanair don't want to collect it for RIGA airport. The problem is RIGA airport. They would like the EXTRA CHARGE hidden. Ryanair won't do their dirty work for them. So RIGA airport charge you extra 50c to collect their own security charge.

Steve_xx

budgetflyer wrote: »

The fee at Riga is for ALL passengers also. Its just that Ryanair don't want to collect it for RIGA airport. The problem is RIGA airport. They would like the EXTRA CHARGE hidden. Ryanair won't do their dirty work for them. So RIGA airport charge you extra 50c to collect their own security charge.

The fee at all airports is for all passengers, but more often than not it is included in the ticket price. People don't want this type of separation of fees that are not avoidable. I'm not interested in paying a separate fee for the cleaner at Riga airport to sweep the floor; I simply want to know what the total cost of getting from a to b is? If I buy a tin of beans I really don't want to be faced with separate charges for the tin and the beans.

This type of behaviour seeks to frustrate competition in that it makes it extremely difficult to compare prices.

apt

budgetflyer wrote: »

The fee at Riga is for ALL passengers also. Its just that Ryanair don't want to collect it for RIGA airport. The problem is RIGA airport. They would like the EXTRA CHARGE hidden. Ryanair won't do their dirty work for them. So RIGA airport charge you extra 50c to collect their own security charge.

Why do you refer to it as dirty work? Ryanair presumably will not be paying landing fees and won't include the security fees in its fares. So who do you expect to pay for the security costs? It should not be the Latvian taxpayer.

munsterforever

Airport Development Fees are one thing, and I remember Ryanair pulling out of Newquay apparently due to the £5 levied. Security Fees are another and totally necessary. ryanair ought to include these into ticket prices, at the very least they ought to have warned customers who had already bought tickets about the fee at the Airport, where Families with young Children could have turned up with no CC or Lats and been in the Cac. I was in riga and heard that one Passenger turned up without Lats or CC's and was not allowed to Fly as she could not pay the Fee....!!!!in outrageous

Timay

benjus wrote: »

This seems fairly common in some parts of the world. I recently had to pay about 30 USD per person to depart from Punta del Este airport in Uruguay. The airline, Argentina's flag carrier, hadn't bothered to warn us.

OTOH, this seems like a special case as all airlines except Ryanair have accepted the charge, and only Ryanair customers have to pay it. This does reflect quite badly on Ryanair.

To me it seems like Ryanair are trying to make a stand on the unfair charge and good for them IMO. Could also be doing to appear 6.50 cheaper than the other though as well.

I never get why people moan about Ryanair all the time, you know what you are going to get or not get before you book. They get you their safely and on time in modern planes.

Chances are if you traveling by Ryanair You are only going to be away for a long weekend or so, so shouldn't need to bring a big case and should be able to get away with carry on.

Also at least they had the decency during the ash cloud disruption to cancel flight in advance unlike all other airlines who left you wondering whether you were or weren't going to fly so you couldn't make alternative arrangements

Steve_xx

Timay wrote: »

I never get why people moan about Ryanair all the time, you know what you are going to get or not get before you book. They get you their safely and on time in modern planes.

I certainly did not know what I was going to get when I booked the return flight to Riga with Ryanair. I hadn't the foggiest idea that I would have to pay security check fees as I left Riga airport until I got there to take the flight back to the UK.

So, maybe you "get" it now why people moan about Ryanair?

coupleuk

Steve_xx

give it up mate - some people on here are so blinkered they will defend anything and everything this airline does.

you are 100% correct that this charge should be included within the ticket price.

if this airline wanted to make a stand against the charge, they could quite easily make a nice big "sorry for this charge, its not our fault" message across the website.

i've been looking at airfares this weekend and this airline tries to auto include insurance with your ticket. it does state you can decline the charge in the handy drop down box. so, where do they hide this option?

you get a list of "country of residence" and they hide the term "dont cover me" (which begins with a D), in between latvia and lithuania.

why dont they put the option at the top of the list? (or even under the letter D) - nah, too easy for people to find it there and they may lose the revenue generated.

ive never flown with them before and it looks like i may be forced into it this time as no alternatives available - im already dreading the experience and i haven't even booked yet.

Steve_xx

coupleuk wrote: »

Steve_xx

give it up mate - some people on here are so blinkered they will defend anything and everything this airline does.

you are 100% correct that this charge should be included within the ticket price.

if this airline wanted to make a stand against the charge, they could quite easily make a nice big "sorry for this charge, its not our fault" message across the website.

i've been looking at airfares this weekend and this airline tries to auto include insurance with your ticket. it does state you can decline the charge in the handy drop down box. so, where do they hide this option?

you get a list of "country of residence" and they hide the term "dont cover me" (which begins with a D), in between latvia and lithuania.

why dont they put the option at the top of the list? (or even under the letter D) - nah, too easy for people to find it there and they may lose the revenue generated.

ive never flown with them before and it looks like i may be forced into it this time as no alternatives available - im already dreading the experience and i haven't even booked yet.

Yes I take your point.

I've travelled with them on quite a number of occasions, and generally it's ok. But once you're at the airport gate the fun starts as they try to levy charges on people whose bags wont fit in the cage etc. Now they have mobile scales too and of course they also weigh any bags they think might be revenue generators. Once on board the marketing continues with everythng from food & drink to scratch cards being offered with annoying regularity.

Easyjet seems to be far better, but unfortunately Easyjet have taken some leaves out of Ryanairs book when it comes to tariffing.

I'll continue to use Ryanair where it is cost-effective to do so, but if the difference was miimal I'd opt for another.