Ryanair have ripped me off!!!

exel1966

shrimp47 wrote: »

Yesterday I tried to book flights from Murcia to Stanstead at a cost of £351 for 2 people. When it came to paying it wouldnt let me and when I returned to the site the return flight had increased! Worrying that they would increase further I paid £459. I have been on today and the flights have reverted to the original cost of £351, so there were obviously seats still availble! I called customer service and they said they could help and could not issue a refund for the difference and that I should use the contact page if I wanted to made a complaint (which wont allow me to type anything on, only use drop down boxes) or write to head office. Am I right in thinking I'm fighting a losing battle or is it worth writing as by the time they get my correspondence the fare will have probably gone back up!

Rip Off ? .......Droll or should that be Troll !!

Bob_the_Saver

jpsartre wrote: »

I don't either but since prices drop back to normal for you and I'm failing to replicate the results I'm guessing it has nothing to do with dynamic pricing

Beats me, I'm using Chrome/XP and a nice bottle of Rioja

Doshwaster

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

Beats me, I'm using Chrome/XP and a nice bottle of Rioja

I always find it dangerous to be looking at airline websites with a bottle of wine. There are several times I've found myself booking a flight under the influence...

Bob_the_Saver

Doshwaster wrote: »

I always find it dangerous to be looking at airline websites with a bottle of wine. There are several times I've found myself booking a flight under the influence...

Trouble is I find with XP it won't work without it, at least that's what I tell Mrs Bob the Saver.

Mr_Wang

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

I search and the price goes up, I stop and it goes down after a while,
I don't claim to understand it. I'll check the Sunday price again now on my machine, hang on.........

Select A Flight
Regular Fare Adult 67.67 EUR Sun 09 Sep 12
Flight FR8375 17:05 Depart
17:50 Arrive
Going Out
Regular Fare
Depart
Rodez 17:05
Arrive
London-Stansted 17:50
1 x Adult 27.99 EUR

Fare: 27.99 EUR
EU 261 Levy: 2.00 EUR
Web Check in: 6.00 EUR
ETS Levy: 0.25 EUR
Taxes/Fees: 31.43 EUR
Total Price: 67.67 EUR

ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD PLEASE

Seen it myself a billion times. Seriously, I will search and search and then go to book and *wham* big increase.

I now use Firefox for searching and Chrome when booking. It's ridiculous but I have genuinely had both browsers open both displaying a different price.

callum9999

Wow I always thought that was a myth! Just 3 searches and the price went up from £23.99 to £38.99 on one of the flights!

I'm not so sure it's actually changing based on the search though. If I don't click the "select and continue" on the main page, it doesn't seem to affect it.

What I'd imagine is happening is when you click select it reserves you a seat for X minutes (so someone else can't sneak in and buy it while you're half way through the booking form) and if you happen to be on the threshold between fares, the last £23.99 flight is currently reserved for you so the next person (could be you again, but the system doesn't know that) only sees the £38.99 price. Then if you don't complete the booking, eventually that reservation drops off and it's available to buy again.

This is just a conclusion from 5 minutes of tinkering though - so I'm not guaranteeing it's right!

~Chameleon~

callum9999 wrote: »

What I'd imagine is happening is when you click select it reserves you a seat for X minutes (so someone else can't sneak in and buy it while you're half way through the booking form) and if you happen to be on the threshold between fares, the last £23.99 flight is currently reserved for you so the next person (could be you again, but the system doesn't know that) only sees the £38.99 price. Then if you don't complete the booking, eventually that reservation drops off and it's available to buy again.

This is exactly what's happening!!

lewroll

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

This is exactly what's happening!!

So can you explain this please? Selected flights, went through all the information about names, card numbers etc and then when I pressed to pay, the system told me that the flight price had increased by £35 and did I still want the ticket??????
This was easyjet though.

david39

Airlines, travel agents, insurance companies and many other on-line sellers leave a cookie on your computer with details of what they offered you, when they offered it and the price.

If you go back within a short time, the site looks for the cookie. It guesses that you have probably gone back to make the booking and, if business is good, will up the price hoiping that you will accept the new offer rather than go back to recheck prices on other sites.

If you are visiting a site such as the above for a second time, either clear your cookie folder first or use a different computer.

callum9999

lewroll wrote: »

So can you explain this please? Selected flights, went through all the information about names, card numbers etc and then when I pressed to pay, the system told me that the flight price had increased by £35 and did I still want the ticket??????
This was easyjet though.

Easyjet don't reserve the seats as long as Ryanair do?
There was an error that day and they weren't being reserved at all?

As to airlines storing a cookie then targetting you by secretly upping the price for you alone - that doesn't sound strictly legal to me. And I'd want to see actual proof of it happening.