MSE News: Airlines forced to display debit card fees upfront

lazyjack

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

The question is, would she care a monkey's if she hadn't been told about the card fees at the start of her booking for this £10.99 flight (including taxes and on-line check-in) or at the end, actually didn't have to pay them anyway. Even if she'd paid the £6 it's s*dding
peanuts, Less than £17 for all that way in a £70m (ish) aircraft including taxes!

If £6 extra per flight is no big deal I can't the problem with including it in advertised fares. I mean, let's be honest, if you see a flight advertised for £17 it's hardly going to put you off. They could, as others state, give a discount at the end to the likes of you with the Ryanair card, although I can't see any point in sucking people with a price then knocking money off later on, they are already committed by then.

chattychappy

I resent the OFT getting involved in this sort of thing. Everyone knows the ways these airlines operate.

The watchdog launched its investigation in March after a super-complaint from Which? highlighted consumer anger about the increasingly widespread use of surcharges.

Yes, consumers mustn't get "angry". Seems to me Which/the OFT are playing to an audience when they ought to be focussed on real abusive traders.

For me, the real scandal is the amount of tax that HMRC takes from cheap flights. Pity the OFT can't do something about that. I'm sure consumers are angry about paying tax, too.

apt

Yes, it's outrageous that the Office of Fair Trading would be bothered about fair trading. The OFT should have nipped this drip pricing in the bud a couple of years ago.

MarkBargain

I am glad that the airlines have finally agreed to includes these charges in the upfront price advertised. Everyone should know what they are being asked to pay from the beginning, which is the time they compare with other airlines, not at the end after choosing date and entering personal details etc.

Just because Ryanair are cheaper than their rivals sometimes, this doesn't make hidden charges okay.

callum9999

MarkBargain wrote: »

I am glad that the airlines have finally agreed to includes these charges in the upfront price advertised. Everyone should know what they are being asked to pay from the beginning, which is the time they compare with other airlines, not at the end after choosing date and entering personal details etc.

Just because Ryanair are cheaper than their rivals sometimes, this doesn't make hidden charges okay.

Everyone keeps saying "hidden"...

At the very top of Ryanairs homepage is a button that says "fees". Click it and it will tell you, in the first row on the table, what the payment fee is.

When you search for a flight, it says - in the same box as the price quoted and at the bottom of the main flight option box - "not including admin fees - click here for details".

As you go through the booking process, at the side of every page on the price breakdown of your fare, it says "Excluding admin fee of £6/€6 per person/per sector (if applicable)".

Now it's still sneaky yes, but if you don't know Ryanair like adding fees to things then you've clearly been living under a rock.

And I don't know about anyone else, but if I was unsure what the charges are on a certain service, I would personally click the box that advises me that there may be a charge on the booking to see what it is... But then maybe that's using a scrap more common sense than the British public can be credited with?

NFH

callum9999 wrote: »

Everyone keeps saying "hidden"...

At the very top of Ryanairs homepage is a button that says "fees". Click it and it will tell you, in the first row on the table, what the payment fee is.

When you search for a flight, it says - in the same box as the price quoted and at the bottom of the main flight option box - "not including admin fees - click here for details".

Then the fee is indeed hidden. Rather than being on the same page and included in the advertised fare, it is hidden away on another page.

jpsartre

The debate over whether or not the charge is hidden is just semantics. Presumably you guys don't disagree about the relevant facts about how the fee is advertised or added on Ryanair's website, you just disagree over the meaning of the word 'hidden'.

MarkBargain

callum9999 wrote: »

Everyone keeps saying "hidden"...

At the very top of Ryanairs homepage is a button that says "fees". Click it and it will tell you, in the first row on the table, what the payment fee is.

We shouldn't have to click it. Also, I think they have only put that link there due to pressure from the powers that be. Given free reign, imagine how sneaky they would be!

Now it's still sneaky yes, but if you don't know Ryanair like adding fees to things then you've clearly been living under a rock.

The consumer should not have to concern themselves about whether particular companies "like adding fees". There has to be one rule for everyone.

callum9999

MarkBargain wrote: »

We shouldn't have to click it. Also, I think they have only put that link there due to pressure from the powers that be. Given free reign, imagine how sneaky they would be!



The consumer should not have to concern themselves about whether particular companies "like adding fees". There has to be one rule for everyone.

We shouldn't have to click it!? And people claim that this isn't "nannying" - threatening legislation because people don't like to click a link on a webpage! And surely the resolution to that could easily be changing the text on the link from "click here for more details" to "a £6 fee per person per sector may be added - click here for details"?

I can't remember that link ever not being there... What makes you think that?

Why shouldn't they? You do realise this is a free country? Maybe I'm just super-smart and super-logical and am in a completely different league to the (presumably) idiotic public, but I really don't see anything arduous about clicking on a link... If you are really that lazy, then as I said, it specifically tells you that it's a £6 fee on the next page.

As I've said before - I can see why this is good news for idiots, morons and the foolish, but for those of us with a basic grasp of common sense, all it is going to do is result in us having to face the same charges as the others (i.e. on Easyjet you now have to pay a £9 admin fee whereas before it was possible to pay £0 - great move...). You may think that makes the whole thing "fair" but I don't (just like the people moaning about how grammar school students should be brought down to the level of comprehensive students in the interests of "fairness").

NFH

callum9999 wrote: »

We shouldn't have to click it!? And people claim that this isn't "nannying" - threatening legislation because people don't like to click a link on a webpage! And surely the resolution to that could easily be changing the text on the link from "click here for more details" to "a £6 fee per person per sector may be added - click here for details"?

The only reason for excluding £6 from the fare and adding it later or hiding it on another page is to mislead the customer by attracting them using a cheaper fare, only to add the £6 later. Misleading consumers is an unfair commercial practice. That is why Ryanair must in future display its prices in a more straightforward and honest way.