Ryanair credit card

tascott23

I'm thinking of applying for a Ryanair credit card as you can get a 'free' flight once you spend £100 and we are planning to fly with them in October, however does anyone know how booking this flight works. Does it have to be over the phone and could it end up costing more for 2 flights (1 free apart from charges and taxes) than it would online? Also, what about the many 'no tax' flights - presumably I would not be able to book one of these since the t&c's state taxes are extra?

[Deleted User]

It's not a free flight. You will still pay the taxes and carrier charges, which with Ryan air are 90% of the cost. Also you have to book via a premium rate number - it'll probably end up costing you more for your trouble. Get lloyds tsb avios, you can get 15,000 bonus avios using a sign up link - will get you a proper free flight with BA

Eonel

Lazyloki wrote: »

will get you a proper free flight with BA

You still have to pay the taxes with Avios, which although not 90% can still be very high when booking short haul trips.

I tried to book some Avios flights recently and was not impressed. Although it was not more expensive, the inconvenient hours of the Avios eligible flights and marginal savings meant it was not worth it.

I am told Avios is best saved & spent in bulk on long haul flights. The Ryanair card and free flight offer is of very little value.

[Deleted User]

Eonel wrote: »

I am told Avios is best saved & spent in bulk on long haul flights. The Ryanair card and free flight offer is of very little value.

You are partly right. There are two good ways to spend avios. The first is on long haul Business Class flights. It will cost you quite a lot of avios and you still have to pay the taxes but you will effectively get a business class flight for the same cash as an economy. Depending on your destination this could save you several thousand pounds. Long haul economy isn't worth if for avios flights as the taxes are the majority of the price.

The second way to use avios is for short haul economy or business class - I'd reccomend economy as short haul business isn't worth it (you usually won't have a flat bed seat for example). You need to book with the reward flight saver scheme. Doing this you will only pay £35 (economy) or £45 (business) for a return flight (or half if you're only going one way. This is a bargain. For example, you could fly from Edinburgh to Paris (connecting flight from Edinburgh to London is free) for only 9000 avios and £35 return. Using reward flight saver you can go as far as zone 3 (Cyprus, Turkey,Russia) but it will cost more points. Return london to Cyprus 20000 avios and £35.

The reward flight saver bit is important - google it if you're not familiar.