Ryanair credit/debit card handling fee

lw94jahi

I have just booked return Ryanair flights for 2 and found a surprising £7 card handling charge added to my booking receipt.

This charge was not highlighted in the price quote but on tracking back through the pages of my booking I found a small link at the side of the booking page stating "Click here for new information on handling fees". In the unlikely event that you will notice this link, you will be taken to a pop-up window with the following information: "to defray the substantial administration costs", credit card fees of £1.75/EUR2.50 and debit card fees of £0.40/EUR0.60 will be charged on each passenger flight except for infants and Electron card holders.

If the charges are reasonable, why do Ryanair not highlight them properly in the price quotes? Not very customer-friendly. Any views?

pin

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/faqs.php?sect=pnr&quest=handlingcharge

It's in their FAQ's

Baz-Bee

I can understand that companies, such as Ryanair incur costs from their banks in processing payments. But, is £1.75 per person a fair rflection of that?


I would suggest that a company with the financial accumen and negotiating skills of cutting a deal that Ryanair appear to have will not be paying anything like that figure on a typical ticket price. I do not know what a typical ticket price is, but suspect that ven with tax the average is not more than £50. I would think that the fee charged by their bank for a credit card transaction on that would be less than £1.

So, IMO, it would seem that Ryanair are just using this as yet another way of bolstering their profit margins. No problem with that but why not be up front about it? They must know what the average cost of processing each ticket is, regardless of how it is paid for. So why not just add the average cost on to the headline price? Is this not similar to the “profiteering” they appear to be enjoying on the “wheelchair supplement” that all tickets now incur? Again, another highly inflated figure.

Ryanair have, with Easyjet and other low cost airlines, made air travel accessible and affordable. But they do themselves no favours with these sleezy tactics they employ to hide costs and bolster profit!

pin

Loads of travel companies, not just Ryanair have credit card charges. For example even the big players like Opodo and BMI charge for credit card transactions, it is nothing new.

Baz-Bee

pin wrote:

Loads of travel companies, not just Ryanair have credit card charges. For example even the big players like Opodo and BMI charge for credit card transactions, it is nothing new.

Do not disagree. BMI charge £4 per booking for Credit Cards regardless of total cost or number of passengers. On lower cost tickets or single passenger journeys this will often be more expensive than Ryanair. But, they are up front with it and it is shown on their page where the fares are quoted, it is niot salted away until you book when it magically appears.

I still believe all airlines should factor the average cost in to their fares, as it is probable that most people will pay with a credit card. And also transparancy should be the key word and these costs should not be hidden away unil customers have been duped in to geeting to the stage where they think they are purchasing a ticket for less than they actually end up paying. After all, what is different between this and the case where Essex trading statndards took Ryanair to court for not including taxes in the headline price? Thin end of the wedge again?

pin

Baz without quoting everything you have said, couldn't agree more.

Felix

I booked flights with Easy jet and Monarch yesterday, both had charges but both pointed this out before he checkout.

budgetflyer

Sorry, but I really cant see how you missed the info on handling fees when doing your booking. At the payment stage it clearly states there will be a handling fee,right under the pictures of the various card types accepted.
Anyway its not that much really. 40p with a debit card,£1.75 with a CC.each flight
Ryanair regularly do flights under £1. +tax The Costs of these transactions have to be offset somehow.
Most travel agents charge 2-3% of the price for C.Cs so a £2K holiday could easily incurr £60 fee

Baz-Bee

budgetflyer wrote:

Sorry, but I really cant see how you missed the info on handling fees when doing your booking. At the payment stage it clearly states there will be a handling fee,right under the pictures of the various card types accepted.
Anyway its not that much really. 40p with a debit card,£1.75 with a CC.each flight
Ryanair regularly do flights under £1. +tax The Costs of these transactions have to be offset somehow.
Most travel agents charge 2-3% of the price for C.Cs so a £2K holiday could easily incurr £60 fee

I think the fact that it does not show up until the payment page is the issue. why not be transparent and put it on the same page as the flight prices?

The difference with a travel agent, or similar retailers etc, is that they do not have control over the prices. i.e you pay the brochure price (assuming that we are not in Martin's haggling mode here). So the agent cannot include any credit card “loading” in the figure you see as it is set and published by the operator. However, Ryanair and other sites where you buy direct from the supplier/operator have total control over the their indicated online pricing and could, if they wanted to be, be totally transparent and up front and include an average amount in the headline price.

But I suppose it suits them to not tell customers what the proper price is until they have become so hooked on purchasing that they will not decline at that stage.

IMO it is a shabby practice and defines the attitude of the company to its customers. Cheap should not be confused with being honest, transparent and open.