Last minute Ryanair bookers..

Thomask

Be careful, you will now get charged their normal debit/credit card fee when booking flights for the current promotion!

Obviously the flghts still represent tremendous value however when I booked a few flights a week ago the booking confirmation page was different - stated the total of 0.02 'including all taxes and charges' where it now states 'excluding handling fee' which means the card fee.

I wonder what prompted them to change? If it's a 'free' flight surely they couldn't charge for using a card anyway?

MrSmartprice

We booked 1p flights last time the offer was on, so they needed to take a total of 4p on the card. There was a fee for credit/debit cards, but we found Electron cards were fee-free. My business account has one, so I used that and it was fine - only 4p for 2 return flights!

panavia

I was charged £4.20 for using my Visa Debit card.... Just in case anybody needed to know how much they are charging...But still £4.26 for 3 flights to Dublin was a steal... as that amount would not get us into our town centre and back on the BUS!

peterbaker

Agreed there are sometimes excellent deals to be had in Ryanair "FREE FLIGHT" or 1p flight promotions, but this last one I think is generally agreed to be a bit restricted.

Electron cards have always been free on every Ryanair booking (whether promotional fare or not) since the year dot AFAIK, which is good news for you student types who generally get given Electron cards as part of your student-banking deals I think?

For those others of you that are less certain of how these promotional deals have worked in the past, or how they now seem to be working vis-a-vis the Card Fee, then you might be interested to note that during the three(?) previous "1p including all taxes and fees" promotions, there were also simultaneously a (larger?) number of "1p" and "79p" flights offered which were not in the same promotion but were on the same routes and which did incur card and other fees. The same kind of variations applied during their £10 promotions I think. The only sure fire way to establish which flights are the truly rock-bottom promotional flights is/was to follow the booking process right through to the credit card page and select a card type to see if it had any effect on the price.

This is just one reason why the OFT wants Ryanair and others to properly show the prices up front. Of course what OFT means by upfront is something different to what the airlines call upfront so you still might easily be confused.

Now we are told (by Thomask) that (unsurprisingly) the latest promotion is NOT inclusive of Ryanair's usual card fees, and again, you might be forgiven for being confused.

I have a number of 2007 card statements showing Ryanair single digit penny transactions and I am sure the card companies/VISA/Mastercard networks are not overly impressed by it. That's why I am not surprised if Ryanair have stopped doing it.

cannyscot_2

That's odd isn't it as last time there were no credit card charges due to it sayying NO CHARGES which it says this time?

I also have a business electron card and use that to book my 1p ryanair flights, my relatives, and everyone else who ask. I get immense pleasure from paying 1p.

Thomask

It's strange this charging has begun mid-way through their current 1p promotion.

I've booked 2 flights, at a total cost of 4p, about a week ago. Now I go to book another and the Visa Debit charge kicks in..