If You Think That Airlines in the United States Charge Crazy Fees...
Monday June 1, 2009
...then check out Ryanair! About's own Guide to Spain Travel has taken issue with Ryanair and their nickel-and-diming, punitive fees. Especially at risk are passengers who don't pay for their checked luggage online or who can't print a boarding pass before they arrive at the airport.
Imagine paying more than $50 for a boarding pass to be printed at the airport because you don't have a printer at home or the hotel you are staying at doesn't have one. Sounds like an unlikely scenario, unless you are traveling with Ryanair. Damian Corrigan, Guide to Spain Travel asked Why is Ryanair's Boarding Card Reprint Fee so Expensive? The reply from Ryanair included "...while we must encourage passengers to bring their boarding card we do not wish to be so harsh as to prevent passengers from travelling so we have introduced a purposely high fee of €40 to ensure that the estimated 0.1% of passengers who do present without their boarding card do not continue to ignore this important condition of travel."
Equally stunning is that this question needed to be asked by Damian - Why Do Ryanair Charge Multiple Credit Card Fees for a Single Transaction?. Part of the response included "Ryanair allows all passengers the facility to avoid credit card fees altogether by opting to pay for their flights with Visa Electron, which is widely available throughout Europe." To which Damian pointed out "It also appears that many banks don't issue Visa Electron Cards - in the UK Nationwide and Lloyds have stopped issuing them and Barclay's only offers them to teenagers."
Granted, Ryanair is a cheap, no-frills airline, but all these extra charges really do add up. If you're new to traveling on Ryanair, Damian Corrigan's series of questions with responses from Ryanair constitute what I would absolutely consider essential reading. Kind of makes the checked luggage fees charged by many airlines pale in comparison.
Luggage Fees - Legacy Airlines in the US
Luggage Fees - Low Cost Airlines in the US
Luggage Fees - Non-US, International Airlines
Asidscript / Flickr
Imagine paying more than $50 for a boarding pass to be printed at the airport because you don't have a printer at home or the hotel you are staying at doesn't have one. Sounds like an unlikely scenario, unless you are traveling with Ryanair. Damian Corrigan, Guide to Spain Travel asked Why is Ryanair's Boarding Card Reprint Fee so Expensive? The reply from Ryanair included "...while we must encourage passengers to bring their boarding card we do not wish to be so harsh as to prevent passengers from travelling so we have introduced a purposely high fee of €40 to ensure that the estimated 0.1% of passengers who do present without their boarding card do not continue to ignore this important condition of travel."
Equally stunning is that this question needed to be asked by Damian - Why Do Ryanair Charge Multiple Credit Card Fees for a Single Transaction?. Part of the response included "Ryanair allows all passengers the facility to avoid credit card fees altogether by opting to pay for their flights with Visa Electron, which is widely available throughout Europe." To which Damian pointed out "It also appears that many banks don't issue Visa Electron Cards - in the UK Nationwide and Lloyds have stopped issuing them and Barclay's only offers them to teenagers."
Granted, Ryanair is a cheap, no-frills airline, but all these extra charges really do add up. If you're new to traveling on Ryanair, Damian Corrigan's series of questions with responses from Ryanair constitute what I would absolutely consider essential reading. Kind of makes the checked luggage fees charged by many airlines pale in comparison.
Luggage Fees - Legacy Airlines in the US
Luggage Fees - Low Cost Airlines in the US
Luggage Fees - Non-US, International Airlines
Asidscript / Flickr
Following the annouced loss by Ryanair yesterday of £188m O’leary the chief Executive has stated that due to the current recession and the cash strength of thier balance sheet they are going to create a blood bath this winter aimed at rivals Aer Lingus,Easyjet and BA. Whilst in the short term this may reduce flying costs what will happen to prices if these rivals are driven to the wall?
David from Gatwick Airport Parking
Hey Ar,
I actually read today that Ryan Air are thinking of charging for air sick bags!!
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,25585281-5014090,00.html
It simply isn’t worth it to fly Rynair. By the time you have been conned into paying all the add-on fees, you might as well fly a legacy carrier. Also, there are too many stories of people being stranded for days due to Ryanair cancellations, and since the company effectively has no customer service to speak of, they receive no help from the airline. There are numerous stories of people having to fork out a thousand dollars or mine to fly their families home because Ryanair has abandoned them. I’d rather pay a bit extra and fly British Airways or whoever, knowing there is some peace of mind that the airline will likely help (or at least you have somebody you can talk to on the phone). Heck, you can’t even email them and if you call they charge you per minute! If I was irish I would be deeply ashamed because I believe this airline mars what is a wonderful country.
The German courts now have stopped ryanair from extra charges on internet and aiming for better internet transparancy.
Read more on google:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jaXAOSWmFuPsuZcEOPXJppiZ-O4w