Now Ryanair charges for NOT taking a bag

Just when you thought Ryanair had done pretty much all it could do to fleece its passengers, I've become victim to it's latest money-grabbing exercise. As we've previously reported, Ryanair will charge you £10 to take a bag onto the plane. Now it seems, unless you are prepared to scour the small print you will also be charged for NOT taking a bag onto the plane.

Against the sound advice of my colleague Michael Clarke, I've just booked flights with Ryanair for the bank holiday weekend at the end of May. Resisting the £10 rip-off for checking in a bag, I figured I'd make do with hand luggage, only to find that Ryanair is now charging £2 each way for customers who DON'T take any luggage. The reason is the privilege of 'online check in and priority boarding'.

I searched and searched for a way to take my hand luggage on for free. I asked my colleagues to help but they failed too so in frustration I had to go ahead and book and wear the cost. Then I discovered that I had been charged £3.50 for using a credit card, when in fact it had been Visa debit card. I decided to complain.

Ryanair doesn't provide a phone number for people like me to call so I chose the journalist's route of last resort and phoned the press office to see if they could give it to me. I was told that any grievances had to be put in writing (not email or over the phone), popped in the post and sent to the Ryanair head office in Dublin - despite the fact that my request for a refund comes to a grand total of £7.50 and could probably be easily resolved with a quick phone call if I was dealing with virtually any other company.

The Ryanair spokesman told me there was in fact an option to turn off the '£4 despite not taking a bag' charge. I didn't believe him but after spending another ten minutes searching the page it turns out he's right!

It's nicely hidden away, tucked down in the fine print, rather than in front of your face where every other (paying) option for checking in bags is listed. If you click on the image to the right, we've highlighted the option for you so you don't get caught out as well.

>> Click the image to enlarge >>

He also told me I must have selected Visa credit rather than Visa debit card. I think he's wrong but who knows? There's no proof and no way, it seems, of sorting it out. So if you're planning to book flights with Ryanair, here's some of the extra charges they will hit you with. Factor them all in before you book, or you budget flight could prove costly.

1) Baggage charges: You won't be given an option to take no bags for free without searching high and low. Otherwise a check in bag will cost you £10 and no bags will cost you £4 for a return flight.

2) Insurance: You will automatically be charged for travel insurance. Make sure select the option of 'No travel insurance' in the drop down menu. If you do need insurance you can find a cheaper policy here.

3) Payment method: Don't use your credit card, and ensure you specify that you are using a Visa debit rather than credit card. Then check your final print out to ensure you have been charged for it anyway. Or you'll be charged £3.50.

4) Check where you're flying to: If you fly with Ryanair to "Barcelona" you will actually find yourself in Girona, an hour and half away. That's an expensive taxi ride to add to your budget holiday. Unfortunately it's the norm rather than the exception so research your airport first.

5) Passenger duty: As my colleague Ed Monk revealed last month, Ryanair does not refund passenger if you cancel your flight. So make sure you don't pay it up front.

I've asked Ryanair to explain themselves (and to refund my money). I'll let you know how I get on.

- Sascha Hutchinson, This is Money

Update - 3 May 2007. Response from Ryanair

I've just had a response to my query to the Ryanair press office which simply confirms what I asked the company to comment on. There's no explanation as to why the option to turn off the £4 charge is not listed with all the options, Ryanair will only says it's a 'discretionary charge'. They also say I must have selected the Visa credit option. The spokesperson said: 'Your claim that you spent an extra £7.50 for nothing is simply untrue. You selected these two services and you agreed to pay for them before confirming your booking or paying for it.'

Some other Ryanair coverage

• REPORT: Ryanair says no to tax refunds
• REPORT: Ryanair profits on baggage fee
• REPORT: Ryanair free seat ad rapped

And finally

• This site is still under construction but it looks like a good one...

Comments

[R L]

How people can do business/travel with such behaviour astounds me.

[Rod Lodge]

Ryanair have cut prices to the bone and with higher fuel prices are trying to recover some of those extra charges. Next it will be a charge to use the toilets on board or oxygen!

[Tony Lucas]

You need to think of Ryanair as a flying bus service,not some fancy expensive airline like BA.I use Ryanair many times each year and providing you read the small print and the terms that you agreeing to you can have very cheap flights.I have flown many times to Gerona for £25 all in return.If you go over on your baggage allowance of 15kilos why should'nt you pay for the extra?If Ryanair are charged for credit cards why not pass it on?You must read the terms,the location of the airport and really be adult and take resposibility for yourself.I think Mr O'Leary has done more for European integration and unity than any half baked Eurocrat could even dream about.More power to Ryanair.

[tony parkinson]

Having just returned from Carcassonne with Ryanair - I can't see what all the fuss is. The plane left the UK on time and picked up on time for the return flight. My wife and I checked in bags, got the travel insurance and used a credit card. We even bought food on board. We both thought the total price was great and the experience was fine. What is our problem with trying to save every penny (£7.50) when in years gone by it would have cost a mortgage to fly anywhere!

[roy wilmot]

I THINK RYANAIR ARE RUTHLESS,JUST LIKE THE FERRY COMPANY IRISH FERRIES.BUT RYANAIR ARE NOT THE ONLY CULPRIT THAT CHARGES TO PUT A SUITCASE/BAG IN THE HOLD BMIBABY IS ANOTHER ONE.YES WHATS NEXT ?.

[Sascha Hutchinson]

Hi
Thanks for all your comments. You're right, Ryanair is entitled to make business decisions like charging for bags and people like me make a choice of whether or not to fly with them. My real gripe with them is that they are deliberately making it difficult for people to remove the £4 "Online priority check in" option by not listing the free option with all the others. You have to search around for a way to turn it off which leads people (like me) to believe it's not possible. That's an unfair tactic if you ask me.
Thanks for all your comments. Keep them coming.

Sascha Hutchinson
www.thisismoney.co.uk

[M T]

Yes, Ryanair are OK if nothing goes wrong, apart from not allocating seats, which means an unpleasant free-for-all, and apart from the dodgy extra charges. However when there is a delay they are appalling. When a Sunday morning flight was diverted, a whole planeful of people were trying to rebook with 1 poor employee. We were offered a Friday return even tho Wednesday flights were still available on the Internet. It took most of the day to get Tuesday pm flight from an airport 150 miles away. It is NOT like a bus service, as it's booked in advance. At least a taxi might be an option if you miss a bus!

[Dave Judgement]

Quite right Sascha. I don't have massive problems with their charging policies per se, but some of the ways they make it difficult to avoid the charges amount, in my opinion, to very sharp practice.

It's exactly the sort of thing we complain about when financial services companies do it, so why should an airlines get away with it?

[Tony Lucas]

I have no problem with the way the Ryanair website is layed out,you just need to read carefully before you click and therefore accept the charges and conditions.
I have lost count of the number of times i've been behind people that have overweight bags and then complain that 'it's not fair,nobobdy told me' and then have to hand over another 40 pounds,all because they dont bother to look what they are agreeing to on the website.
What i really cannot understand is the people that pay a few quid to use Ryanair and then moan that its not as 'nice' as BA,and does'nt fly to the centre of Rome,Paris or Bacelona.Must be our British mindset and perhaps fact that Ryanair is run by an 'uppity Irishman'who does he think he is?

[GKA]

I've just returned from Granada - flight was on time - in fact, we arrived 15 minutes early. My bag WAS on the carousel, and the contents were intact. I booked my luggage in - it was £7 return - and I also took on board hand luggage. It was a pleasant flight - and only cost me £35 return. You do have to read the small print - Ryanair makes its money out of people who don't - who expect to take in excess of 15 Kg, huge hand luggage and spend money on drinks, food, scratch cards which are all optional!

I travelled from Las Vegas by United/BMI, had flight cancelled, had to go via LA and Frankfurt with Lufthansa to get to Manchester - extra 6 hours travelling, no more comfort than Ryanair - and they left my luggage in LA! It cost far more pro rata. I know which was the better trip!!!

[hope S]

There are many budget travelling services, but none handle people in the same way that Ryan air do. They've basically taken on a complaicency in their whole attitude leaving the customers on the recieving end. Justifying this by the fact fact that they're a budget airline. I've flown easyjet and will continue to do so, as this for me is a more pleasurable experience.

[Pravin]

To Sascha Hutchinson - I blame Ryanair for not making their website idiot proof for people like you. Please feel free to travel with other airlines who charge £100 or £200 when Ryanair only charge £33 return !

[Sascha Hutchinson]

Hi Pravin,
Thanks for your comments. I completely agree. When you're buying goods online, websites should be 100% idiot-proof so even basic web users are comfortable using them - particularly when there's no back up support through a call centre. And the flights I bought were £121, (or £128.50 with the extra card and baggage charges).
Sascha Hutchinson
www.thisismoney.co.uk

[Eileen]

Oh come on. You don't need to be so rude when someone has clearly got a grievance and is doing their best to make sure others don't fall into the same trap. Why are so many people defending Ryanair? I've shopped around for many cheap flights to Europe in the last few years and Ryanair has never come up as the cheapest. So I've never flown with Ryanair but I would say that any company who deliberatly tries to hide from its customers a way of opting out of one of their charges, in my book, is not the company to fly with whatever their price.

If we carry on giving business to companies who do this we are only asking for trouble in the long term. You don't really think Ryanair will hold its cheap prices if they put other cheap airlines out of business do you? And by continuing to fly with this company you are simply rewarding undesirable behaviour.

[Doug Giles]

I have flown with Ryanair only twice. That was quite sufficient! Their whole business model seems to be about tricks and non-existent customer service. They insist they will accept complaints by letter to Dublin only, and not even via e-mail. They e-mail their reply to you though. They know that less customers can be bothered to write and post letters, and this artificially reduces complaints.

On my last flight they left the cockpit door open for most of the flight, yet on the ground imposed ridiculous security without warning customers, which resulted in some of their baggage being seized by airport security staff. When I complained they did not want to even accept that all of this was true.

You must add up the hidden costs very carefully before booking. This is what makes the other honest air carriers cross. When you do add up the total hidden costs they are always just as expensive as other better budget carriers, and the only difference is the absence of service with Ryanair, and you need to consider the taxi journey needed to the real location, since they almost always use airports miles away from the claimed real destination.

[Giovanni Fattori]

I fly ryanair on a week end basis from Frankfurt to Italy.
Booking is relatively simple for frequent flyers but it may not be for someone not used to the cumbersome booking procedure.
You really need to dig the website to discover how they managed to comply with the EU transparency law.
4 screens before you et the final figure!!
Their efficiency is simply ridicolous: the customer is always beaten. Months ago my flight was cancelled. I received an email confirming the intention to refund the credit card charge. To date I received no refund yet.

To buy at the lowest price I suggest to keep track of the fares. I discovered that by tracking, say, a July fare, you can get a ticket for 200 Euros as well as 40 Euros depending on the algorithm they use each day. In 90% of the cases they charge you more if you purchased the ticket well in advance than if you got it a couple of week prior departure date.
Bad news: they have just risen the credit card charge...

[BRIDGETTE ARCHER]

I have just booked on line for a flight to Murcia and paid via my Delta card, which obviously is paid immediately. I have been charged £8.00 for using a credit card which obviously is incorrect. How do I claim the overcharge back?

[Claire Wainman]

I'm with you. Having recently booked tickets and been charged £20 for using my credit card I was careful to use my debit card to book flight this weekend. Like you I was still charged the same £20 fee. I have written to complain but I doubt I'll get anywhere. The phone support staff were unhelpful to the point of rudness and cut me off twice. They said I ticked the wrong box, so i have been charged for making a mistake and not for using a credit card.
I find it disgraceful that a company can behave like such sharks and not answer for it. I do not object for charging for the extras as they do but surely it should be more open and not up to prospective customers to search out these hidden costs to the extent they have to. Any reputable company should also make it easier to take up any issues that customers have.

[Ron]

I recently used Ryanair for the first time with no problems, thankfully.
I paid using my debit card(which is a slightly lower charge) but realised after booking that it may have been more prudent to have used my credit card instead to have the consumer protection it afforded. How many people realize I wonder, that Ryanair isn't ATOL registered, so therefore leaves you travelling very much at your own, potentially very expensive risk if they were to 'pull the plug'. Well worth checking the small print on your travel insurance on this point too!.

[Ricky Faust]

How comes the airport tax and fuel duty on Easyjet is £22.00 and is £31.17 on Ryanair for the same flights to and from the same city destinations? (London - Barcelona) I wonder if Ryanair are paying back the government the extra income received or do they pay back just the same amount as Easyjet do?

[a jordan]

I would like to say thankyou for the exceptional assistance I received from Ryanir on my journey to Pisa on the 15th September with my two friends.The flight was on time and even arrived earlier than scheduled which was great.The flight staff we delightful and could not have been more helpful,I think you get great value for your money considering what the other airlines charge even with all the extra charges for baggage it still is great value what I would say if you don't like the charges etc go elsewhere and pay more.

[Mike]

My wife has just booked a school trip flying with Ryanair for a total of 22 people and she paid by credit card. Like most on-line booking sites you expect to pay a charge for the transaction, but most sites do just that - they charge you for the (singular) transaction. It wasn't until the confirmation e-mail came through that she realised the credit card booking fee of £4.00 is applied PER PERSON not per booking. So despite only making the one credit card transaction, the credit card fee added to the cost was £88! Needless to say this is not exactly obvious when going through the booking process particularly when dealing with such a large number of people on one booking. Thinking there must surely be some mistake she contacted Ryanair (on their 0870 "help"line) only to be told, "no mistake, that's our policy". Thank you and ker-ching!

Presumably this is just yet another way of reducing the headline price of individual tickets and then clawing the money back by other means - it's absolutely nothing to do with the cost of processing credit card transactions which is what it is presented as.

It's the sort of thing that sounds like it ought to be illegal, but I don't suppose it is.

[richard herbert]

I have flown ryanair about 6 times a year since the airline started. I got delayed once for two hours. I have found their customers services helpful and friendly. As far as I am concerned it is a flying bus, cheap, efficient, reliable.

If a bus or train gets cancelled you are on your own, get insurance.

Prior to ryanair I flew regularly BA to vienna, always delayed and a very long wait for baggage. Ryanair gets my vote.

[Gary]

I think people have lost sight of the fact they are paying for a no frills airline. We have flown to Rome twice with Ryanair this year for around £40 return each time. Less than a return train ticket to London from Yorkshire. Outward flights were on time with slight delays on the return journey on both occasions. Before the advent of budget airlines we just would not have made these trips because of the cost of tickets with the likes of BA. OK you have to have the wits about you when booking via the website but that should be norm when buying anything on line. People can't choose not to read the small print and then cry 'it's not fair'.

[Adrian, This is Money]

I agree with the argument that it's a case of 'you pays your money...'. Caveat emptor, unless the company is explicitly trying to mislead consumers, a charge I think Ryanair remains innocent of - just. No doubt Ryanair is a master at ... what shall we say ... 'promotional sleight-of-hand'. But we're all adults - we should know this.

And delays are often beyond an airline's control. A three-hour delay might be a pain. But take solace if you only paid a tenner for your flights: someone will have paid £2000 for a business-class Emirates flight in order to face the same aggravation.

Anyhow, forget flying: I predict a renaissance next year in rail travel to and across the continent - and not a moment too soon....

[Douglas Low]

We recently flew to Spain for the weekend with Ryanair.
We used the online check-in system. This is fine for the outward flight as you can print your boarding card from your own home.

Unlike other airlines Ryanair will not let you check in online and print your return boarding card until 48 hours before the flight departs.

This means you need to find an internet cafe in a foreign country within two days of your flight leaving - not so easy.

[Pravin]

To Sascha.
I have purchased a return flight to Berlin for £21.40 inc the debit card charge. My other recent purchases include 4 return tickets to Shannon for a total of £70. And a total of £70 for 4 return tickets to Kerry. Therefore I object to journalists like you who are not even computer literate denigrating a company that clearly delivers value for money. You have only recently started using Ryanair. But Ryanair and Easyjet pioneered the concept of internet ticket sales and I have been flying with them for some 10 years now. Ryanair is the most punctual of all the airlines I fly with and just as professional as any other. So do your research and get some assistance for your computer skills. I hope that you carry on paying high fares because people like you allow people like me to travel for £21.40.
By the way, owing to changes to the Ryanair website, your article is now inaccurate and out of date. The Ryanair website is more idiot-proof – perhaps you could try it out to check? Here’s to another 10 years of flying with our superb low cost airlines. See you in Berlin.

To Jordan who says ‘the credit card fee is not obvious’.
Actually it is blatantly obvious. It’s plastered all over the payment page. Jordans wife even knew the amount (was she day dreaming during the booking process?). The problem is that many people are incapable of taking in basic simple information that is presented to them and then cry foul afterwards. Perhaps the website should have an audio commentary explaining the process? But would these people even listen?

[Simon]

With an attitude like that, Pravin obviously works for Ryanair customer service!

[Pravin]

Wrong Simon - I don't work in the aviation industry and never have - however I enjoy flying very much. So which of my comments is inaccurate ?

[Anne Corless]

Not Ryan Air but Thomas Cook. I booked a flight yesterday on internet and on printing tickets realized I had made a spelling mistake so rang them. I was charged £25 to put the mistake right! All I did was transpose two letters and the amount was discounted they usually charge £50.

[Ray Kennedy]

To get back to Ryanair's sharp practices. Are you aware that if you live in the UK (includes North of the Border) then RYanair will bill you in GBP Sterling. This means they can charge you their conversion rate. I have just booked a flight and it has cost me a further £10. Is there no end to the Ryanair scams - what next, a charge for queuing!

[Ray Kennedy]

Well, I have just read through the whole chain here. I wonder just how many are on the payroll of Ryanair and being deliberately misleading just like their employers. I can understand the acolyte position of many of the contributors who sound like they have got a good deal - and so many people have. But it is the deliberate attempts to mislead and charge the unwary.

Their natural defaults are all charge based. Look at the Priority checking and insurance options. They are set at zero when the web page opens and then change to a charge as soon as you enter your baggage/checkin details. They charge for everything even though there is no valid reason for it. Michael O'Leary tells us that they offer low cost no frills and that their prices are based on the basic cost, and where there the customer needs additional services (such as check in, insurance, etc.) then there is a small covering charge. This is a blatant misrepresentation. What about the debit/credit card per person per flight charges - where is the validity for that? What about their conversion rates for billing in non-euros? What about making it nearly impossible to get clarification through their costly telephone system?

Ryanair is a cheap airline, of that no-one is complaining. But it is unacceptable unprofessional misrepresentations that are really frustrating. All this chicanery actually has a counterproductive effect in that in gross cost terms people will probably get a cheaper flight but will feel disgruntled and swindled because the associated additional costs are hidden until the end of the transaction. Ryanair should just try to be honest about their charges. The European Courts may just be interested in a test case and I may just decide to do that. Watch this space.

[raymond lewis]

We have just returned from Malaga,where we had tavelled with Thomsonfly.com (don't just travel-travel with a SMILE!!) ha-ha. A £25.99 one-way flight came to over£110, and I didn't pay for "extras". My grief is, my friend had to go into hospital with appendex problem, so to change a name for the flight cost me a WHOPPING £68, making Her flight £170, what a rip-off.

[Paul Kerruish-Kelly]

Whilst Ryanair sometimes (certainly not always) offer good value I do find they way they charge for credit card use shoddy.

Ryanair is very quick to complain about the way various airport authorities impose unjustified charges on their clients (see the latest complaints about the Dublin Airport Authority on the Ryanair website).

However they themselves charge a credit charge fee for each passenger for each leg even if all bookings are made with one card transaction. For example a family of 4 on a return flight booked by credit card will be charged 8 transaction fees. So what is their position on these unjustified fees? Certainly not the same one they take when they themselves are on the receiving end.

On the radio today it was reported that the credit car fees on the updated Ryanair website do not show up until after you press the button to authorise the payment - I can't confirm this - but readers may want to be aware that the 'final cost' you think you are going to be charged may actually have a credit card fee added to it after you have authorised the transaction.