Booking a Ryanair flight via an online travel agent might hold a nasty surprise

https://noyb.eu/en/booking-ryanair-flight-through-online-travel-agent-might-hold-nasty-surprise

by robtherobber • 3 years ago

55 51 3 years ago

noyb.eu

ggambetta• 3 years ago

More generally, "booking a Ryanair flight might hold a nasty surprise".

timeon• 3 years ago

Similar with Wizzair.

OfSanguineFire• 3 years ago

I fly Wizzair at least a couple of times every year, and while both it and Ryanair are categorized as budget airlines, there are clearly two levels of budget airlines: WizzAir’s management has never pursued cutting every possible cost as singlemindedly as Mr. O’Leary famously has, and there is more flexibility possible, albeit at slightly higher fares.

tagyro• 3 years ago

Ha, just last week I was on a Wizzair flight that had a one-hour delay.

Because of the delay, rentalcars automatically cancelled my (already paid!) car rental booking and their agent tried to extort 400 (then later, 500) euros from me.

In the end, my family and I, were left stranded on the airport, on a Sunday evening and had to pay double for another car rental.

Of course, neither company wants to refund me, not to mention pay the difference of cost between the two rentals.

I filed a complaint via ECC, let's see how it goes.

ipython• 3 years ago

It can backfire on them every so often. I took a Ryanair flight for a short hop when on vacation in the eu back before COVID. My son had the vomits as the plane was set for landing. Apparently one of the “cost saving” measures was eliminating the seat back pocket and the barf bags.

Well, Ryanair, jokes on you - vomit ended up everywhere in the aircraft cabin due to you saving a few cents.

thinkingemote• 3 years ago

However, jokes on us as they saved much more replacing the comfortable breathable cloth upholstery with the plastic non porous, sweaty but much easier to wipe seats.

walthamstow2• 3 years ago

Ryanair have a bad name but I've flown with them possibly as many as 50 return flights from STN to wherever.

I don't /love/ flying with them but it's cheap as chips, never an issue, never a delay longer than an hour. Emirates first class it ain't, but they always get the job done for me.

I went to see my friend in Denmark the other week for £40 return! Beat that!

veave2• 3 years ago

Most people who make jokes about ryanair are just mad that everybody can afford to fly now. They yearn for the days when flying was an exclusive activity and only they could do it.

dazc• 3 years ago

I think it's generally accepted in business that the people who complain the most are those that pay the least.

We've had a few low cost carriers go out of business in the UK with a significant number of comments remarking on how these airlines were 'ripping people off' despite the obvious evidence that they were not charging enough.

bangkoksbest3• 3 years ago

Another thing I like with the discount airlines like Ryanair and Wizzair is that, because they are dirt cheap and point-to-point, I end up visiting places on a whim.

For example, a couple months ago I noticed I could take an affordable weekend trip on Wizzair to Cluj-Napoca in Romania (never heard of the place before); I booked the flight, visited, and found it a very lovely little city that was perfect for a 2 or 3 day weekend trip.

The caveat of course is that they nickel and dime everything, so if you need hand baggage or don't want flight attendants trying to shill perfume mid-flight, they are annoying to fly with, but on the other hand you pay much less so if those aren't big issues, then the deals are great.

SOLAR_FIELDS• 3 years ago

Ryanair is great if you’re an armchair lawyer and only use them for short, no-layover weekend trips where you only need a backpack. It takes a little extra research on where you’re going when booking too, one of my more infamous experiences with them was booking a flight to “Brussels” and ending up in Charleroi

hashtag-til• 3 years ago

I needed to do this a few days back and it was so annoying.

It even makes you pay some 99p for the “service”. It is the kind of thing you do to save a few money. Annoying nonetheless.

NoPie4• 3 years ago

There is more to this story than it appears.

If you book via a travel agency you sometimes may find poor service in case you need some changes. A friend needed to add a luggage to the booking and the travel agency refused to help. He had to do at the airport for double price.

He couldn't do it online because making changes in Ryanair booking requires some information how the booking was made, for example, the email address. He was unable to obtain any of this information from the travel agency.

If he had known that he was able to update booking's e-mail address though this process of online verification, he would have saved at least 40 euros (minus €0.59 online verification fee).

Ryanair couldn't have made adding luggage without requiring at least some confirmation that it is done by the flyer. If you check online and proceed directly to the gate, you may not be aware that someone (a terrorist or drug smuggler) has added luggage to your reservation, checked it in luggage drop point and collected it at the destination airport without you being aware.

Of course, Ryanair could have a different business model where they don't charge double price for adding luggage at the airport. But that's the whole point – their business model reduces need for staff at the airport and thus they can offer lower prices.

But this would not be an issue, if travel agencies were providing better service too.

dkjaudyeqooe2• 3 years ago

Why do people use travel agencies? For me it would just be another layer adding expense, mistakes and complexities. I'm guessing people use them thinking they will reduce those things.

NoPie4• 3 years ago

Sometimes they do search on travel agency website and accept the option, not realizing that at this point they could have booked directly from an airline's website.

bangkoksbest3• 3 years ago

There are times when booking through Ryanair over their app gives €X price, but through some 3rd party like Kiwi I might find e.g. €(X*0.5).

However, even though I almost always fly with just a small bag, I still might hesitate taking the 3rd party service because they insist on doing stuff like checking in "for me", which I don't need (since that is a trivial process), and I have experienced them not sending the boarding pass in the time I arrived at the airport.

mathverse2• 3 years ago

We use TravelPerk to book and pay for the entire process of biz trip (travel,hotels etc).

Ekaros• 3 years ago

In EU you will end up under Package travel directive. Which means extra protections, and single point of communication. Like when COVID hit and travel recommendations were issued. My whole holiday of hotel+flight got cancelled, and I got automatic refund for whole thing. Just had to give them by account number.

It makes life simpler in cases when flights or hotel gets cancelled and agency is responsible for handling things.

TylerE• 3 years ago

I have no clue why anyone has used one in atleast the pass decade, but I can remember when it was a thing because the internet didn't exist. Even printed guide books would be at least a year out of date the day they went to press... booking travel to an area you didn't know was...difficult.

PrimeMcFly• 3 years ago

Ryanair is easily one of the worst airlines in the world, at least the western world. Booking with them in general is a nightmare.

They broke my laptop one time, one of their staff dropped it. It wouldn't boot on afterwards, I took it back and the supervisor just said he stood by his colleague's story. I had a flight to catch and wasn't sure if I could have gotten any kind of proof so had to let it go.

That's not even regarding their policies for flying.

stavros• 3 years ago

Noyb are doing great work, they've been filing much-needed lawsuits. I get a lot of bang for my donation buck from them, I definitely recommend donating.

wdb• 3 years ago

More reasons not to fly with Ryanair. In the past they were the only airline that flown to the closest airport (half hour drive vs 2 hours) were my parents lived. Not an issue anymore.

This sounds horrible and unnecessary

dkjaudyeqooe2• 3 years ago

The general rule is only fly Ryanair if you have no other choice. They are decidedly low rent.

Recently a friend tried to drop her bags at a Ryanair counter with an incredibly long line, 3 hours before the flight. As she got to the front the staff member closed the counter, saying she had to get on a flight, because she was the flight attendant.

YeGoblynQueenne2• 3 years ago

> She was even charged a small fee for the “verification process”.

The Ryanair exec who thought this up gave herself a big bonus for being smart and adding value to the company.

codeulike• 3 years ago

Ryanairs Twitter account is hilariously brutal and I don't generally like them but have to hand it to them for that.

https://twitter.com/Ryanair/status/1684158478871404544

YeGoblynQueenne2• 3 years ago

Evidently some passengers fail to find the humour in every situation:

> Stop tweeting crap like this and get me mine and my families luggage. Useless airline

https://twitter.com/maximus_mass/status/1684167578820677632

davotoula• 3 years ago

Funny story. I have an email that keeps being flagged as "booked through an agent" even though I book directly through ryanair official app.

3 last bookings were flagged.

Only found out after numerous online chats and a call after 40 minute hold.

Ryanair has some of the best direct routes in Europe and often you get a bargain price. You get what you pay for.

londgine• 3 years ago

I used to like booking though kiwi, but last time I booked with them, I wanted to add a suitcase later, and I was unable to add it through the airlines website, since kiwi refused to expose what email address they used. The only way to add a suitcase was through their site, but that cost more than double.

coldcode• 3 years ago

I worked for an OTA (currently a brand owned by Expedia, like most of them, but a real company back then) and we always had issues with airline bookings, as the airlines did not want to expose all of their offerings to us so they could make extra money later. We always got yelled at by people who booked Spirit, as their "price" in our system was always the lowest, but after booking, the airline would add on fees for so many things that the flight was no longer cheap, but it was somehow our fault.

Airlines also give up almost no commission to anyone, local travel agencies or online, so it's generally profitless to book them for someone other than hoping you get to book a hotel as well, which is negotiated to provide profit. Airlines also hate comparison shopping; they want you to book on their website so you can't see what someone else might charge for the same flight. Southwest was/is the king of that; they allowed no sales elsewhere, so you could never tell if they were cheaper/cost more. It's like insisting that a monopoly view on prices is best for the customer.

CaptainZapp• 3 years ago

I book all my flights via the airlines web site. No exceptions and no matter which airline.

If something goes wrong it's cumbersome and agonizing enough to deal with the airline.

You won't, however, be hung out to dry by two entities wanting nothing to do with you and sticking their fingers into their ears going LALALA! at the top of their voice and shifting responsibility to each other.

This was (and is) different with physical travel agents who will support you, if necessary, but OTAs? No thanks! Forget it! Never, when it comes to booking flights.

mathverse2• 3 years ago

This happened to me recently. My company books biz trips through an agent called TravelPerk. I've done the same route couple of times and there's absolutely no reason for RyanAir to trigger this verification process.

It's absolutely a malpractice and should be investigated.

nness• 3 years ago

This is short on info -- but are we talking about a verification process that is separate to the "passport check" which Ryanair requires for all non-UK/EU passport holders?

Unlike many other UK/EU budget airlines, Ryanair requires a passport check to issue your boarding pass... and this kind of sounds like that?

If this is the "passport check," I wouldn't be surprised if Ryanair is doing it to avoid the check-in lines at the airport. They are particularly cost and efficiencies focused, after all.

imglorp• 3 years ago

So we've arrived at the point where companies collecting verified biometrics under flimsy pretense is so valuable as a revenue stream, they're happy to eat the reputation hit and the fines. Who would pay so much for it?

"All participants in the room must drink a verification can before the movie can start. Good job, Alice! Bob and Carly, you're holding up the show! And I see Dave has left the room, will he be coming back?"

killingtime74• 3 years ago

Ryanair and reputation hit do not belong in the same sentence. People already expect the worst.

joker_minmax• 3 years ago

Delta airlines used my face as a boarding pass for flight to Canada out of Detroit Wayne Airport earlier this year. I scanned nothing, they made me take a picture, and then said "Enjoy your flight [name]." Delta did not even ask to see my Passport. I'm a little confused if the issue here the facial recognition itself or the layers of bureaucratic nonsense? Because Ryanair is not the only one applying facial rec in a disturbing way.

Booking a Ryanair flight via an online travel agent might hold a nasty surprise

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