Ryanair priority boarding charge

tippbhoy

this has probably been discussed already but anyway, i booked a 1 way ticket to england recently for next day travel, i was in a bit of a hurry so i tried the 0 bags and their was a 6 euro charge, tried lots of combinations in the combo box but couldn't get it any less. Thought it was a bit rich not giving you the option to not have priority boarding and not have to incur the charge.

I was thinking about it after and googled a bit about it, as per below

Ryanair accused over 'hidden' charges

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 03/03/2007

A no-frills airline is taken to task over priority boarding fee, Charles Starmer-Smith examines the small print.

Ryanair was accused this week of effectively charging passengers an extra fee, even if they travel without luggage. The airline, which has already imposed a £7 return charge for every item put in the hold, now appears to be charging anyone who travels without bags a £4 fee for return flights when they book on its website.

After choosing flights, the airline asks every passenger how many bags will be checked in. The only option given for those without luggage includes a priority boarding charge (which entitles you to board the plane first, having gone straight to the departure desk and avoided the check-in queue) of £4 return. Only after you have selected this option does small print appear below, giving you the opportunity to remove the charge - something that many passengers seem unaware of.
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anyway, the short story of this is i didn't even see that, my own fault i know but just so everyone is aware. Shoddy stuff from Ryanair, i'm usually a strong advocate of theirs but in this case although no law has been broken i think their is a question about ethics. De-selecting the insurance option doesn't work like this and that uses a combo box directly underneath on the page so thats why i didn't think too much about it.

To top it off, i was late going to the gate as i lost track of time and missed this "priority" boarding whatever it is, ah well....

serotonin_sam

Its really time for this whole thing to be regulated. Its got out of hand. Every airline is at this now - so that theres no transparency in the pricing. In ryanairs case, its priority boarding. BTW, in addition to the priority boarding, they also have 'travel insurance' selected as default - I only managed to get it off by accident. If I had been in a hurry I would never have noticed it was optional. You can be sure that the majority of people leave it on.

If you book a flight with any of these airlines, once you select the flight outward and inward journeys - the flight price increases by a multiple of times once taxes and more importantly 'other charges and fees' (aka the airlines fat margin) are added. BMIbaby/Aer Arann /Ryanair - they are all at it.

John R

There are 2 issues, the misleading advertisement of prices with non-optional extras missing from all airlines and the disgraceful priority boarding trick by RA.

The first is already being looked into by the EU and IMO should be banned outright.

Interestingly I have seen plenty of Aer Lingus adverts in London giving the complete price, eg; "Heathrow to Dublin from £18 one way" so it can't be that detrimental to advertise the true price.

The priority boarding is just a cheap trick to con the unwary. It obviously works too judging by the amount of "priority boarders" that I have seen jostling to board a number of recent flights I have taken.

Unfortunately it is just the sort of thing that I have come to expect from Ryanair, they seem to revel in treating the customers like crap.

therecklessone

John R wrote:

The priority boarding is just a cheap trick to con the unwary. It obviously works too judging by the amount of "priority boarders" that I have seen jostling to board a number of recent flights I have taken.

Alternatively, they could be passengers who chose priority boarding knowingly? Just a thought...