What are Ryanair playing at with their flight change fees?

Antifa161

I've only ever had to make changes to a booking twice: once to change the flight and once to change the name. Both times it worked out cheaper to just book entirely new flights.

Now I understand the nature of Ryanair. I'm quite happy to pay extra for heavy bags, to be treated like cargo, pestered with adverts etc. I remember the days when a family trip abroad was a massive, massive luxury due to flight prices and I appreciate what Ryanair are offering, but these booking change fees are insane and I can't really understand who would pay them or how they get away with it.

It's crazy when you think about it in comparison to any other situation. Imagine paying a tenner for some cinema tickets in advance, then not being able to go and letting your friend go instead. The cinema then asks for €25 in order to give the already paid for ticket to somebody else at absolutely no hassle to themselves at all. Mental.

Polar101

Antifa161 wrote: »

but these booking change fees are insane and I can't really understand who would pay them or how they get away with it.

No-one in their right mind should pay them, as you say it's often cheaper to book a new flight. It's not great service, but I guess it makes them easy money. And to be fair, silly prices for booking changes are not exclusive to Ryanair.

jjbrien

I have found it cheaper most times to book new flights with Ryanair rather than pay the flight change fee.

keithclancy

Antifa161 wrote: »

It's crazy when you think about it in comparison to any other situation. Imagine paying a tenner for some cinema tickets in advance, then not being able to go and letting your friend go instead. The cinema then asks for €25 in order to give the already paid for ticket to somebody else at absolutely no hassle to themselves at all. Mental.

If you changed your mind or wanted to go to a later showing you would just have to buy a new ticket also.

munchkin_utd

Legacy (nice customer friendly) Lufthansa, Emirates etc are so EXPENSIVE in the first place that a change of date/ name is rarely as dear as a new ticket.
You are in the fortunate position that Ryanair is so CHEAP that a new flight is sometimes cheaper than a change fee.

the only solution unfortunately is that
a ) Ryanair just triple or quadruple their fares to be the same as legacy airlines - and then the change price will be less than a new flight
b ) you can fly with SAS/ Lufthansa/ air france etc with their substantially higher fares instead of Ryanair, and should you need to change, you will pay a similar change fee relative to the ticket price than Ryanair

example of Ryanair vs Legacy airlines: I wanted to go to Stockholm a couple of years back and knew the dates way in advance.
SAS had direct flights starting at €260 for fairly work unfriendly times to about €500 return for more work friendly times, and that was a few months in advance. Ryanair was a mere €60 return.
(and the planes SAS ran were noisy fairly delapated 30 year old bangers compared to average <5year old for ryanair, they also charge on board for any food/ drink, and SAS have been known to crash, which never

Now, is it better to pay 500return and have a relatively cheap change OR pay 60return and pay relatively more (to the original fare) but still have lots more cash in your pocket despite your indecision/ change of plans?

EDIT: just looked up my emails and actually paid a mere 278return for that flight to Stockholm.

spurious

By the same token, Ryanair to Riga high summer last year 200 euro plus baggage charges, SAS via Stockholm 202 euro including a 23 kg bag each. The great Ryanair con is that they are always cheaper.

Lufthansa wouldn't do a name change for me a couple of years ago when a teacher going on a school trip had to be replaced. We had to buy a whole new ticket, at short notice.

They all try to screw you for as much as they can. Ryanair are just a tiny bit blatant about it.

coylemj

After today's profit warning and share price tumble (-12%) I think we can expect Ryanair to be a bit less aggressive with their customers for a little while to come.

Allocated seating anyone? Announced this morning 'for all passengers' effective Feb 1st, should bring back lots of passengers, especially elderly and people with kids.

Electronic Telegraph: The most irritating things about flying with Ryanair

munchkin_utd

spurious wrote: »

<snip>

They all try to screw you for as much as they can. Ryanair are just a tiny bit blatant about it.

totally, although you could also call it being honest or upfront

I did a wee search there for what a change would cost on a load of airlines and only Ryanair and SAS tell you what the story is (ok, we all know Aer lingus is similar to Ryanair too with the charges).
The rest (Emirates, BA, Austrian, Lufthansa etc) say to give them a ring and they'll tell you what you owe them, but they are far from upfront on the exact level of charges.
Any fourm entries on Lufthansa charges are mentioning bills of 1000s of euro sometimes. They nearly make Ryanair look like the friendly flexible airline!
But, you get a seat and a free beer and a checked in bag for free so everyone thinks they are the most sound customer friendly airline ever!

Gatica

actually Emirates charges E100 or $'s, can't remember, for any changes to the flight details. I had to look it up before when we got flights to Thailand. It wasn't too difficult to find.

schemingbohemia

Should this not be in the Consumer thread where they have a dedicated Ryanair whingeathon?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055339093

I'm not really sure of the point of this thread, someone the other day pointed out how Ryanair made a change for only a tenner as the original mistake was caught within 24hours.