Ryanair scrapping free booking with prepaid mastercard

noluck · 08-11-2011 12:05AM

And we should not forget Aer Lingus also uses the same trick by charging a 6 euro handling fee for all cards except Visa electrons... which you just can't get in Ireland! That probably explains why they don't change the rules every year... they simply don't need to!

dublinseven2 · 08-11-2011 10:57AM

Good Luck makes a good point about Aer Lingus doing the Electron trick.

I'm not sure, but I reckon that is acquired behaviour from having to follow the Ryanair model to stay alive.

Why didn't Ryanair just stay with the Visa Electron as the free payment method?

a/ UK passengers are probably the lion share of the market and can easily get an Electron card for free, so they had to make it harder?

By the same token, I guess Aer Lingus can stay with Electron as most of their customers are not UK passengers.

Anyhow, the key point remains (to be put to Ryanair). Why is an Irish passenger (Irish address, Irish card) being deemed to be a UK passenger just because they are buying a one-way flight from the UK to somewhere? I think there must be a law against this. You can't determine the residency of a passenger by the origin of his flight. Can you?

It smacks of "we'll do it until we definitively get told by the law enforcers that we cannot do it"

Maybe, they are completely within their rights, but it seems fishy to me and I've told them so (and that they are in contravention of their own Ts and Cs as follows)

Taken from: http://www.ryanair.com/en/terms-and-conditions#regulations-tableoffees

Admin Fee - Charged per passenger/ per one way flight and relates to the costs associated with Ryanair's booking system. No administration fee applies to bookings paid for by MasterCard Prepaid Card (except UK MasterCard Prepaid) and Ryanair Cash Passport (UK residents only).

I'M NOT a UK RESIDENT... (just because I buy a 1 way flight from the UK to somewhere...

Doc Ruby · 08-11-2011 03:36PM

Savman wrote: »

You really have to wonder what more they have to do before Passengers cop on to vote with their feet

Get as pricey as their competitors I reckon. I'm taking a flight to Nantes next month and even after buying their special bag they still come in €100 cheaper than the next closest.

dublinseven2 · 08-11-2011 03:44PM

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Get as pricey as their competitors I reckon. I'm taking a flight to Nantes next month and even after buying their special bag they still come in €100 cheaper than the next closest.

It's a fair point Doc and one that O'Leary constantly makes in an abrasive/defiant/pointed/smug way.

Did you really buy the bag? Is it reasonably priced?

Doc Ruby · 08-11-2011 04:12PM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

Did you really buy the bag? Is it reasonably priced?

I'm bringing over some very expensive camera gear so I need to make sure it doesn't get lumped in the cargo hold, the prices I got were from €60 to €100, so in and around what Ryanair charge themselves. Pricey enough, but sure they know what the market will bear.

wickan · 08-11-2011 04:24PM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

Hi Wickan,

I had the same thing. I was booking 2 singles (DUB-LGW and LTN-DUB).

DUB-LGW went through fine on November 2nd, but LTN-DUB did not go through and I got the bu** sh** message about the billing address being wrong.

Having done a bit of research, including finding your post, it seems that any booking originating in the UK is deemed to be a UK booking (i.e. a UK resident booking) so therefore will only go through tagged as Prepaid MC if it's a Ryanair Prepaid MC.

I wonder if Ryanair will allow multi-destination bookings to get round this for Irish residents? i.e. allow a return booking in to Gatwick and out of Luton. Will they f***! That will lose them £6 a go.

I'll write to them (got about 10 email addresses off the ryanair campaign website) and see if they allow some way round it. i.e. allow moneybookers Irish cards to be used on UK originating single bookings OR the multi-destination option as outlined above. It makes a mockery of the new "billing address country" drop-down that has to be filled in, cos the address obviously doesn;t come in to it (I picked Ireland and typed in the exact Irish Billing adress of the moneybookers card).

Anyhow, for now, I don't see a way round it. (without getting a Ryanair Prepaid MC for the booking of flights that originate in the UK)

Interested to hear from you if you do...

Hey dublinseven2
I didnt find anyway around and i was that pissed off decided to book with easyjet out of Belfast for around the same price as ryanair would be with the credit card charges, its extra driving for me but i just couldn't justify giving them more money when it states clearly the charge is only for uk prepaid cards and my card is Irish.

dublinseven2 · 08-11-2011 04:28PM

wickan wrote: »

Hey dublinseven2
I didnt find anyway around and i was that pissed off decided to book with easyjet out of Belfast for around the same price as ryanair would be with the credit card charges, its extra driving for me but i just couldn't justify giving them more money when it states clearly the charge is only for uk prepaid cards and my card is Irish.

I went ahead and booked a Luton to Dublin flight and paid the 6 quid admin fee with another card.

I wrote to Ryanair and got a call back today.

We are right and they've got to do some coding with Mastercard payment systems to make sure it gets fixed.

They didn't actually give me a £6 refund on the spot, but did concede that it looks like I'd be entitled to it.

Anyhow, good news, it should be fixed some time soon...

wickan · 08-11-2011 04:31PM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

I went ahead and booked a Luton to Dublin flight and paid the 6 quid admin fee with another card.

I wrote to Ryanair and got a call back today.

We are right and they've got to do some coding with Mastercard payment systems to make sure it gets fixed.

They didn't actually give me a £6 refund on the spot, but did concede that it looks like I'd be entitled to it.

Anyhow, good news, it should be fixed some time soon...

Excellent thanks for the update.

donegalgirl28 · 09-11-2011 12:37AM

Keep us updated!

wickan · 22-11-2011 04:09PM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

I went ahead and booked a Luton to Dublin flight and paid the 6 quid admin fee with another card.

I wrote to Ryanair and got a call back today.

We are right and they've got to do some coding with Mastercard payment systems to make sure it gets fixed.

They didn't actually give me a £6 refund on the spot, but did concede that it looks like I'd be entitled to it.

Anyhow, good news, it should be fixed some time soon...

Anyone have an update on this still not fixed!
Have they any intention of fixing it?

flikflak · 22-11-2011 04:21PM

I booked a return flight to the UK from DUB yesterday with my entropay prepaid mastercard and it all went through no problem with no card fees.

donegalgirl28 · 22-11-2011 05:58PM

I tried booking a flight from Liverpool to Dublin one way using an Irish prepaid mastercard, wouldn't go through! MEH!

mikedragon32 · 22-11-2011 06:02PM

flikflak wrote: »

I booked a return flight to the UK from DUB yesterday with my entropay prepaid mastercard and it all went through no problem with no card fees.

The problem only arises if you're looking to book a flight that originates in the UK.

mickdw · 23-11-2011 08:02PM

noluck wrote: »

And we should not forget Aer Lingus also uses the same trick by charging a 6 euro handling fee for all cards except Visa electrons... which you just can't get in Ireland! That probably explains why they don't change the rules every year... they simply don't need to!

re you sure you cant get Visa electrom in Ireland. I had it before. There was a trick to it at that time - You had to just select gbp as currency and all worked fine. Might have changed since.

Ogham · 23-11-2011 08:12PM

mickdw wrote: »

re you sure you cant get Visa electrom in Ireland. I had it before. There was a trick to it at that time - You had to just select gbp as currency and all worked fine. Might have changed since.

Visa Electron almost impossible to get in Ireland = see here
http://www.moneyguideireland.com/visa-electron-and-ryanair-credit-card-charges.html

dublinseven2 · 24-11-2011 11:47AM

wickan wrote: »

Anyone have an update on this still not fixed!
Have they any intention of fixing it?

Ryanair called me last week. The problem with the Moneybookers/Skrill cards is that the BIN range (i.e. first few numbers of the 16 on the front of the card) are from a UK bank (i.e. Mastercard recognise them as being a UK bank card), even though Moneybookers/Skrill card holders have to pay the 10 euro Irish Gov Stamp Duty for having the card.

They refunded me the £6 on the booking I made (with another card, as Moneybookers/Skrill point-blank won't go through if the booking if orignating in the UK) as a once off gesture of good-will.

I hadn't expected the Ryanair good-will to ever exceed £1, let alone £6, so I was happy enough with that.

If your Prepaid Mastercard is from an Irish bank/institution, you will be able to use it to book Ryanair flights originating from the UK, but as per MoneyBookers/Skrill BIN numbers, you'd want to be sure it really is not a UK BIN on the card you intend to use.

Ryanair have no intention of fixing the issue with Moneybookers/Skrill as they claim it's a Mastercard/Moneybookers issue, but they will however warn Moneybookers/Skrill about the claims Skrill make about always being able to save the €/£ 6 fee on Ryanair flights (as it's no longer entirely true)

Anyone else want to take the issue further might have to take it further with Mastercard. i.e. we pay the Irish Gov Duty on the card (in Euros, not like the Irish Gov grabbing it in Stirling from UK accounts with Irish addresses!) so the BIN range shoudl be a non-UK BIN range for Irish residents who hold a EUR moneybookers account and card.

Phew! That's it! I'm out, not going to pursue it with Mastercard, but woudl be very interested to hear from anyone that does...

Dr Nic · 28-11-2011 01:53PM

So what prepaid cards can be used to avoid these fee's?
Thanks!

mopi · 03-12-2011 02:38AM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

They refunded me the £6 on the booking I made (with another card, as Moneybookers/Skrill point-blank won't go through if the booking if orignating in the UK) as a once off gesture of good-will.

Moneybookers/Skrill will work but you will have to pretend it's a Mastercard credit card, oddly enough the address issues then magically vanish and a £6 booking fee is applied. Booked a London-Limerick flight last week so I nose wat Im talkin aboot.

dublinseven2 · 27-02-2012 04:53PM

Hi Mopi. That is true. You can make the Skrill/Moneybookers card be accepted, but having the £6/€6 per person per sector added to the booking is not my idea of the card "working"!

I've just tried to book a DUB-LTN-DUB return ticket and Skrill isn't going through as a Prepaid Mastercard.

I booked a DUB-LGW-DUB return ticket using Skrill as a Prepaid Mastercard about 2 weeks ago and it worked, but ... I guess it;s not working now as Ryanair have modded the system so that any booking involving UK/Italian sectors can only have the booking fee waived by use of Ryanair Cash Passport cards. The fees table has changed a little bit as well, so they've shifted the posts a bit again.

Ryanair are a shower of fvck1ng bar stewards...

Looks like I'll get a smelly Ryanair Cash Passport now so...

Savman · 27-02-2012 09:15PM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

Looks like I'll get a smelly Ryanair Cash Passport now so...

Tread carefully and make sure you read the accompanying terms with this thing. IIRC it has a minimum top up of something like €170ish. Dealbreaker for me tbh.

lavine7 · 28-02-2012 12:32AM

Net+ Prepaid Mastercard still working as of 2 minutes ago so anyone planning to book flights and has this card should make sure to do it by Wednesday to avoid needing the Ryanair card to dodge the fees!

dublinseven2 · 28-02-2012 11:32AM

Thanks Savman. I think I fly enough to make use of the minimum charge and avoid any inactivity fees. Quite right though, it won't make sense for everyone to get a card. I haven't done the maths, but I guess if you fly solo once or twice a year, it ain't going to be worth it.

Lavine7, what did you book? IRE-UK-IRE return or IRE-UK one way or IRE-Europe-IRE return or something else?

lavine7 · 28-02-2012 03:42PM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

Thanks Savman. I think I fly enough to make use of the minimum charge and avoid any inactivity fees. Quite right though, it won't make sense for everyone to get a card. I haven't done the maths, but I guess if you fly solo once or twice a year, it ain't going to be worth it.

Lavine7, what did you book? IRE-UK-IRE return or IRE-UK one way or IRE-Europe-IRE return or something else?

IRE-Europe-IRE return
First time I used the card to book Ryanair and delighted it worked a treat, some others on here have had difficulty in recent weeks. I got it a few weeks ago with the intention of booking some flights before the 1st March cut-off date for non-Ryanair 'free fees' cards. Will be sad to see it no longer of use....:(

dublinseven2 · 28-02-2012 03:53PM

Lavine7,

Unless I'm missing something (I probably am), I think that IRE-Europe-IRE booking and IRE-UK (one-way) bookings will still be fine to be booked.

I'm thinking Ryanair have recently tweaked the system so that it is the return bookings (IRE-UK-IRE and IRE-Italy-IRE) that will no longer be possible (without paying the EUR 6 ppps fees) via non-Ryan Prepaid Mastercards...

james1234 · 29-02-2012 12:44AM

Majorly peeved now, ordered the moneybookers prepaid mastercard last week (and paid the 10Eur charge). D'oh!

Wanted to get RA flights that I saw last week, then did a bit of research on this moneybookers card, so I decided to order one and use that to get my flights, as I'd be booking more flights in the next month or so, so I'd even save more, well thought then I would.

Now looks like I've left it too late, won't get my card for another few days at least, so miss the 1st of March cut-off for moneybookers prepaid cards.
There was no mention of this on the Moneybookers website, I went through all the FAQs and they even mentioned the Ryanair fee as a selling point lastweek, but now they've changed their FAQs, can't find mention of it anywhere.

Luckily enough the terms and conditions state there is a 14 day cooling off period, so I can cancel the card and get my 10Eur fee back if I cancel within the 14 days.

So not all that bad I guess.

Will have to now look at paying with the Ryanair prepaid passport thingy, fees add up if you don't use the card regularly though.

I'd have to end up paying approx 84Eur in fees alone

for flights just this summer...

dublinseven2 · 29-02-2012 12:54AM

dublinseven2 wrote: »

Lavine7,

Unless I'm missing something (I probably am)...

I was missing something! It's all explained here --> http://www.moneyguideireland.com/ryanair-cash-passport-prepaid-mastercard.html

I'll get a Ryanair cash passport as, more often than not, Ryanair will be a bit cheaper or more convenient for me, although I'll be trying to use Lingus/BMI more and more.

Ryanair scrapping free booking with prepaid mastercard

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