Ryanair - making a mistake?

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

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Normally when I try to book flights I use Skyscanner. I've always found it very efficient. It was Martin Lewis at moneysavingexpert.com that put me on to it.

Last week I got a message saying Ryanair were not confirming any bookings made via screenscaper sites (of which Skyscanner is one) although their prices were still showing. Sure enough, none of the screenscraper sites can now access Ryanair.

I went to Ryanair's site to see how easy/difficult it was to book, since the very cheapest flights (Scotland to Alicante) involved a stopover but there's no facility at Ryanair for that.

I don't see how Ryanair can think it's a good idea not to be accessible via screenscrapers. I don't see the point in my spending a lot of time experimenting with flight options for the sake of saving a fiver. I also think I'd be happier giving an up-front firm like Easyjet my custom.

Has anyone else had problems like this?

I'll try and email Ryanair but I have doubts whether they'll care.
 
Think I remember an announcement from Ryanair/O'Leary about a month to six weeks ago that they wanted people to use their own site to book the flights, and were going to clamp down on the booking of Ryanair flights through third party sites. Seems like it has begun.

Dont think your e-mail will cut any ice, DO.
 
I checked their website and it seems nigh-on impossible to contact them anyway!

They must be making enough as it is to deny themselves potential customers from the other sites.

As far as I'm concerned, it's their loss.
 
Ryanair claim to have done this to protect customers. I guess they had evidence that these third parties were adding on a cut on to the cost of the fare and therefore forcing the customer to pay an unnecessary middle man.

Of course the alternative thought is that these scraper sites will do well to survive the loss of Ryanair trade, particularly as Ryanair have such a large share of the price conscious market. If Ryanair are afraid that they are losing trade through price comparison (which would surprise me actually) then by ceasing to make price comparison sites viable, they are forcing consumer to visit their own site directly.

Until there is evidence of the latter, I'll give them credit that it was for the former reason. Naive?
 
Forget that - opinion seems to be that it the fact that are missing out on the chance to sell you extras like car hire and hotels.

My faith in capitalism is restored.
 
Forget that - opinion seems to be that it the fact that are missing out on the chance to sell you extras like car hire and hotels.
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I don't think that's right, Bets.

Skyscanner, which I've used a lot myself for the Dublin-Brux route, hands you over to the airline site itself for the actual booking, at which point the hotel and rental car options are pushed at you.
 
Or perhaps they were fed up with paying Skyscanner for redirecting customers to their site and would rather have had all of that extra profit to themselves.
 
I booked a flight yesterday using Skyscanner.

Skyscanner gave me all the flights and fares for both airlines on the Dub-Brux route, as per usual. When I selected the one I wanted I clicked on the link and was delivered unto Ryanair. The difference was that I then had to reintroduce all the dates and details once again, whereas previously the Ryanair site would have opened with my choices already entered.

Petty stuff.
 
I booked a flight last week with Ryanair - deliberately avoiding all the extra fees (priority boarding, checking in bags etc), but they still nailed me with an £8 'debit card' fee. The flight was £20, but the debit card fee made it £28 in total.

AFAIK booking on-line by debit (not credit) card is the cheapest way for the merchant (Ryanair in this case) to take payment. I would love to know where the £8 comes from. I have made thousands of payments on-line using debit cards for a variety of goods and services and (before last week) never once been charged a penny for doing so.
 
Keep your eye on the ball, Homer. You got a flight for £28. Before Ryanair et al, you would probably have paid 200 or more likely had no option on the flight route at all.
 
I was under the impression that at least part of the reason Ryanair had the dodgy fare announcements, excluding taxes and loading compulsory credit card fees, was that their fares would always show up lowest on comparison sites.

Maybe this is a first step towards upfront pricing. Mentally I tend to add €70 per person for a return trip onto the advertised prices. Could it be that the badly hidden extra's are starting to be overestimated by the public at this stage?

Or maybe they just decided they needed to be mentioned in the news for a few more days.
 
One of the good points about Skyscanner is that it estimates the fare price including all the taxes and credit card fees. Maybe Ryanair don't appreciate that.
 
an capall said:
Keep your eye on the ball, Homer. You got a flight for £28. Before Ryanair et al, you would probably have paid 200 or more likely had no option on the flight route at all.
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Absolutely. It is ridiculously cheap, but that isn't the point. They will advertise the flight at £20, when it is (absolute minimum) 40% more expensive.
 
I've been experimenting with the various places today.

Easyjet is adding £6 per hold bag per flight and Ryanair is adding £10 for the same privilege. If Ryanair is then going to add another £8 for using a card (how else do they expect onloine users to pay?) it's going to add £30 to flgihts that I hoped would cost me about £90.

I'm sorely tempted just to pay £150 for no-hidden fees direct flight with a charter firm.
 
Is there any aspect of air travel that isn't a complete nightmare these days? The whole industry deserves to go bankrupt.
 
I remember starting to fill in a post-hol questionnaire many years ago.

It was clear from the outset that the companies were looking for ways to increase their profits while trying to kid the traveller that they were working to improve the service.

An examples of a typical question was:

Would you opt to pay less for your holiday if in-flight meals were not included?
(In other words, we want to start charging you for in-flight meals.)

There was a similar question about airport transfers.
 
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Desert Orchid said:
I've been experimenting with the various places today.

Easyjet is adding £6 per hold bag per flight and Ryanair is adding £10 for the same privilege. If Ryanair is then going to add another £8 for using a card (how else do they expect onloine users to pay?) it's going to add £30 to flgihts that I hoped would cost me about £90.

I'm sorely tempted just to pay £150 for no-hidden fees direct flight with a charter firm.
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Hand held luggage should easily suffice for a week away, and is far less hassle even aside from the cost - online checkin means you don't have to arrive at the airport quite so early, plus no queueing for checkin, no queueing to pick up luggage in the baggage area. 10kg is quite a lot for a week.
 
Hand held luggage should easily suffice for a week away
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As long as you don't need to brush your teeth, wash your hair or shave. Oh sorry, that's right, all of those banned-from-your-hand-luggage items are conveniently available on the other side of "security".
 
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