Tom Doyle :: TALK

Today I booked flight tickets on Ryanair for the first time since they brought in their new bagge handling fees. I was delighted when I was able to get 2 return flights to Manchester for €26.00. How can you complain about that?
As I went through the online ordering process, I knew that this was not my final cost as there were airport taxes etc. to add on to my flight costs. But I have to admit, I was very confused at how they handle the whole baggage cost situation.

When you have chosen your flights at the great prices that they offer, you are brought to another page with a drop down menu for each passenger travelling with the following options:

0 Bags - Online Checkin/Priority Boarding
1 Bag
2 Bags
3 Bags
etc.

You can choose up to 5 bags at a cost of €5 each. But what I couldn’t get my head around was the message if you had chosen the first option:

You have selected our Online Check-In/Priority Boarding service, passengers who qualify for this service can avoid check-in queues and be priority boarded onto the aircraft. Don’t forget to check-in online from 2 days up to 4 hours prior to the scheduled flight departure time. Click to Remove this service and just travel with 0 bags. 

I really wasn’t sure what the hell they were trying to say to me here… Did it mean I can bring a carry on bag and I simply queue to check in on the flight only? I’m still not sure, but as I am only going for one night, I was happy to just take a chance on it being free to have a carry on if I don’t choose to check in a bag.

But anyway, this wasn’t my only issue with Ryanair…. after I had confirmed all the details and gone on to a payment section, the website should me a total cost of €142.15, which I thought great, let’s do it!!!

I inserted my credit card info and clicked the confirmation button….  TICKETS CONFIRMED message appears on the screen and the total cost. Now, absolutely no where along the ordering process was I made aware of an extra charges, but on my order total, the price had jumped €10. This €10 was a credit card charged.

It’s not the €10 that bothered me, it was the way in which it was stealthly added to the cost that got to me. This should have been made clear from the time you entered your credit card information. Surely there is a law against this??