You may have heard of Ryanair, the low-cost---and I do mean low-cost---carrier that started in Ireland in 1985 and now has 32 bases and more than 800 low fare routes across 26 countries. I've even flown Ryanair myself, actually: London to Dublin and back again for the princely sum of one pound. Yep, that's about a buck sixty right now. I think I spent more on the cup of coffee I bought at the airport.
That's Ryanair's deal you see: charging outrageously low fares and then tacking on extras for every forseeable---and often unforseeable---service. While paying to check a bag isn't exactly novel these days, Ryanair charges you 15 pounds (about $24) if you do it online and 35 pounds (about $55) if you do it at the airport---and it limits your weight to 15kg (typical checked baggage weight is around 23kg.) Want to bring your kid's car seat? That'll be $16, please (or $32 if you pay at the airport). And how about another $5 if you'd like to get on the plane ahead of other passengers? (Ryanair, unsurprisingly, doesn't assign seats.)
This isn't the biggest deal if you know what you're getting into. Hey, you pay $1.60 for a flight, you've got to expect some hidden extras, right? But Ryanair's latest move is to scrap check-in desks at airports, forcing customers to check in online. And how much will it charge you to check in online, you ask? Well, another eight bucks.
What do you think about this? Are you of the "well, you get what you pay for?" mindset, figuring that anyone who flies Ryanair has to expect all these add-ons, including a check-in fee? Or are you apalled that an airline would charge you for the most basic---and most mandatory---service? Most of all, are you worried this a la carte pricing on steroids is going to make its way over to this side of the pond? Would you pay to check in (among a host of other fees) if your base ticket price was cheaper?
Comments
Oct 01, 2009
Some-one did an analysis of RyanAir vs legacy fairs. Once you added in many of the RyanAir extras, the difference in fares what not as great as many people expected. Especially if you have baggage and no computer to check-in online.
Oct 01, 2009
Sorry my previous post should say "RyanAir vs legacy fares...."
Oct 02, 2009
You forgot to mention possibly the most ridiculous add-on of them all - paying to use the toilet on board! I'm not sure if they ever did implement this but they were definitely talking about it (and not around April Fool's time either!) Ryanair is definitely a case of getting what you pay for - the plane just about gets from A to B but the service in between barely merits the word "service". Charging for something where customers don't even have an alternative choice though is taking it a step too far I think.
Oct 02, 2009
I'm from Spain and live in England. For a while, I thought that Ryanair was the best thing that had hapenned to make visits home easier. I now REFUSE to fly with them. If you book in advance, you can fly BA for almost the same price that you end up paying with Ryanair after they add all the extras (that are not extras at all, you don't really have the choice of not checking in!). I rather they give me the real price beforehand!
Oct 02, 2009
I refuse to fly Ryanair, as the service is appalling and the add-ons are insane. The comment from their spokesman about this says it all - "anybody who has a problem with the charge just needs to fly on a promotional fare." Hmm, great choice of words there.
Ryanair may not be able to get away with this, though, as the UK air passenger watchdog is reporting this move to the Office of Fair Trading, who don't like Ryanair very much and have already warned them about the displaying of their on-line fares.
Oct 02, 2009
I would never pay anything extra!! i would refuse to fly in that case
Oct 04, 2009
I just flew from London to Lamezia with Ryan air and swear I will never fly with them again!! The cheap flights are not worth the stress and the downright rude staff who are obviously not very happy in their jobs. Enough of cheap charter airlines BA all the way!!!
Oct 13, 2009
Yeah- watch out for Allegiant, too. They fly super cheap from Vegas to Glacier (in Montana), but wow. You have to pay $11-$14 just to make sure that you're sitting with your traveling companion. Then there are all the fees, which they claim are there to cover the online ticketing process. Um, Allegiant? Just so you know: almost everyone does that these days. You're really not ahead of the game, there. Anyway, my boyfriend checked into it (he's much more likely to fume over $20 than i am) and it turns out that they've been investigated by watchdog groups as well. Just a heads up ;)
Nov 13, 2009
Charging for something where customers don't even have an alternative choice though is taking it a step too far I think.Evening Dresses | Cocktail Dresses