Ryanair Not So Cheap
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
One thing that has always bugged me about some of the no frills airlines that offer “cheap flights” are all the hidden costs. When checking the price of a holiday or a flight to your next beach holiday destination, you can easily be duped into thinking that you have found the cheapest flight because these hidden costs are not shown up in the price of the flight.
One of the worst culprits of this for me are Ryanair, just take look at how long their Table of Fees page is on their website! Sure you may think that you have found the cheapest flight to Malta ever, but did you know that you will now pay £4.75 (5 euros) per person per one way just as a credit card charge (unless you pay by Visa Electron and that is only for a limited period!)! So as a family of four people flying on their summer holiday, you will be charged 4 x £4.75 for the journey there and then 4 x £4.75 for the way back, a total of £38, just for paying by credit or debit card!
Then did you know that it will cost you £9.50 per bag that you check in, so let’s just say that our family of four are travelling pretty light and only have 1 bag each to check in, that is another £38. If you check in a second bag, it will cost you £19.
Another hidden cost is the airport that you are flying to, many of the low cost airlines say that they fly to Rome for example, but in reality they are flying to a much smaller airport, Ciampino which is outside Rome and used to be an old military airport. It will then cost you money and time which is important if you are on a short break to then travel into the city.
So we have added a further £76 pounds to the cost of your flights as well as other transport fees and if that is not bad enough, the fact that these costs are almost hidden from the original quote to me is outrageous. It really makes comparing prices between different airlines very difficult, so just something you should be aware of the next time you see a flight offered to Barcelona for £30 as it could end up costing you a whole lot more!
Below are a few of Ryanair’s current additional Charges:
- Airport Check-In Fee – Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £4.75 (on-line check-in is free)
- Payment Handling Fee – Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £4.75
- Priority Boarding Fee – Per passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £1.90 (if you do not want to run for your seats)
- Infant Fee – Per Infant/Per One Way flight £19 (must be under 2 years for both outbound and return flight)
- Checked Baggage Fees – £9.50
- 2nd & 3rd Bag – £19
- Sports Equipment – Per Item/ Per One Way Flight: £28.50
- Musical Equipment – Per Item/ Per One Way Flight: £28.50
- Flight Change Fees – Per Passenger/ Per One Way Flight: £24
- Name Change Fee – £95
