RYANAIRS STEALTH LEVY

[MARTHA]

ON A FLIGHT FROM DUBLIN TO LONDON AND BACK TO DUBLIN
€15.40 FOR PSC WHATS THE BREAKDOWN ON PSC
€ 5.24 WHEELCHAIR LEVY & INSURANCE
TOTAL STEALTH CHARGE FOR ROUND TRIP €41.28
WE WONT MENTION BAGGAGE LEVY JUST YET
ANY COMMENTS?

[N380UA]

You got DUB – LGW(I presume) – DUB for 41.28 Euros and are complaining?
Sad world this has become…

[Phileas Fogg]

So?

For the same trip DUB-LON-DUB:

BMI GBP42.00 + GBP31.55 Extra's

BA GBP44.00 + GBP41.50 Extra's

LH GBP42.00 + GBP53.80 Extra's

AF GBP55.00 + GBP50.23 Extra's

[jackbauer]

You get what you pay fot I'm afraid. Pay PEANUTS you get MONKEY'S.

[angels]

Martha - you haven't quite got the hang of this yet, have you.

See you in Airlines/Routes, or perhaps SLF.

[-8AS]

£41 return Dublin. Used to be in excess of £700.00 when BA and AerLingus held a Duopoly in the Mid 1980's! Still, hardly rumours or news is it. Best in SLF forum I think.

P.S. You don't have to travel with Ryanair. Thats what Market economies are all about. Consumers have choice!

[hobie]

Try it by Train and Ferry ...... you will get far more time to see the scenery .... :p

[Elwood Senese]

Correct me if I'm wrong... but the post doesn't seem to refer to the fare, which may or may not have been extra.

[Conan The Barber]

RTFQ As they say

[A320rider]

this is IF you have the flight, in GOOD weather.

IF not, you loose your ticket, and you have to fly with someone else.

with ryanair, it s like the "roulette russe", except you have 5 bullets in your gun!:ugh:

[Loose rivets]

Isn't it all about companies being up-front with their charges?...just having the courtesy to tell people the real cost of a commodity, cheap or not.

[Phileas Fogg]

Loose Rivets,
Yes, it would be nice if the companies were up front with their charges but atleast with RYR one should know that they pay for everything and get nothing complimentary.

But, if what RYR is doing is so wrong then why have all the state airlines jumped on the bandwagon and how many of the travelling public expect, or indeed know, that they need to pay for their food & beverages on such carriers as Austrian & SAS to name but two.

[worldwidewolly]

To be fair to Ryanair, all their charges are on their website.

Compare the cost of your flight now to 10 yrs ago.
Leaving out inflation you still get a very good deal.

[Norman Stanley Fletcher]

In fairness to Martha, I think the more critical posts may have missed her point. It seems to me that her complaint is regarding the hidden nature of the charges which are not immediately apparent when you book a fare with Ryanair (and increasingly with other airlines as well). You can argue that the surcharges are all on the website somewhere but the truth is that the fares being presented basically do not exist.

For example, if you see a £0.99 fare from Stansted to Bologna, there is a clear suggestion that this is what you will pay. It is, alas, not what you pay as there is an increasing range of charges (taxes, baggage, etc) added to your fare. Ryanair are clearly misrepresenting the cost of one of their tickets in that it is not possible under any circumstances to travel anywhere for £0.99. To argue that it is still really cheap is missing the point. The answer to this lies in regulatory action. It is in everyone's interest that they know up front the real cost of a flight with a particular airline.

May I present as an excellent case example the situation with home computers? Up until recently it was common practice to quote prices without VAT - a practice that was defended to the hilt by virtually everyone involved but has now ceased. The reason it ceased was regulatory intervention because it was simply not possible to buy a computer in the UK without paying VAT. The quotation of a price that could not actually be achieved was rightly seen as unacceptable and a misrepresentation of the truth. Such is the case with Ryanair who are probably the worst offender in the industry with regards to this essentially dishonest practice.

[DistantRumble]

Again, we'll probably be moved soon to SLF but

NSF makes some interesting points :

if , for example, you miss a flight with Ryanair you would expect to lose just the ticket fare and credit card booking

However if you try and recover the PSC you will find Ryanair will make it v. difficult to do so
- you haven't passed through to Airside so haven't been through the check; why should you have to pay ...

in addition Aer Rianta or whatever they call themselves today do publish their charging breakdowns on their web pages if you are interested.

[Phileas Fogg]

Just go to the world's favourite airline website and it will clearly state a sector far of perhaps GBP22.00, as with Ryanair, it gives an indication that this is the price you will pay, will you boIIocks!

I guess a matter for the industry watchdog, all the airlines are at it now!

[Cyrano]

Currently also being discussed over here in this Pax and SLF (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=211457) thread...

[PAXboy]

a £0.99 fare from Stansted to Bologna, there is a clear suggestion that this is what you will pay No there is not because you have tio go through several pages with the add-ons in large numbers on the screen. They have had the court cases and now make the prices perfectly clear BEFORE you pay. RTF Screen!

[Fargoo]

I work for BA and unfortunately we're rapidly outdoing everyone for extra charges on top of the standard fare. If our fuel surcharge gets any bigger I might have to stop using staff travel :p

[Rainboe]

I've not booked Ryanair, but all the other airlines I've flown with make it quite clear and the information is easily available on their websites as to exactly what the extras like PSC and taxes are. These are additional charges for someone else collected by the airline involved. There is no reason they should all be included in one fee for travel- that hides the nature of the charges from the customer. It is good the customer is made aware of the other charges being made to him and exactly what is being charged for the air travel that he wants!

[Hussar 54]

Of course the fares advertised by the low fare carriers are not[B]the fares you have to pay - it's as simple as that !

Let's face it, 99p or whatever simply [B]has to be an impossible fare for any airline to stay in business, let alone generate the profits claimed/reported by these carriers.

However, a scenario -

What would be the public's reaction or the different Government Agencies' reactions if, say, Aldi or Carrefour or Tesco were to place huge adverts in the press announcing, say, televisions at £ 50....and then in the small print stating that each purchase was subject to £ 125 Handling Charge, £25 Packaging Charge, £ 45 Customer Service Charge, and the TVA on top of all that....

ie, you simply could not buy it for less than ( if I've done the sums correctly ) £245.

How long before this sort of blatant cheating would be stopped in the stores ?

Probably within days !!

Same with these carriers - you simply cannot pay the fares advertised, so how long will it be before one of the numerous muppets in the Euro Government gets off his a*se and stops these people

Having said all that, the all-in prices are still bloody good compared to the way the industry ripped off the public for decades....

[hobie]

A buddie of mine was checking a flight .... Luton to Gothenburg ...... Ticket price starts at 79 pence !!!! :eek: .... and a clear statement by Ryanair that .....

Fares are exclusive of taxes fees & charges which do not exceed £15.10

She seemed pleased with the offer ..... :p

[DrKev]

Of course the fares advertised by the low fare carriers are not[B]the fares you have to pay - it's as simple as that !
Let's face it, 99p or whatever simply [B]has to be an impossible fare for any airline to stay in business, let alone generate the profits claimed/reported by these carriers.

I would tend to agree but it would appear that Ryanair dont. In the Nov. 2005 complaints bulletin of the Irish Advertising Standards Authority (here is the link) (http://www.asai.ie/newsletter/list.tmpl?BULLETIN=05/5), a complaint was made (yet again) that Ryanair's advertising must quote taxes and charges as part of the total price...

"Ryanair stated that they do not include the charge levied for taxes and charges in their advertised prices on the basis that the costs are collected on behalf of third parties."

So, at least for the Irish market, if Ryanair claim 100,000 seats from €4.99, it would seem those quoted prices must cover all of their own costs. Then again, in the same ASAI bulletin, you may notice another complaint, which Ryanair refused to respond to, centered around an offer of "1 million seats for free..."

:hmm:

[Globaliser]

Just go to the world's favourite airline website and it will clearly state a sector far of perhaps GBP22.00, as with Ryanair, it gives an indication that this is the price you will pay, will you boIIocks!If you're referring to BA, this is no longer true.

If you go to BA's UK website, all fares shown in the Fare Explorer are now displayed inclusive of an estimate (usually an over-estimate) of all the extras, estimated on a half round-trip basis (if you're booking a straightforward return trip). The final price is broken down into base fare and total paid, but the total is about the sum of the half round-trip fares displayed earlier in the process.

So, for example, looking at LHR-AMS-LHR for some random dates in March, if I pick a "£45" flight out and a "£45" flight back, I then find that the accurate total price is £34 base fare + £54.80 taxes and other extras = £88.80.

[Hussar 54]

KEV

No doubt the low fare carriers will argue this case, that the money they collect on behalf of others should not be confused with their own income

But aren't these simply the costs of doing business and a neccessary part of their income and cost streams ?

In a similar vein, perhaps any Supermarket or Business which sells manufacturers' goods on a ' sale or return ' basis ( as many retailers and wholesalers are now beginning to do ) could perhaps advertise the television at a Special Price of £ 50, as this low price is equivalent to their gross income ( ie, the income which they will keep towards their own costs ) and then state in miniscule small print or on another page of their website that the following additional costs apply -

Manufacturers' Costs - £ 145 ( fairly obviously collected on behalf of someone else )

Local Property Taxes collected on behalf of the City - £ 25 ( could be argued that the Retailer has to pay approximately this amount per shopper directly to Government Agencies for the premises, irrespective of the number of shoppers )

Temporary Fuel Surcharge - £ 5 ( could be argued that in setting their own price of £ 50, thay had assumed that gas/electricity/diesel would each be £ xx per unit/litre and was currently £ zz )

Sales Tax - £ 20 ( fairly obviously collected on behalf of someone else )

And then, finally, add that if the customer makes use of a Shopping Trolley, there will be an additional fee of £ 35 ( again, could be argued that as the trolleys are a user-based cost and the customer has an option to use one or not, but has to pay for it if he/she does, then this need not be added to the base price of £ 50 )

Again, I wonder how long the Government Agencies would permit this sort of blatant deception in the original Advert ( as I said earlier whether in Print, on TV, or as banner headlines on their website) that the Televison's price is just £ 50.

Quite obviously in this scenario the full, actual price payable is NOT £ 50 and the buyer has no option or possibility to purchase the television for anything less than £ 245 ( again, if I've done the maths correctly ) which is basically what my issues are with the fares as currently advertised by the industry.

[TotalBeginner]

Let's face it, 99p or whatever simply has to be an impossible fare for any airline to stay in business, let alone generate the profits claimed/reported by these carriers.

Not if you receive subsidies from the airport to which you are flying.

if , for example, you miss a flight with Ryanair you would expect to lose just the ticket fare and credit card booking

However if you try and recover the PSC you will find Ryanair will make it v. difficult to do so
- you haven't passed through to Airside so haven't been through the check; why should you have to pay ...

I'm sure that this scenario generates a hefty profit for FR. When I worked for them, they were very fussy about having accurate records of NO-SHOWS for the purposes of recovering taxes fees and charges that were not required to be passed on to the "3rd party". Due to the fact that they also overbook by 4%, even if the flight was full, they would still be able to recover 7 lots of T,F,&C's per flight.

I've since heard that they are now happily selling 200 seats on some sectors, when the capacity is only 189. (But state quite clearly on-line that they are one of the only carriers that doesn't overbook!) I guess that's why they have a 40min check-in deadline.