Daedalus said:
6. As a result of all this, we arrived in that nightmare of an airport which is Frankfurt at 0820 on Sunday 14th rather than, as planned, Monday 15th. Hoping that we would find 4 spare seats on the 0920 Luxair flight to Luxembourg we dashed across the airport to the gate only to be told that, whether there were seats or not and despite the fact that the change was not our fault, we would have to pay Euros 100 per person to change the date of our short flight to Luxembourg!
then Final 3 Greens said:
Now as to your comment about LG on the short connection to Lux, I tend to understand your feelings. In my opinion, Ryanair have changed the short haul market beyond recognition and their facility to change all bookings (for a fee) is very clever, since it allows the passenger to retain the original cost of the fare (and not feel ripped off), whilst paying some more money to the airline for the change. I think that is called a win-win outcome. The traditional airlines have not woken up to this opportunity as yet and Ryanair (and easyJet) have won differentiation.
It sounds to me that LG missed an opportunity to win a friend by having rules in place that were probably devised before Ryanair existed. I imagine that the travel agent issued you with two tickets, one shorthaul return and one long haul return, so LG were not responsible for your late arrival and their staff in FRA (LH staff?) followed the rules. I have sympathy for them, since they probably had no discretion.
I don't think the difference between what Luxair asked for and what Ryanair would ask for in a similar situation is going to be that great a monetary difference.
From Ryanair:
Flight dates, times and routes are changeable subject to availability and upon payment of a change fee of £20/€30 (or local currency equivalent) per flight sector per person if made on
www.ryanair.com or £27/€40 (or local currency equivalent) per flight sector per person if made through a Ryanair reservation centre, plus in each case any difference in cost between the original total price paid and the lowest total price available at the time the change is made. If the total price is lower on the new flight, no refund will be made. Changes, subject to availability, can be made up to 12 hours prior to the originally scheduled departure time of your outbound journey on
www.ryanair.com or up to 3 hours prior to such time through a Ryanair reservation centre (subject to centre opening hours). 'Internet/Web only' fares are not available for any changes made through a reservation centre.
So you're 30 or 40 Euros up front straight away. Whether you then have to make up the fare from what you originally paid then becomes a gamble. But if the flight is busy and you are trying to book on the day of the flight then you could be looking at a significant increase, possibly even taking you up to well over the 100 Euros which Daedalus experienced. Ryanair play this game very well. Whilst I have travelled with them very cheaply on many occasions, there are also many occasions where it has also been cheaper travelling by a mainline carrier. The advice to anyone is to shop around and not assume that Lo Cost is always the lowest cost
