Interesting Ryanair pricing

[MasterCaution]

I bought a pair of "free" tickets in the Ryanair sale last week which after adding the tax came to £26.99. The same flights are now quoted at £3.50 each giving a total of £18.76 for exactly the same flights! I'm assuming there is a very special "tax" being charged during the sale period.

(Note: I'm not Ryanair-bashing, after all £26.99 is still a bargain.)

[PAXboy]

Neat! But if the routing is the same, then the taxes will be the same ... what is the route, if I may ask?

[dgutte]

I spotted this.

Doing a single out of Newcastle to Dublin and a single back cost considerably more in tax than a straight return ticket ON THE SAME FLIGHTS!

Got me puzzled!

[rsoman]

Paxboy
*****
Neat! But if the routing is the same, then the taxes will be the same ... what is the route, if I may ask?
******

Wish it was so simple! Unfortunately UK seems to lead the way in making this complicated for everyone!

Business class pays double taxes for the same flight! And I do remeber some time back Cambride had international flights (was it Suckling airways?) whose passengers paid no Biritsh tax!
(why- The law also states that for flights on aircraft operated with less than 20 seats, no tax - and this airline was operating 19 seaters!)

That saide, cant seem to find a logical explanation for Ryan Air pricing though!


Cheers

[MasterCaution]

Paxboy, it is STN to SZG and the return. Not just the same routing, it's the same flights on the same day.

[CHIVILCOY]

I think it's about time something is done regarding Ryanair's "SPECIALS" I looked on their website for fares from Prestwick to Stockholm yesterday evening. Fare quoted was £11.99 each way plus taxes total £42.88. Great price I thought,but decided to leave booking it till another day. Today I received an email from them offering £10 off each one way ticket so I rapidly went to their booking page and guess what!! fare quoted was upped to £21.99 each way minus £10 "OFFER" total for return trip £42.88.What a con!!! Why do they get away with this????Can anyone give me an answer?

[PAXboy]

In the UK, there are two courses of action I think.

1) The Advertising Standards Authority (http://www.asa.org.uk/) will take questions about a misleading advert in non-broadcast media but is 'self-regulatory'. However, my impression over the years is that they do 'bite'.

2) Standards Trading Officer of local government. However, I think this is only for where the company is actually trading. If they have a UK base and the flights are originating from there - it might be possible to raise a question with them.

[eng123]

I can't believe you people are complaining about these prices! £26 to Saltzberg,£42 Scotland to Stockholm.I know we are a nation of moaners but surely this is ridiculous?
Compare these prices to what you would have been charged several years ago before the likes of RYR and Easy etc were around.These fares would have been into 3 figures without doubt.
The 'special offer' and '£10 off' type adverts are no different to what any company use in order to attract business and I can't see anything wrong with that.If RYR were advertising fares at £30 [for instance] but you couldn't get them for that price then fair enough,that is cause to go to the advertising standards people but they don't do that.I'm sure that any complaints would be laughed out of the ASA's office!
The other thing you need to understand is 'yield management'.The fare prices are changing all the time in response to demand.One flight can be dirt cheap one day but if,overnight,a lot of seats are sold for that particular flight then the following day the prices will be higher.
I'm sure people begrudge airlines making any money.Would you all rather they go out of business and be left with the situation there was 10 years ago with prices sky high?

[MasterCaution]

eng123:
I can't believe you people are complaining about these prices! £26 to Saltzberg ...

If you'll kindly re-read my post carefully you'll note that I'm not moaning or complaining, rather pointing out a fact.

Cheers,

MC

[newswatcher]

MC,

Are you sure that you are comparing like-for-like?

I don't think that the "Taxes, Fees & Charges" can change, regardless of the price of the ticket.

For this route, this is £12.90 out and £14.07 back. So the cost of the trip can never be less than £26.97.

One airline did try and challenge the government that a "free" ticket should not be taxable at all, but I seem to remember that this failed!

[PAXboy]

eng123 - With regards to Yield Managment ... I have known prices change within two hours. Check prices, contact friends/family to confirm that they can see me/meet on that day and then go back online to book and another £25 for a flight to Scotland or the Isle of Man. As a percentage, these changes are extraordinarily high.

On one trip, by the time I got email confirmation back from friends (it took a week :zzz: ) the flights to Houston were too expensive and I could not go.

[Globaliser]

newswatcher: I don't think that the "Taxes, Fees & Charges" can change, regardless of the price of the ticket.

For this route, this is £12.90 out and £14.07 back. So the cost of the trip can never be less than £26.97.It ought to be that the only thing that can change the taxes is the class you fly in. Which is not an issue on FR.

The taxes would square with the OP - FR's "free" flights are actually priced at £0.01 each way so it's £26.97+£0.02=£26.99.

[newswatcher]

Globaliser, isn't that what I said?

I was confused by MC saying that he had seen a return ticket for £18.76. I cannot see how this could be achieved!:confused: :confused:

[MasterCaution]

NW: I am comparing like for like. Whilst it is probably the case that airport and goverment taxes don't change, it is likely that a component of the "taxes, fees and charges" is some sort of booking charge that Ryanair keep. The lower figure I quoted in my original post was taken from the Ryanair website going through the booking process.

Incidentally I note that it's back to £0.01 + taxes => £26.99 again in the latest sale.

MC

[Globaliser]

Was totally agreeing with you!

[newswatcher]

Globaliser, Oh, that's all right then. I think I'm having a bad afternoon!

MC, the outbound charges are made up of Passenger Service Charge(PSC), which is a Government "tax". Interestingly enough, Ryanair consider this as non-refundable, although technically it is non-chargeable if no flight has been made. It would be interesting to see someone challenge this in court. The second element is the Insurance "security charge" levied to recover extra expenditure of the airlines since 9/11. The third element is the UK departure tax. Again this should be refundable if no flight is made.

The only "booking charge" that I am aware of, is the Credit Charge surcharge that Ryanair add to the online transaction.

[PAXboy]

With regards to refundable PaxTax and so forth.

I read on a thread here last year that the LCCs will refund the cost if the cancel and / or you cancel under certain circs BUT in the small print that you signed or clicked on, there is an admin charge to refund the tax which just happens to be larger than the tax itself. They must have been very pleased when they thought that one up. :E

This has been challenged, I understand, and found legal. However, if you txfer to another flight or they txfer you, then it is not an issue.

[eng123]

Mastercaution,
Yes,point taken and I did realise you were not necessarily moaning with your post.I do still struggle to understand people even commenting in a negative way about the fares quoted.Obviously we all want to pay as little as possible for anything,including myself, but we should not begrudge a company to make a profit.
The emergence of the low cost airlines can only be good for everybody.Admittedly I'm a bit biased as I work for them but I think you should all look at the value for money side rather than quibbling about details.Ryanair will get you to your destination Safely,More often than not on time,More often than not in brand new [and extremely well maintained!]aircraft and if you are willing to be flexible and spend some time at the PC,they will get you there for a more than reasonable price!

[Self Loading Freight]

Got caught like that today.

Last night, a return fare between Stansted and Svasta was £42. This morning, I got a "£15 off!" email from RyanAir. Now, the price has gone UP to £66.

Here's a screenshot of the two fares, side by side (the taxes are doing strange things as well!)

http://www.agricola.demon.co.uk/Ryanprice.jpg

And here's the email.

"Ryanair.com are offering £15 off all return flights
purchased on Ryanair.com for the next 5 days.

Any internet booking made before midnight Tuesday 13th May for travel between now and 25th October will qualify for a discount.

Book now on http://www.ryanair.com

Discount details

UK GBP 15 return
Eurozone Eur 15 return
Sweden SEK 150 return
Denmark DKK 150 return
Norway NOK 150 return

Applies to bookings made between now and midnight Tuesday 13th May Offer applies to internet bookings only
Travel on any Ryanair flight before 25th October to qualify"

Now, regardless of anything else, for Ryanair to advertise a discount of £15 that turns out to be an increase of £24 is illegal -- at least in the UK. It is massively dishonest.

R

[PAXboy]

Sorry not to have time to investigate this further but I have sworn an oath to myself never to even look at their website again, leave alone get onto their flights.

Can RyanAir prove that they DID offer that fare, even if only for one seat? If they can, then I think that is them safe.

[Self Loading Freight]

The offer is a 15 quid discount on *all* European return flights. That this seems to translate to a £24 premium is... interesting.

My gut feeling is Ryanair is being dishonest, and using the variability of its pricing to put prices up at the point of advertising discounts. Even if that's not against consumer law (and I'll be seeing whether it is), it is dishonest and deserves to be investigated.

R