Why don’t Ryanair make their free flights free?
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I noticed that Ryanair are offering “free” flights if you book by Monday 9th June 2008 and fly between 1 October 2008 and 31 January on flights that depart after 12 noon on Mondays, all day Tuesdays and until 12 noon on Wednesdays. Now that doesn’t leave a lot of room for flexibility as you really have to go for one night or seven or eight nights.
by aromano
I decided to check it out that the free flights actually existed and did find a flight departing from Edinburgh to Marseilles on the evening of Monday 6 October and returning seven days later on Monday 13 October. Now instead of the flight being free there was a charge of 1 pence which means that you have to pay card processing charges, either £1.20 per one way flight for debit cards or £3.20 for credit cards, which is pretty annoying for a transaction of 1 pence. Why can’t Ryanair make the flights free so there would be no card processing fee?
Now I know that, to some extent, I’m nit picking here as it’s still fantastic value to book a Ryanair return flight from Edinburgh to Marseille for £2.42 using a debit card but it’s not a free flight. What do you think?
June 7th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Maybe they mean virtually free?! That’s still a good deal for a flight.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Karen, in the fall these flights actually did cost 1p or 1c — I took 8 flights for 8c! Only since the spring have they started charging the booking fee on their “no taxes no charges no fees” sales.
If you haven’t already, have a gander at my post “Why I Love/Hate RyanAir” — it goes into quite a bit of detail on this subject.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Thank Hilary I have read your post and i feel the same as you that Ryanair should just be upfront and say that the flight costs a minimum of a couple of euro in booking fees. Yes you do have to know how to play the game with Ryanair and be able to fly off peak.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Being of a literal bend it annoys me when the free flights I buy with Ryanair cost me 1c [yes that's one cent total costs incl all charges] am I being unreasonable?
On a happier note I did bag several really free [zero charge] flights to Liverpool in June.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Mopi, how did you manage to bag Ryanair flights that were zero cost, totally free of charge? The cheapest fare I’ve ever managed, even flying mid week, low season was £17 return from Glasgow to Bergamo and that was before the increase in APT.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
[...] the UK to Ireland for only £2 return if you book by midnight on Friday 18 July 2008. However as I highlighted previously Ryanair do charge card handling fees, even on free flights. It’s now £4 for a [...]
July 26th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I find something to fly for 1€
http://gratiszeug.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/1e-fluege-bei-ryanair/
July 27th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Franzl, I think that your blog is in German and I’m sorry I can’t speak German. Do Ryanair charge a card handling fee is you book in Germany?