Ryanair's infamous fees have been challenged by a Berlin court, spelling a possible end to at least one of their extra charges - the credit card fee.
According to an article in the UK's Daily Telegraph ('Ryanair loses handling charges case'), the German Superior Court of Justice ruled that the credit card fee is illegal as passengers do not have a free alternative.
Ryanair have responded by saying that passengers do have another payment option, namely a Visa Electron card. They made a similar point to me when I asked about Ryanair's Credit Card Fees. But I found that Visa Electron cards are very difficult to come by for most citizens; getting one usually requires changing banks. Clearly the German court agrees with me: taking a trip into town, applying for a new bank account and waiting for your new Electron card to arrive does not constitute another method of payment.
Could this ruling mean the end of Ryanair's credit card fee? And might it cause the unraveling of their other dubious fees, such as their mandatory Online Check-in Fee? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, read more about Ryanair Fees.
I saw this blog and i just regreet that this journalist don’t see what change Ryanair is making in passengers life. People who fly ryanair are passengers who couldn’t fly. Sometimes they fly for 10 euros all taxes included and I did five times.
I regret that sometimes journalist like this ones that comes with bad faith because they aren’t imparcial and i did saw some having arrogant attitudes onboard of flights thinking that they can do everything.
So just read terms and conditions of Ryanair and you will be satisfied with the company That is:
largest airline in international passengers
N 1 in ON TIME arrivals in EUROPE
60000000 MILLION passengers carried
so If yr not satisfied change to another one DONT BE BAD FAITH PERSON
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Ryanair give cheap fares to one person because they’ve stung someone else.
If they’re so great, why don’t they just include their charges in the main fare? I’ll tell you – because they make money from this subtle lie.
I don’t hate Ryanair – but I do hate their apologists. Congratulations on being clever enough to not pay the extras. But no airline can survive off 10 euro fares – its all the people who get stung that are paying for your flights. You should be ashamed!
Ryanero – I dispelled the myth of Ryanair’s punctuality here. http://gospain.about.com/b/2009/07/01/ryanair-british-airways.htm
I’m glad you are getting the cheap fares. Keep on flying with them then!
I have started this campaign of important regulation changes towards the credit card charges here in GB.
In germany, according to the german consumer organisation VZBV, there is a charge of 40 to 100 euro per year for the Visa Electron card and difficult to get hold of. you can read more here including the public court order (download/right) from the VZBV germany(in german, use google translate):
http://www.vzbv.de/start/index.php?page=themen&bereichs_id=7&themen_id=59&klag_id=604&subthemen_id=&task=klagen
Elsewhere within this general blog/site you have a recommendation/invitation to complain to the UK Office of Fair Trade about the “Cowboy outfit.” You give the appropriate email address there.
And once you have fired off the email to the OFT?
What next?
¡Silence!
Ryanair make monkeys of all EU passenger rules, especially EU261/2004 on compensation for flights which don´t run and also obliging airlines to look after passengers whom they leave stranded overnight…for days on end, which is useless and is openly ridiculed by Eireflot.
“Thank god, however, they obey ALL the rules on safety and maintenance.”
F E: I know that the OFT receives a lot of complaints and cannot reply to every email or letter.
However, they have assured me that they record all complaints.
Read the blogs F E is referring to:
Ryanair, Online Check-In Fees, the Office of Fair Trading and ‘Fixed Non-Optional Costs’
Ryanair and Non-Optional Fixed Costs – the Office of Fair Trading Responds
I don’t if it means the end of these practices, we can only wish that for the customers, but one thing is for sure: it’s been a long time since Ryanair has been at the edge of legality.
Last year, the Times published an article about this:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article5163127.ece
In my earlier post I asked what happens once the OFT have received the complaints and I suggested an answer: ¡Silence!
You now seek to re-assure me.
They keep a file of complaints apparently.
Should I be re-assured by that?
Re-assured that they don´t tear up or delete them?
The latter might be perceived as more open, more honest and more realistic as to what OFT or any other official body plans to do, rather than “filing them.”
What is the purpose of filing them, when nothing ever seems to be done about Ryanair, the free-booting ultra-capitalist airline with a very nice little earner of a sideline in European local and regional government subsidy, but total contempt for the mugs who buy the very expensive tickets ?
My campaign against the extra charges on creditcard now sparked big discussions here in GB.
The latest news were the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8156085.stm
but unfortunately, they have not told the british public about the german court order against ryan air and also had a person this morning on breakfast ( i believe it was thomas cook related person)recommending to use the visa electron or opening new account with other banks in order to get the visa electron card to avoid the extra charges. this is another way of tricking customers.
Well, F E, as we can see, things ARE being done. So someone IS listening. Ryanair have been found guilty of a number of practices over the years.
Yes, a little faith is necessary. But if you don’t trust the organizations and bodies in place to safeguard your wellbeing, you are entitled to that cynicism, but what are you going to do instead of write to them?
I’m personally glad that this has come about… I find Ryanair’s fee system to be a bit misleading and there are times that my ticket has cost me double or even triple the price that it started out as after all the “hidden fees.” We’ll have to see if they make any real changes.
The difference between “a little faith” and “a wilderness of credulity” is self evident.
Well it is to me, at least.
I enclose a link to yet another branch of the UK government which SHOULD be protecting passengers…but patently isn´t.
http://www.auc.org.uk/docs/306/AUC%20Annual%20report%202008-2009.pdf
Read what it says around page 7 (internal numbering) of achieving 60/128 compensation payments out of a registered pool of almost 2000 complaints EACH YEAR and you will know this is just a joke.They observe, with a naivete which would make even George Dixon wince, that the airlines always claim that their cancellaions are due to exceptional circumstances.
A joke perpetrated on the paying public. By the airlines. Most especially by “the no class airline.” (Many of whose customers, as evidenced by the nature and contents of some of the posts here, are not capable for a multitude of reasons of pursuing a long and complicated action for redress. Which is already virtually hopeless from the outset when the relevant UK authorities are only too willing to accept the nonsense excuses of the airlines, to compile lists of complaints and to DO very very very little more.)
Not everyone has got Visa Electron to skip Ryanair’s charges! But if that is the only way, then I suggest everyone to get a simple prepaid visa electron card to use when buying Ryanair tickets.
I share everyone’s frustration regarding this matter, (except of course dear RYANERO’s comments) and I would like to follow it up the best way possible. I was wondering if everyone can join in a collective petition to Ryanair and the financial authorities in our respective countries. Like someone pointed out, soon Ryanair will charge customers for the oxygen the breath while on board their aircrafts.
While it’s easy to see that Ryanair are skating on the edges of EU regulation and that they show remarkable contempt for the people that keep them in business, i do suggest that you look at how many people actually……WILLINGLY….use them.
Yes, Ryanair con people into believing that they can get a cheap flight for ten quid return, the naive passenger will feel dumped when they realise that isn’t the case, but we all know that fares like that are few and far between.
they question is, how many of us moan about Ryanairs contempt, then ask how many passengers moan about it and still fly with them? Yes i disagree with their pricing policy, and if i could get flights elsewhere for the same price, i’d happily ditch Ryanair as a protest. But Ryanair’s flights are cheaper than most others even with their fees.
A ticket to Malaga last year cost me £118 return with Ryanair, the next cheapest option was easy jet at a whopping £215.
Ryanair will continue to get away with it while two things happen. 1, the EU are loathed to enforce any of their regulations, without teeth the regulations mean nothing and the EU is making their regulations laughable.
2. if the passengers don’t like Ryanair’s practices, they can vote with their feet and pay over the odds. they don’t and this is what Ryanair are counting on. the moment the consumers back up their money with action, Ryanair will take note and change their position.
Effectively, they get away with it because we let them get away with it. we have a clear choice, stick to our principles or get cheaper flights. it seems to me that for most our principles are freely ignored for the sake of a few quid.
And Ryanair know it….
Bills right.
A person is intelligent, but People are stupid.
We’ve got so used to being treated like sh*t, that anyone doing business here learns very quickly.
Is anyone reading this old enough to remember McDonalds, when they first opened in London? That soon changed, I don’t see anyone rushing round offering trays of relish in our local 24hr fast food emporium!
Then we’re so daft when it comes to webpages….turns out most people don’t actually READ them, they scan them, decide that all is ok, and click. Meanwhile, the winged Dick Turpin has just conned them into buying insurance that they probably didn’t need.
HMG is letting us down badly – they could, if they wanted, insist that default positive clicks were illegal.
That would allow folk to sue Ryanair and get their insurance money back.
Or am I dreaming…..could that ever happen?