See also:
- Ryanair Charges
- How Strict Is the Ryanair Hand Baggage Allowance? See the surprising pictures
- Denied Boarding By Ryanair - The Reasons
Picture the scene...
You book flights advertised as 10€ 'plus fees'. You then make a few mistakes before getting to the airport, simple things like a typo when booking, a slightly too heavy bag - perhaps more mistakes than the average traveler would make, but not an impossible number.
Then there's a further disaster - while paying the fees, you end up missing their flight and having to pay for new flights.
How much do you think you will end up paying? Read on to find out...
1) The Scenario
You are the main wage-earner of a family of four and you see flights advertised as 10€ plus fees. You decide to book each-way flights for the four of you. As you will go on a long vacation, you decide to check 20kg bags each, but you know not to pay for any of the other frivolous extras.In an ideal world, you'd pay 80€. But this is a Ryanair world. Let's see how much you actually pay.
2) How Much You Pay on the Ryanair Website
The amount you pay (remember, you are expecting 80€), comes out at 759.76€.How is this possible?
The price breakdown is like this: (all prices are the total for four people)
- Return flights 80€
- Taxes and fees 247.76€ (these can vary widely for no apparent reason, but a sample booking gave me one way taxes and fees of 123.88€)
- Mandatory online check-in 48€
- EU 261 Levy 16€
- Fee for 20kg bags during June-Sep period 320€
- Debit Card Fee 48€
- TOTAL: 759.76€
Note, the price could have been higher. You didn't select priority boarding, travel insurance, branded Ryanair suitcases or SMS notifications.
But then, when you get to the airport, disaster strikes...
3) Disaster! What You Pay Ryanair at the Airport
It can happen to anyone, especially with Ryanair:- You forgot to print off your boarding passes, assuming you could print them off at the airport like at any other airport.
- A typo meant you misspelled your daughter's name on her ticket.
- One of your children and your spouse over-filled their hand luggage by half a kilo.
Pretty catastrophic, but not impossible, is it? So how much have your tickets cost you at this point? Can you believe it is a staggering 2799.76€?!
How did I come to this figure?
- Price paid already (online) 759.76€
- Reprint boarding pass 240€ (just one way - you learn your lesson and will remember to print your boarding pass when you fly back)
- "Name change" fee for typo 320€ (for both flights)
- Overweight hand luggage penalty 600€ (for both passengers, for both flights)
- Excess luggage fee 880€ (because your checked luggage is at the 20kg capacity, you have to pay 20€ per kilo overweight the extra bag is. Each bag is 10.5kg, so you have to pay 11 times 20€ for both bags, for each flight)
- TOTAL 2799.76€
But then, with all the hassle of paying these extras, you run to the gate and discover the flight has gone without you. How much will you have to pay to get on your flight?
- Flight Change Fee 300€.
- The Difference 400€ (a same day flight is likely to cost you at least an extra 100€ each).
This extra 700€ brings the grand total of your flights to 3499.76€.
