Ryanair flash sale

[Voni]

For those of you who are considering flying, Ryanair are having a flash sale, closes midnight Wednesday 2nd.

[Kathleen]

But watch the small print!

My friends have just booked for 3rd April. The £48 flights finally worked out paying £227 each for one way. They were trying to book individually but when it cane to checkout it threw them out and they had no choice other than to proceed since the booking had been accepted!

O'Leary cons again!

Kathleen

[Kilkis]

...They were trying to book individually but when it cane to checkout it threw them out and they had no choice other than to proceed since the booking had been accepted!...

I am not sure what that means, Kathleen. Can you give an alternative description of what happened?

Whenever I have booked with Ryanair or Easyjet you go through all stages before you start giving credit/debit card details. You've already decided whether to select a seat and if so which one. You've already decided whether to add luggage and how much. You've already decided whether to add extras like travel insurance or pre-booked snacks. I agree that if you do add extras, and I do, the flight finishes up much more than the headline price, often double in my case. By the time you get to the payment page, however, you should know exactly what you are going to be charged. The booking is not accepted until you put in the payment details. I cannot see how anybody can get into a situation where they have paid for the flight without knowing how much they are going to pay or how the price could be increased after you enter the payment details?

Warwick

[Kathleen]

They are regulars with Ryanair Warwick.

My friend went in under their registered account and did a check for one passenger, It came up as the cheap price, £48, as advertised. She then checked out for two passengers which came out with a much higher price. Wondering if it would be better to book as two individual passengers she then tried again, getting once again the £48 price which she booked in her own name. When she then attempted to book for her husband she was told no more cheap seats were available and the cost was over £300. In a cleft stick with her own booking made, she had to go with it! With all additions the average cost came out at the £227, one way, I quoted for them both!

Still more reasonable than for my anticipated trip over next June, Jet 2 is coming out at around £600 return. One of the joys of living in the North East with fewer flight options.

Kathleen

[Kilkis]

Understood.

It is true that the price goes up as seats are sold but a jump straight from £48 to £ 300 seems a bit excessive. I never log into an Easyjet or Ryanair account when booking and I always use a private browsing window to search for flights. There have been lots of reports from people who searched for a flight, waited a few days to decide whether to take it and then, when they searched for it again, it had gone up in price. They usually assume that the previous price seats had all been sold and so take the new price. In some cases this is true but in others the airline have used a cookie stored on your PC to see that this is the second time you have looked for that flight. Their booking algorithm then assumes that you are more serious so they can get away with charging more. I am sure it is also true that the algorithm can see that you have already booked a seat on that flight from the same computer so they can probably get away with charging you anything for the second. Not logging in and using private browsing stops them doing that sort of analysis as all cookies are destroyed when you close the window.

If you use Firefox, click on File at top left and one of the options is New Private Window. Click on that and it opens a new WIndow that erases cookies and history when you close it. In Chrome click on the three vertical dots at top right and it appears as New Incognito Window. Edge is three horizontal dots and is called New In Private Window.

Warwick