Ryanair ---- Now Too Much Hassle?

A question about : Ryanair ---- Now Too Much Hassle?

Firstly let me say I`ve always been a big fan of RA, getting dirt cheap and even 1p fares.

It now seems that they are trying to make booking a flight as much hassle as they can.
The UK site is useless because you can`t see the whole weeks flights and only moves on one day at a time.
So you switch to the Irish one.

They have, yet again, changed the payment card for avoiding their rip-off Ј6 each way booking fee per person.
This is the third card they`ve changed to.
Some people are reporting problems trying to buy their new cash passport card with a minimum of Ј150 loading.

A Ј2 ash cloud fee was introduced earlier this year and now there`s a bonus for staff if they reject your hand baggage as being over weight/size.

Now the very latest move is a security check before you can even get into their website.

They may still be cheaper, although not always, than their rivals, but if they continue to make people jump through hoops to get a cheap flight, people might start thinking its too much hassle and vote with their feet.

Best answers:

• Your sentiment is spot on, folks get weary Mr O'Leary, this recent weeks battle shows what length Ryanair will go to to increase income.
• I knocked them on the head over 2 years ago and don't miss them one bit. If someone wants my business I expect them to encourage me and make it straightforward to deal with them. Ryanair are exactly the opposite, perhaps they are just going a bit too far nowadays.
  I should also point out that I have flown with them on many occasions and never had any problems. I am not a Ryanair hater but their attitude to customers stinks.
• I haven't flown with them in a few years either. I have no problem with EasyJet but Ryanair have just become too much hassle.
• I tried and couldn't get past the security page to get to the cost of flights. What's going on? I always thought security codes were used to avoid spam.
• They were great once but now they are just another cheap airline among many. Their flights are at best equal to their competitors whereas once they were streets ahead.
  As said above booking is now a chore. Finding the "cheap" flights is laborious and often a fruitless pursuit.. Then you are fleeced at the end.
  Expect to see them begin to fall down the ladder over the next couple of years.
• I think Ryanair have gone one step too far. I think that the Office of Fair Trading should intervene in their credit/debit card charging arrangements and I believe that in the fullness of time that the EC officials will ban Ryanair from imposing these card charges.
  However, Ryanair will simply then load the charge elsewhere, ie on the flight charge for instance.
  At the end of the day, once you've jumped through the hoops and got to the end of it all you can clearly see what the whole thing is going to cost. What joe public wants is quite simple, he wants to see what the potential full charge will be without having to suffer the annoying hoop jumping to get there.
  Ryanair are doing a fantastic job of alienating their customers. The publicwill suffer a fair bit in return for a cheap flight, but they wont be prepared to suffer for a flight charge that is so riddled with extras that the end price is not that far from a regular carrier.
• The reality is that, as long as Ryanair is cheap, people will fly with them, putting up with the hassle on a cost-benefit basis.
  Leaving aside the fact that a section of the travelling public expect to be shown deference by the lower orders, such as flight attendants, and are upset when it's not forthcoming, most of us will do our homework, choose the cheapest flight that suits our plans, pack carefully, take our own sandwiches, queue uncomplainingly (everyone gets a seat, they never overbook) and get to our destination for less than the cost of the cab fare into town. And smetimes for less than the bus fare. (I've done that: Stansted - Zaragoza, Ј1 all in. Bus fare from the airport, €1.20)
• - The new payment card to avoid er... payment fees,
  - The "security code" (next we will have to pay to look at the fares, I expect) and
  - The day by day (rather than week) jumping through fares
  are making RyanAir less and less palatable to people with limited time.
  It's not that I don't want to pay Ј15 rather than Ј9 to travel 1000 miles in 2 hours in an expensive plane, I am becoming allergic to the HASSLE and will travel less especially in winter.
  RyanAir spies, take note and think again!
• I wish I had that option, but unfortunately my family chose to move out to a place in France where Ryanair is the flight carrier at the local airport and it's either that or drive 200kms to Bordeaux for BA or EasyJet.
  I read the baggage size and I am shocked that my case is 2cm too large, yet I've never been stopped so I guess I am lucky.
  What next? You can only fly if your bag contains money and Ryanair brought Duty Free?
  BTW where can I find a "Ryanair friendly" case which is under the limit as I have found many cases I look at are too large in at least one dimension?
  Anyone with the prepaid card, can I just check, do you have to spend anything on it within 6 months or the whole initial balance of Ј156?
• UPDATE: Travel Republic and others are now offering Ryanair again but it seems as though a Ј10 booking fee is being charged (still a lot cheaper than Ryanair Ј48 for a family of 4) and the Security Code has been removed. I take it the booking must have fallen whilst this check was in place.
• I flew Ryanair once and learned my lesson. Flight from the middle of nowhere to the middle of nowhere.
  I fly BA mostly for short-haul, but Easyjet are fine too.
  Plenty of other options.
• I reckon Travel Republic must have been losing out here as they, surely, would have had to pay Ryanairs card charge?