Comments on: Flying Ryanair? Book Direct But Shop Around First

By: South African

South African — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:58:21 +0000

Be very careful before booking Ryanair, unless you have a European passport and are only carrying hand luggage. I decided against travelling Ryanair as it’s extra for checking in and extra for the luggage, and then only 15kg allowed (12 pounds extra per kilogram).

By: QRC

QRC — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:43:46 +0000

Wait a second here…how about saying flying Ryanair is only slightly better than flying on a US legacy carrier? No need to rag on Southwest! Southwest for 1 or 2 hours beats any UA or AA F class flight of the same duration.

By: Yo

Yo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:51:06 +0000

Flying Ryanair is slightly better than being in a Cambodian prison in the 70′s.

It makes Southwest look like First Class on a Singapore A380.

I guess they keep the costs down, but I can’t take them, and I’ve flown some nasty stuff.

By: Margaret Nahmias

Margaret Nahmias — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:30:25 +0000

Yeah, and everyone think US airlines are stingy.

By: Brad Ackerman

Brad Ackerman — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:27:35 +0000

Last time I took an intra-Europe flight, I went with BA (other possibles were Easyjet and BMIbaby) — I really liked the lack of nickling-and-diming. One bag free, 23 kg (not Ryanair’s 15 kg!). Oh, and I see Ryanair has bumped up the excess charge to €15/kg.

Here’s my counteroffer, Mike: Fold up your airline until the corners are nice and sharp, and find someplace to put it. My sanity does have a value.

By: CF

CF — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:26:12 +0000

There is a direct cost to Ryanair here. Every time a screenscraper runs, it requires queries of Ryanair’s system. And that has a cost associated with it, so if there is a great deal of screenscraping and no booking, then it is tough to justify.

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:46:33 +0000

Except Ryanair have told him to stop listing their flights as well – fairly astonishing as (a) his organisation is not for profit and (b) he’s become a key opinion former (something like 1.5 million people get his weekly e-mail, which is around 5% of the UK adult population). If it’s just because they can’t tell the difference between a screen scraper and a service which does all of the booking as well, then ok (for a while) – otherwise it’s a bit of a cutting your nose off to spite your face situation.

By: Paul Campy

Paul Campy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:35:37 +0000

One thing you can still do is use a website like Martin Lewis’s Flightchecker (he’s a bit of a consumer champion here in the UK) which is a screen scraper to find the best deals but isn’t actually a travel agent so you still end up booking ahead. You do get to find the best prices across a number of carriers in a simpler way than carriers’ own sites.

http://flightchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:08:37 +0000

Yep, you’ve got it spot on. There are some sites in the EU that act like, say, Kayak, but just show prices and also book it all for you, (and in some cases only then tell you who you’re flying with). Seats booked like this are being ditched by ryanair. Presumably, as prices go down as well as up, some people might benefit from this!

I haven’t tried myself, but I’ve also read (here in the UK) that if you search for a flight and try and click “next day” or “previous day” too many times it throws you out and you have to start again – almost like it doesn’t want you to search by price. I hope this is a side effect of an attempt to block the price scraperts, because if it’s a deliberate policy it’s a bit odd!