Airline Post » airline fees

Ryanair having a tough time

Kevin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:05:42 +0000

As reported by the Holiday watchdogs, Ryanair, the Stansted-based airline is charging its passengers with hidden fees. Ryanair is now officially declared to have the worst airline budget.

Though Stephen McNamara at Ryanair says, Ryanair will carry more than 73 million passengers this year at the lowest possible fares, but its charges are increased by 61 percent as compared against other airlines – Bmibaby, Jet2 and easyJet. It is also reported that Ryanair is charging its passengers for each piece of luggage they are carrying by credit card.

In another report Ryanair has been hit by Irish government. Government claims that the company has ignored a huge jobs offer. The reason behind this as stated by the company is the presence of huge obstacles.

Ryanair adds payment fee for Visa Electron

Dave — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:22:49 +0000

In an attempt to cash in on almost everything other than an airline ticket, Ryanair will add a fee applicable to those paying with a Visa Electron credit or debit card. Now, a family of four booking a 4 roundtrip tickets will have to pay a staggering £40.

The only way to escape what could be a hefty fee is to use a card that won’t carry a fee; the only card is the MasterCard Prepaid. According to Ryanair, this card is easier to obtain than Visa Electron, which is “phased out” by providers such as Abbey and Travelex.

The new fee will come into effect starting with January 1st, 2010. Until then, you still have a month to pay your ticket using Visa Electron without incurring additional fees.

“We are pleased to announce our new partnership with MasterCard which will enable consumers to save even more when travelling on Ryanair’s unbeatable low fares,” spokesman Stephen McNamara said. “MasterCard Prepaid cards are widely available across Europe.”

In reply, the UK Cards Association said the actual fee for processing a payment made with Visa Electron is less than £1. Ryanair will impose a £5 fee per passenger per flight.

Ryanair to add fee on duty-free items

Dave — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:33:10 +0000

Ryanair passengers with duty-free shopping will have to pay a £28.50 fee for these items on all Ryanair flights. The no-frills airline has decided to introduce this fee for passengers that can’t fit these duty-free items in the carry-on bags.

Passengers that buy perfumes, cigarretes, alcohol or food will have to pay a hefty charge if they can’t fit these items in bags. Usually, airlines would allow passengers to have, apart from carry-on luggage, a sealed bag with items from the duty-free shops in the airport.

Consumer groups were quick to respond to this fee. Here’s that they had to say:

“Charges on Ryanair are getting ridiculous, with fees left, right and centre. With this new rule they’ve gone beyond what’s practical and sensible,” said James Fremantle of the Air Transport Users Council.

This is the latest fee out of a whole series Ryanair has decided to impose. The company has recently decided to eliminate check-in desks at airports and make people check-in online for a certain fee; those who forgot, were “fined” £/€100 at the airport for printing a new boarding card.

Ryanair said this fee was implemented because passengers didn’t abide by rules about carry-on hand luggage and we’re taking more bags then they were allowed to.

Southwest is looking for other income opportunities

Abbey — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:04:04 +0000

On Thursday CEO of Southwest Airlines Company that doesn’t collect payments for baggage announced that it was not inconceivable that they would be exploring other opportunities of making extras.

According to Southwest, the company suffered only a small third-quarter loss and they didn’t expect a decline in business travel. The income of all airlines has been affected by the vanishing business traveler phenomenon. These losses have been tempered by introducing fees for new ancillary services.

Gary Kelly, Southwest’s chairman, president, and CEO considered that except baggage fees there are other additional revenue opportunities that can be made use of. He is convinced that such frequent flier program as “Rapid reward” would change the situation in many airline companies.

Gary Kelly said that Southwest Airlines Company would rather look for more opportunities to offer a wider range of services to customers so that they would have a wider selection of options to spend more money with the company. For that reason the frequent-flier program suited their strategy.

Earlier it was noted that Southwest started to apply new tariffs in cases when children fly alone and pets travel in the cabin, the latter was prohibited before. If compare price tickets of Southwest and other airlines one can say that this year prices are lower than a year ago. Also due to discounts planes were full despite the fact that many passenger were going on their vocations.

It was reported by the company that about 17 percent of passengers paid the full amount of the ticket price which is a decrease against the same period of the last year when it was 24 percent.

In the third quarter Southwest in Dallas lost $16 million. Last year Southwest lost $120 million during the same period.

As traffic rose 4.7 percent for the quarter, some routes of Southwest became unprofitable and were retrenched, this decreased the capacity by 5.8 percent for the quarter. It was calculated that the cost of flying one person one mile became much higher, i.e. it rose 6.6 percent without factoring in the fuel from a year ago. According to Southwest the trend would continue to rise as the company was cutting fourth-quarter capacity by 8 percent.

Overall, the airline capacity this year is expected to decrease by about 5 percent as compared with the last year.

Original Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Southwest-chases-other-addons-apf-1979370124.html?x=0&.v=14

No more check-in desks at Ryanair

Dave — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:39:20 +0000

While Ryanair’s fees on baggages are on the rise, the low-cost airline is set to remove all of its airport check-in desks next week. Beginning with Thursday of next week, all passengers travelling with Ryanair will have to check-in online, on Ryanair’s website, starting with 15 days prior to their scheduled flight or at least 4 hours before the trip.

The cost for printing such a boarding ticket is £5 per person, per flight. If you’re checking in luggage, you’ll have to leave your it at the company’s “bag drop”, which will replace the classical check-in desks with personnel.

Anyone arriving without his or her boarding pass at the airport will be unable to fly or will have to pay £40 at the ticketing desk. According to a Ryanair spokesman, this new rule has been applied in an effort to improve passengers’ experience at the airport, thus reducing queues, and to continue offer low prices on their tickets.

He also said that this fee and other fees which have been implemented are optional and avoidable. Still, some find Ryanair’s fees expensive. James Fremantle, a spokesman for the Air Transport Users Council, asked the company to show more sympathy for its customers.

He added that, if passengers lose their boarding pass, a £40 fee for reissuing is steep. Also, the £5 online check-in fee cannot be considered optional, because it applies to all passengers.

Along with the removal of check-in desks at the airports, comes increase

luggage fees. Starting with Thursday, you will have to pay £30 instead of £20 for a single bag of 15kg maximum weight. The second flight will cost a whooping £70 per flight. Ryanair’s policy will also change next week and no longer allow children under 16 years of age to travel unaccompanied.

(via The Sidney Morning Herald)

Airline traffic decreases as fees fatten

Dave — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:50:08 +0000

It’s a well-known fact that airline traffic has seriously decreased due to the economical recession. But U.S. airlines have found a way to increase their profit margin in spite of this fact – they are making more money by fattening their extra fees.

In the first six months of 2009, U.S. airlines made $3.8 billion for checking bags, canceling or rebooking flights, carrying pets and seats assignment, says a report from the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

This means an increase of $2.3 billion compared to the same time of 2008.

Everyone has noticed that airline fees are much higher this year than before.

And the most profitable fees are those for checked-in baggages, bringing in $669 million in April, May and June (a 276% increase compared to 2008). From January to June, airlines collected $1.24 billion in baggage fees.

Still, this is not the only source of profit for airlines. Revenue from fees on cancelling or rebooking a flight went up 52% (to $606 million) in the second quarter of 2009, while fees for carrying pets or choosing seats brought $673 million in the second quarter, as opposed to $565 million in 2008.

When should be expect smaller fees? It’s hard to say when the industry will recover; until then, we have to get used higher fees for our airline tickets.

photo source

Airline passenger charged $750 to correct spelling mistake

Dave — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:34:14 +0000

Flight Centre and Etihad charged Souhala Toughlajian,a 78-year old woman, $650 (price after discount) to correct a spelling mistake made on an airline ticket. Because she was born in a non-English speaking country, her name has two different spellings – one on her Lebanese passport (Souhaila Toghlajian) and another on her Australian one (Souhaly Toughlajian). Furthermore, she recommends herself as Souhala Toughlajian.

Souhala’s daughter called her to check the spelling for a booking made a June, but the woman gave the name from her expired Lebanese passport; she wanted to make a reservation for a Beirut return fare of $2060. What she didn’t know was the absurd charge of changing the name of the ticket holder – $750 or that the fare price after the “sale” would be $200 cheaper.

Angered by the treatment of the company, the woman’s daughter bought a ticket at another company, for only $1500.

A spokesman from the Etihad and Flight Centre said it’s not possible for a person to have a name spelled differently, despite them being issued 40 years apart. The Lebanese embassy from Canberra said this is very common among former citizens.

This is just another example of why you should always check an airline’s fees before buying a ticket. Also check the prices for the same flight across different airlines to see which is the cheapest. (via Daily Telegraph)