The OFT has today criticised Ryanair's charges on the basis that
they are confusing and virtually 'taunt' consumers.
The scandal concerns Ryainair's policy to charge consumers for
using certain payment types to boost their revenues. There is
a legal loophole which provides that as long as one free method of
paying is provided the consumers can be charged something
tantamount to 'admin fees' for the service.
This may seem a small sum (£5 a go), but a family of 5
flying to France and back is charged an additional £50 or so,
which makes a nonsense of the £0.01 airfares.
There has been talk of charging for the
toilet, charging overweight people, and charging for
forgetting your printout of your booking form.
I see Ryanair's point that they need to make money
somewhere. It can't be the case that we as consumers really
expect them to keep trading based on 1 p airfares. I think
the real heart of the debate is that the headline/promotional
airfares rarely materialize on the credit card statement.
The one fact that we cannot get away from is that as consumers
we love 'deals' and will keep flying with Ryanair and Easyjet for
as long as they are cheaper than BA or KLM.
If you have been badly treated by an
airline then you can make a claim.
Claims Financial
Comments (0)