Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: Luxury Travel Diary auctions, join a class action against Ryanair

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

News in brief:

More Luxury Travel Diary auctions launched

The Luxury Travel Diary site dropped me a line about another wave of its luxury auctions closing this week.  These are often worth a look as there are often deals to be had.

The UK focussed offers are here.  I also liked the look of this Four Seasons Marrakech package as the hotel is very well regarded, although that one runs into late June.  As usual, it is worth having a look to see if anything takes your fancy.

Flyers wanted to join a class action against Ryanair

CaseHub is a legal start-up which builds consumer ‘class actions’ online. It takes unfair practices to court, with the purpose of getting everyone who joins the lawsuit a payout as well as setting legal precedent to force industry practices to change.

The company see the airline industry as ripe targets, citing excessive administration fees, arduous cancellation penalties and abuses of fuel surcharges.  CaseHub intents to use a ‘group claim’ format to enable these disputes to be brought before the courts.

Perhaps not surprisingly, their first case is against Ryanair’s various fees for checking-in, boarding pass printing and name changes.  CaseHub is working with Joseph Dalby SC to bring a claim on behalf of anyone charged these fees in the last six years. If CaseHub wins, you would be able to reclaim any of these fees which you had paid to Ryanair over that period.

CaseHub is looking for 75,000 people who have flown Ryanair since 2011 and were charged one of firms more obscure fees.  You submit information about the fees you paid and assign the claim to the firm.  It operates on a ‘no win, no fee’ model which will cost you 35% of the value of your claim if successful.

Category

General

Comments (82)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Stu R says:
    16 May16 May 05:19

    I’m quite disappointed to see the Ryanair article here ….

    Ryanair’s business model is underpinned primarily by reduced costs – staff sitting at check in desks cost money, as do airport check-in machines. In order to reduce the number of check in desks and machines needed at airports, Ryanair make it abundantly clear that you must check-in for your flight before you get to the airport otherwise you will be charged a fee.

    Whilst I accept that the fee is not commensurate with the effort required to perform an airport check-in, it is designed to deter people from availing themselves of the airport check-in, and get them to do it themselves.

    If folks turn up at the airport and have to pay the fee, it’s not like they weren’t warned in advance. And it’s those fees that make it possible to get a single fare to faraway places for the price of a pub lunch!

    • Mouse says:
      16 May16 May 06:16

      Is there a reason why they charged travellers to print a BP at home?

      • harry says:
        16 May16 May 07:16

        They didn’t, afaik

        • Aeronaut says:
          16 May16 May 18:19

          I’ve got some notion that *in the past*, part of the fare structure was that the fare was broken down into various constituent parts including at one time a “web check-in fee”, though for a good many fares – or at least many of the cheaper ones – this was “free”.

          I think I’ve got that right, if so it was of course a total nonsense – just a way of somehow justifying the higher fares, and/or making you feel like you got even more of a bargain for the cheaper fares. However if there was a “web check-in fee” applied, it was not added later but was part of the flight as displayed at the first stage of searching (at least in more recent years).

          Thankfully Ryanair has now largely abandoned such silliness.

          • harry says:
            16 May16 May 18:34

            OK I dimly remember that, thanks for putting me right

          • Stu R says:
            16 May16 May 19:24

            I vaguely remember this too, and I think I paid it once, but I probably only paid a tenner for the ticket so I’m not going to lose sleep over it …. live and let live, Ryanair are evolving their model to be more customer friendly and there may come a time when I need to use them again, and I’d like them to still be in business when I do!

    • Stephen C says:
      16 May16 May 06:50

      Fully agree, you pay if you want to or can’t be bothered with the hassle of avoiding the charges. I have only had three issues with Ryanair:
      – Having to pay £8 extra for my wife (at the time girlfriend) to check in at the airport as online check-in wasn’t available for non-EU passports (they have since waived that fee, but it made a £2 flight into £10, 400% extra!)
      – Having to pay for seating as they potentially would sit my three-year-old in another part of the plane from me if I don’t
      – Scalding my arm last year by spilling a hot drink (not mine) and it was within two inches of my nine month old child. The stewardess was more concerned with getting on with selling than actually show any concern for my wellbeing and their complaints response was a joke
      They are actually a lot better to fly with now that I have PP with Amex Platinum, no more needing to pack my sandwiches to avoid onboard food costs 🙂 Still more stressful than flying with a ‘normal’ airline, but also a lot cheaper.

      • Rob says:
        16 May16 May 09:22

        CAA rules mean that kids under 12 MUST be seated with at least one parent or guardian. There is NO leeway on this. It is a safety requirement so that someone will look after the kid in an emergency.

        • Rob says:
          16 May16 May 11:10

          Interesting, thanks – I stand corrected!

          • Erico1875 says:
            16 May16 May 22:17

            We have never paid for seat selection but at check in,have always been assigned seats together with Ryanair.
            Flew tp Palma with Thomson last year,. 4 adults. we were sat together, yet families all around us were split up. We swapped seats to allow a family to sit together.

    • harry says:
      16 May16 May 07:17

      ‘the fee is not commensurate with the effort required to perform an airport check-in, it is designed to deter people from availing themselves of the airport check-in, and get them to do it themselves’

      Surely this is the point? Trade off between what is fair and what is effective as a deterrent: did Ryanair strike the right balance?

    • Rob says:
      16 May16 May 09:08

      I am not actively encouraging people to sign it – it was more of a news item than anything else. I also understand that BA will be next on their list over surcharges.

  • Thomas says:
    16 May16 May 06:03

    I do not like or fly Ryanair, but I agree with Stu R, These fees are not hidden at all. before you purchase a ticket you can see, read, and check what you are about to pay for. Ryanair is not clicking the “purchase” button for you! Blaming and claiming in UK gone mad. Reminded me of “did you have food poisoning abroad” adverts now popping up all over!!!!………

    • Erico1875 says:
      16 May16 May 06:51

      I get angry when i read about these “Ryanair rip off victims” Following the rules, we have had only experienced courtesy and efficiency.
      i hope this action fails.

      • Simon Fisher says:
        16 May16 May 09:04

        I hope it never gets off the ground. Its ridiculous. Everyone knows what they are getting when flying Ryan Air, nothing that you haven’t paid for. You choose to fly with them you get what you pay for.

    • Meg says:
      16 May16 May 10:02

      I don’t think the transparency issue is the point here. Most of Ryanair’s fees are (now) stated on their website (albeit not always clearly). What may be unlawful are the fees themselves. Many low cost airlines manage to keep their fares low without charging their customers such outrageous fees (EasyJet, for example). The point is: those fees are probably not essential to Ryanair’s business model. The airline is one of the most profitable in Europe, if not THE most profitable.
      So it’s not really about people following the rules, but the rules are kind of ridiculous and people get charged for honest mistakes OR because of Ryanair: so many people complain about Ryanair’s website and app which apparently are total s*it and people so often can’t check in in time bc of those being down. Or, what if people just cannot print their boarding pass bc 1) not everyone has a printer handy.. 2) especially on vacation ?
      How about the name change fee of £100 for people who wrote a typo during booking?

      Most of you seem to think it’s easy to not get charged, however it’s really not that clear how much you pay for things. If you’re an avid Ryanair flyer, you probably know and are careful about everything, but if it’s your first time, you probably have no clue. You’d be surprised how many people have no idea…. Ryanair encourages people’s mistakes to make extra money.

      • Callum says:
        16 May16 May 10:58

        Complete and utter rubbish. Ryanair have always displayed their fees (a deterant doesn’t work if you don’t know about it…) and you don’t need to be an avid flyer to understand them – you need to have very basic literacy.

        If you can’t locate a printer or have a smart phone for a mobile boarding pass then you shouldn’t be trusted abroad.

        • Gavin says:
          16 May16 May 13:25

          Seem to recall Ryanair only introduced an app with mobile boarding passes quite tecently. Only flown Ryanair twice, the hop from Birmingham to Dublin and back was efficient but that’s about all I can say. Wouldn’t choose to fly them for a longer flight

      • Erico1875 says:
        16 May16 May 22:23

        They dont charge 100 Euro for a typo. Its either free or at most, a tenner. A NAME CHANGE is different. It is to stop bulk buying and reselling of cheap fares.
        A lot of airlines wont even allow name changes. Its a new ticket completely.

  • Rob says:
    16 May16 May 06:54

    I have paid some fees on Ryanair but as the fees were all explained at the time of booking surely it was my choice? I hate that we now think it is acceptable to sue just because we don’t like the decision we made. No one is forced to fly Ryanair, if you don’t like the business model don’t use it.

  • Myer says:
    16 May16 May 06:56

    Ryanair is not my kind of airline either, however the low fares come at a cost and you have to play by the rules, if you do no issues if you don’t it will cost you dearly! Cheap car rental companies work the same way.

  • Rob says:
    16 May16 May 07:01

    I wonder if case hub will help us start a class action against all these law firms that are ruining many business models with all their litigation. Because like it or not if we carry on down this road it will change the way these business work and that will disadvantage those who use them – destroying businesses that are successful by responding to consumer demand for short term selfishness and greed – surely that is worth taking to court.

    • Jul says:
      16 May16 May 10:09

      Easyjet responds to consumer demand in the same way without imposing ridiculous rules. Most of Ryanair’s fees do NOT hold up and are outrageous. I think if this action is successful it’d be a good incentive for them to stop charging those fees without having to increase their fares. Every other low cost airline does it. Ryanair is already saving on every little penny to make a greater margin and are disrespectful of customers. Surely people see that?

      • Callum says:
        16 May16 May 11:05

        Ryanair are only ‘disrespectful’ to idiots, so I doubt you’re going to get much sympathy.

        What do their fees not ‘hold up’ to? Reasonableness? In which case I’m doing to sue Waitrose – they’re more expensive than Aldi and that’s outrageous. I’ve never seen a law that says fees aren’t allowed to be outrageous, so I’d be interested to see on what basis they could possibly be sued.

        • Rob says:
          16 May16 May 11:17

          Consumer Rights Act 2005.

          From Wikipedia: The definition of an ‘unfair term’ remains the same as that originally outlined in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977; i.e. a term is unfair if, “contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations under the contract to the detriment of the consumer.”

          Charging £60 to reprint a lost boarding pass would clearly fall under that.

          • Callum says:
            16 May16 May 12:22

            Evidently it doesn’t clearly fall under that as they’ve been doing it unchallenged for years…

          • Rob says:
            16 May16 May 13:33

            You can same about PPI etc. Grief, I – via my old job – nearly bought CPP at one point. A couple of years ago you would have told me that CPP (selling you insurance for your credit cards which you didn’t need because the law gave you almost identical cover for free via your card issuer) was OK as well, and now they are fundamentally bust.

            Airlines had been ripping people off over EU261 for years as well, until Jet2 foolishly decided to challenge Mr Huzar in court.

            UK law is case law, as you know. The law sets out broad principles which judges then interpret based on a combination of previous precedent and the law itself. You can therefore get away with something for a long time because the law does not set out, in exact words, that such an act is not allowed. You get a vague phrase which is required to go before a judge to be tested. And who is going to bring that case? Not one solitary individual who paid Ryanair £60 to get a lost boarding pass reprinted. If they won’t do it, you are down to the OFT and they have enough problems to deal with.

          • Callum says:
            16 May16 May 16:28

            How can it be “clear cut” if the law doesn’t actually say what you’re saying it does, and you instead need a judge to interpret it for you?

  • Tom C says:
    16 May16 May 07:12

    Certainly looks like CaseHub has been busy – this was the headline just a few days ago http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/14/british-airlines-unlawfully-pocketing-300m-in-tax-paid-by-passen/

    • Fiona says:
      16 May16 May 09:59

      And they are correct. When I have cancelled flights in India for example I have had the taxes refunded. I just don’t understand why BA doesn’t do it. Why isn’t this law?

      • Lady London says:
        16 May16 May 11:05

        It is the law, actually.

        You are fully entitled to write in and demand your taxes back on any cancelled booking.

        However you might notice two things :-
        (1) the actual amount of government- and airport- taxes you get back, will be surprisingly considerably lower than what BA might have told you was “taxes” or similar, if indeed they told you at all.

        (2) I believe the airline can deduct some sort of admin fee and believe they will.

        Go for it, I would.

  • mark says:
    16 May16 May 07:41

    not a fan of this action against Ryanair, it’s a budget airline and you get what you pay for…

    The fees are far too high, but they are clear… back in the day i paid 1pence to get to Dublin from Leeds… with fares so low… this is why change fees are so high

  • Andy says:
    16 May16 May 07:42

    Its a simple matter of whether charges are fairly disclosed or not and whether they are exploitative or not. The key point is that their business model relies on the headline charge pulling you in and yet this is unfair as it does not fairly disclose significant charges that most people subsequently pay. Historically Ryanair did their best to hide the charges even when it was very clear what the legislative intent was – a classic example being the need to include credit/debit card fees in the upfront price. They included the fees for an obscure card no one had and said the rest was extra in a clear ‘two fingers’ to the regulatory bodies.

    I wholly support any action which encourages airlines or any other business to treat its customers fairly.

    • Frenske says:
      16 May16 May 08:54

      +1

      Using headline grabbing ticket prices forces competition e.g. BA to change their business model too. Already food/drink offering is stripped back to bare minimum.

      • Lady London says:
        16 May16 May 11:07

        Why should anyone be fed on a plane especially short haul?

        How did it develop that airlines are expected to wine and dine people? I can understand making water available as a health matter, I can understand some provision on long haul flights and perhaps on medium haul. But since when did it become an obligation for airlines to feed people?

        • harry says:
          16 May16 May 14:04

          No entitlement but it IS a way to differentiate product offering.

          I always see snack £3, 3 beers £7.50, checked suitcase £20, T-24 seat selection £10 as helping make my mind up – there’s £40.50 of value there vs LCCs.

          Not that I would always pay them if I were travelling LCC, but I do like to pat myself on the back as I’m sure you’re aware 🙂

        • Fenny says:
          16 May16 May 21:28

          I sat on the tarmac for half an hour at Schipol once waiting to take of for Leeds Bradford., after missing my original flight due to a delay in Calcutta. All the passengers just wanted to take off and get home, but we couldn’t leave because the sandwiches hadn’t arrived. A clear case of “there are no more lemon soaked paper napkins”. When the sandwiches finally arrived and we managed to take off, most people declined the inflight refreshments.

    • Toby says:
      16 May16 May 09:05

      But Virgin do not include their 1.5% credit card fee in their upfront prices so does that mean they should be subject to a class action suit as well?

      I have flown quite a few times with Ryanair over the years and have never once had to pay a fee that was ‘hidden’. No fee has ever appeared on my bill after I’ve clicked the confirm order button that wasn’t already in the summary box that I didn’t already know about.

      As others have said, if you play by their rules (as no one is forcing you to fly with them) then it works out very well and very cheap.
      Ridiculous litigation.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

NEW: Sign-up bonuses boosted to 3,000 and 18,000 points

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!