Ryanair launches ‘Ryanair Prime’ – is it worth £79?

Well, this was a surprise.

Ryanair has launched an annual membership scheme called Ryanair Prime.

Membership will set you back £79 per year and will be capped at a very exclusive 250,000 members.

There are two things of interest to me about Ryanair Prime.

The first is that it doesn’t have any serious benefits apart from free seat selection on 12 flights. This makes the decision on whether to sign up a binary one – you either spend £79 per year on Ryanair seating for yourself or you don’t.

As a business move this is a bit odd.

The people who sign up are likely to be spending over £79 on Ryanair seating fees, so Ryanair will make less money from this group. The cheapest Ryanair seat is usually around £10.

The people who DON’T sign up are not spending £79 on seating fees and don’t see any value in joining.

The second issue, which is more intangible, is that it makes Ryanair a more complicated business to run. Not by much, admittedly, but the airline prides itself on its low cost base. Prime is in some ways a retrograde step.

What are the benefits of Ryanair Prime?

Let’s look at the exact wording of the benefits:

• Seat selection – you can select seats for free on 12 Ryanair flights each year. Only selected rows will be offered – presumably not exit rows. You must book AND FLY during your membership period, which restricts the value further.

• Discounted fare exclusives – you will receive regular emails offering special fare deals exclusively for Prime members. Only the member can book and travel must be completed during the current membership period.

• Travel insurance – a limited amount of travel insurance is provided, mainly covering the value of your flight if you fall ill. The other elements of the policy are very weak (flight delays pay €20 after 12 hours etc).

You can’t put a value on the fare discounts as it isn’t clear how often or where these will be offered. The travel insurance will have some value if you have no other cover – arguably it has a benefit in countries where the UK’s GHIC card applies and all you need is your flight reimbursed.

Even with the seating benefit, it isn’t clear what the ‘selected rows’ will be. Logically it would be the lowest priced batch of seats but you wouldn’t trust Ryanair not to narrow it down further so that only the least popular rows are offered.

The benefits are just for you

The Prime website confusingly speaks of adding a ‘travel companion’ to your account. This allows both of you to select seats for free.

What is not clear is that the second person is NOT free. You need to pay an additional £79 fee to add your partner.

And another catch ….

What is not clear unless you read the small print is that you cannot mix Prime and non-Prime members on the same booking unless they are infants. As children cannot join Prime, this could cause complications.

And another catch ….

Prime benefits must be used during your existing membership period. It doesn’t matter if you intend to renew or not.

For example, let’s assume your membership ends on 28th February. On 1st February you make a booking for 1st March. You fully intend to renew your Prime membership. Irrespective, you cannot get Prime benefits on the booking and will NOT get free seat selection.

And another catch ….

As a UK resident you will pay £79. European residents get a cheaper deal of €79.

Conclusion

‘Ryanair Prime’ is a very un-Ryanair thing to launch – except for the fact that the company isn’t giving you much value when you read the small print.

Unless you regularly fly on Ryanair and would spend over £79 on selecting the cheapest seats, you can’t be certain that you will make a profit.

As a rule of thumb, I want to be pretty certain that I will double my money before joining a scheme like this. After all, the fee is not refundable and you are taking a risk that your travel patterns won’t change or Ryanair won’t drop your usual routes. Even if you book the maximum of 12 free seats each year, will you be saving a lot more than £79?

Membership is restricted to residents of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, UK, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

You can find out more on this page of the Ryanair website.