I've recently spoken to a few people who seem to have had problems when booking flights with Ryan Air and it looks like there is a pattern.  Apparently, when booking flights, mistakes have been made e.g. instead of booking the flight in the name of Mr Smith they are entering Dr Smith.  When this is noticed by the customer he is then charged £100 by Ryan Air to change it.  Other mistakes include bookings on the wrong date and spelling maistakes on names.  Every change costs the customer £100. It would seem this "LOW-COST" airline is boosting its profits by devious means and these mistakes are being made on purpose.  Has anyone else had any problems like this?

 Not another.......I hate Ryanair posting!!

If YOU make a mistake when you book a flight, then you have to pay to alter it!!

Other airlines do the same.......so what is all the fuss about?

What justifies £100 charge to change something?  And if you read the post PROPERLY you would see that it's not the customers mistake it's by the airline and the frequency of it suggests more than an occasional error!!!!!!!!!

 When you book a flight YOU enter ALL the details and then YOU check them don't you?

How can the airline make the mistakes?

Not everybody books on-line and things can be altered you know.  You're very defensive, do you work for them?  Any comments from nice people?

Not had any problems with Ryanair personally, orda. But I don't view your thread as being another ''I hate Ryanair posting'' nor do I see you making a fuss about it. I thought you made your point quite clear and concise without any hint of hate or fuss, but unfortunately there are those who just don't read the posts properly and can't wait to get their tuppenceworth in.

** EDITED - Please respect terms of posting **

 I do not work for Ryanair.

orda and redsam79 you are both very rude.

But at least it is clear what I meant.

You can ONLY book online with Ryanair so it is down to you to check all details. As their flights are usually cheap probably cheaper to rebook and lose the first booking

I admit it is a minefield to book online but when you get flights for £40 return or less and obey their "rules" - simples as the meerkats say!

 I changed the spelling on a group booking with Ryanair from Gerald to Gerard no fee involved. 

My sister made an error booking a flight in January and immediately phoned Ryanair, expecting an argument over the £100.

They made the correction and didn't ask for a penny!

We have used Ryan Air to fly in from B`ham to Murcia after finding out they were by far the cheapest.

It can be a bit daunting the first time , if you have never made flight bookings over the net before.

@ 63 my brain isnt as sharp as it used to be but taking things slowly & reading  every thing twice, just to make sure there ae no mistakes. i  have never had a problem. We fly over at least three times a year & have done so now for the past 3 years. With prices as low as Ryan Air offers we have no complaints

Jan

  Verdict in then for Ryan Air!!!!!  looks like they  win. Have never flown with them but I know a lot of people that have and they all seem quite happy especially with their prices.

But when you book online if you make a mistake you can always go back and change it, just make sure you check it as you go along, I know of pensioner's in their 70's that have never really used a computer but manage to book flight's on line.

Good Luck Pat

 nice positive postings! 

We fly with them maybe 10 times a year. Can't beat them for price or punctuality.

It's annoying to see them push up the prices in the School holidays, but I guess that's basic supply and demand, thankfully we can mostly avoid the school holidays.

My biggest gripe is still the £5 per head per flight levy for using a credit/debit card...wish they would just add that on up front and be done with it

But bottom line for me is that they are streets ahead of the competition when it comes to price, even with the aforementioned levy, and must have saved us hundreds if not thousands over the last 3 years since we have been coming to Spain regularly.

Get yourself a pre-paid Mastercard, only £10 to buy then just put enough in the account to pay for your tickets and save yourself some money - you might even be able to afford to take a suitcase every now and then

I have an Escape card from Phones4u. Easy to top-up online with no extra charges after the initial cost.

Haven't ever had real problems with them- it is what it is. It's not BA and doeant have individual calls for groups of seats but you know that.

I dont understand why they dont attach a seat number to their speedy boarding. It would make little difference but would do away with the boarding stress. They could even designate a group of seats for the speedy boarders.

By the by- I booked and realised I spelt my partners name incorrectly and a phone call later it was sorted at no cost. The biggest problem was finding their phone number. But, not as bad as they are painted!!

I use FairFX from fairfx.com and they provide pre-paid Mastercards which you can load in Euros or Sterling. It doesn't cost to load or spend the money in Euros. The rates are very competitive.

FairFX are ok for UK citizens but I haven't found anywhere in Spain that issues a Mastercard Pre pay. I tried a virtual Mastercard but it didn't work

It's not just Ryanair. I made a small mistake for National Express coaches.  I am over 6 my wife is not so we had to make separate bookings on mine I made a small mistake and as a result the return journey from Dover to London we are travelling on different coaches. I phoned the UK and was told It would have cost more than the ticket cost to change the tickets. So rather than be ripped off we are travelling separately, with arrival times, hopefully, exactly the same.

I fly wit Ryan Air most of the time as they are usually much cheaper especially if you can fly mid-week. I use a Neteller pre pay master card so I do not pay the fee.

I have a Net+ Prepaid Master Card which I got through Neteller.com there was no initial charge.  I top up through my bank ac the money usually takes 2/3 days to reach my account. I try to keep 200 euro in the account so that if I see a cheap flight I can book it immediately.  I then just replace what I have used ASAP.  I am in Ireland and so far I have had no problems with the Account. It is  worth having a look at as I do not think there are charges when you top up using Sterling.

Neteller also have a virtual card  but  do no get this one as it does not work!

Spanish residents can get a pre-paid Mastercard from Moneybookers.com

Thanks Redsam and everybody else for answers that I needed to clarify the situation.  My daughter and family want to fly with Ryan Air from Stansted to Malaga because they are cheaper.  Obviously there is no point flying with a cheap airline if you end up paying a £100 fee for a mistake.  But now that I can pass on some positive info she will feel a lot more confident to do so.

We've used Ryanair on numerous occasions through lack of choice........this time however we came by Ferry.....it's a whole new fabulous world and beats flying with Ryanair or any other carrier 100 fold ;-))

There's no doubt about it Ryanair are the worst airline in the business but they can be the cheapest.

You also have to watch for all the extras and especially the luggage charges. They police the hand luggage 1 bag policy per passenger and at some airport departure gates weigh and measure and demand as extra EUR35 if the bag in any way breaches measurements. Because they make you put everything (including hand bag, laptop, camera, magazines etc) that can push you over the weight limit also. So if they don't get you on the measuremenst (55*40*20 cm) they'll get you on the weight (10kg)

You need to bear in mind their measurements are less than that of other airlines so the flight case you always use on other airlines will breach Ryanair policy.

Their own handling staff are under instructions to shake down passengers for money and they say if you don't pay you have to leave the bag behind.

Once you are on board the selling starts - I don't know why they just don't hire lookie lookie men.

Also avoid their travel insurance policy as it has very little coverage compared to other policies in the market place.

 Providing you read their rules and stick to them you do not get charged for extras. We have been a number of times and always comply with their rules. Then you see others with 2 or more bags get away with it sometimes and then complain most bitterly when they get caught. You can always travel with someone else if you don't like their rules! I like the cheap fares but I always check to see what the others charge. If we want to take a lot of weight in hand luggage or a suitcase we go with Easyjet. 

Have to agree with Kev on this one, it's surely not too difficult to read the rules/regs/extra charges pages on the Ryanair website-and then if you don't like what you see-don't book it.

We have used them for the past 5years, taking approximately 5-6 return trips per year-and as we stick to the hand baggage weight/size rules have been glad to see the rules being enforced at last.

We got sick of seeing the p**s takers dragging on their jumbo sized sports bags-big enough to hide a Shetland pony in-and then trying to ram it into the overhead locker causing damage to anything that got in it's way.

Any body who's made the ferry crossing u.k. to Spain and then driven to Valencia region--could you give me an idea of how long the driving part of the trip takes? I realise it depends on which port you use. We can only take short breaks each time we come over, and were thinking of driving-but with a usual break time of 5--7 days don't want to spend 3 days on the road and ferry at each end of the journey !

Thanks, Ray

I agree with Kev and Costrad ...

My OH and I also travel over around 4 - 5 times per year and although we always check all the airlines before booking, Ryanair wins hands down (even with all the 'extras') every time.

We have always kept within the rules too and have been amazed that other people have in the past been allowed to board with 'hand luggage' that is clearly much larger than the maximum measurements allowed. Quite agree with the tighter checks on size and weight of hand luggage ......

We had to laugh last year when we were queuing up to get on the plane (BMIbaby). 

We sadly watched people who had bought goods from duty free and then came to put them in their flight bags, only to find they were over sized and were made to pay €35 extra.  However we did notice that Ryanair only chose to check the size of the flight bags just before getting on the plane, and not at the check in desk.  Also not everyone was checked.  People, who had overweight cases, were frantically putting on extra clothes on top of what they were already wearing.  Surely this defeats the object.

On our BMIbaby flight, we noticed that passengers were getting very frustrated, because there was so many cases in the top lockers, there was no more room, and they had to go further down the plane to deposit their cases.  It was rea real struggle to fit everyones case in.  So passengers were having to put coats, bags etc underneath their seats. This caused even more problems when they came to get off the plane, because people were pushing by people standing in the isle getting off trying to find their luggage from further back on the plane.  What a mess.  Surely if these airlines are encouraging people to take onboard luggage, they should make sure there is enough space in the overhead lockers first.

There IS enough room on the flights!! The problem is with the selfish halfwits who take the P!ss with large and oversized bags!! FACT!!