Nationwide helps minimise Ryanair's booking charges

[val douest]

We all know that the 1p Ryanair ticket actually costs nearer to £20

when all the various taxes and charges are added on.  Not only do

they make a booking charge per flight but they calculate this per

passenger - £1.75/€2.50 using a credit card and 40p/€0.60 using a debit

card.

Those of us living in France have recently found that the option to pay

by Switch/Maestro for journeys beginning in France has now been

withdrawn - it has just disappeared from the list.  Almost every

other option is charged at the credit card rate.  However, on

looking through our less frequently used bits of plastic we discovered

that our Nationwide debit card is a Visa/Delta debit card (as compared

to a Visa credit card).  This is one of the few cards still

accepted by Ryanair at a €0.65 charge per person per sector.  It

brings the card charges down from €20 to €5.20 for a return booking for

a family of four based in France.

I know Nationwide cards (credit and debit) are widely used by Brits

over here as they give a very good exchange rate and don't make any

other charge for using the card overseas.  But probably lots of

people (like us) don't realise that if they have a bank  account

with Nationwide their debit card also helps keep Ryanair's charges

down.  If you don't have a Visa Debit card then it seems the only

other way to reduce the charge (a little) is to make two separate bookings, using

a credit card to pay for the France to UK flights, and Switch/Maestro

to pay for the flights from the UK back to France.

Incidentally, if anyone has a Visa Electron card there is no charge at

all for using these to make a booking, either in France or the

UK.  But I have yet to meet anyone who has one - it seems to be a

first-step debit card with a lot of restrictions which is not widely

accepted elsewhere.

[Cat]

It's not just Nationwide that issue Visa Delta cards; Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Abbey, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Coop and Alliance and Leicester all have Visa Delta cards too.

Ryanair used to make no handling chanrge for flights booked using a Visa Delta debit card, but as Val says, this has now changed to 1.20 euros per person per return flight.

Incidentally, someone was saying recently that it was no longer possible to search for the cheapest flight by searching using a range of dates... well I've just found the facility again.  they've moved it from the front page to "find lowest fares" to the right of all the flags for the language options.

http://www.bookryanair.com/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi?language=EN&culture=GB&mode=FARE

 

[Apero]

[quote user="val douest"]We all know that the 1p Ryanair ticket actually costs nearer to £20 when all the various taxes and charges are added on.
Incidentally, if anyone has a Visa Electron card there is no charge at all for using these to make a booking, either in France or the UK.  But I have yet to meet anyone who has one - it seems to be a first-step debit card with a lot of restrictions which is not widely accepted elsewhere.
[/quote]

Agree with bulk of your post valdouest, however, I have booked 4 x 1p flights and the total cost with taxes and charges was £53.28 by your calculation nearer £80 should have been paid.I do have a Visa Electron from the Halifax, its a card cash account which I use reqularly at ATM machines in France when we are at our home there, so therefore it is very useful in saving money on RA bookings and for taking out cash from our UK bank when in LBF.

It's shameful the charges that RA have put on for paying with certain cards and costs for hold luggage. Where will it end. I wouldn't mind paying to reserve a seat rather than be penned up at the starting blocks to go through the gates, however, you get what you pay for, no frills.

Regards